Romans 11:8 · World English Bible
Romans 11:8 Meaning According as It Is Written
According as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.”
What does Romans 11:8 mean?
Most human beings walk through their lives as if asleep. There is a slumber that has nothing to do with the body's rest.
From the Ego v. Being reading below.
Romans 11:8 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Ego v. Being
EGO & BEING
Ego v. Being
Most human beings walk through their lives as if asleep. There is a slumber that has nothing to do with the body's rest. It is the trance of compulsive thinking, in which a person can have open eyes and still not see, open ears and still not hear.
What blocks true perception is the constant stream of mental noise. You look at a tree and register only the word and a rush of associations, never meeting the living reality in front of you. You hear another person only through your own commentary. This is the sleep in which so many remain, even unto this day. To wake from it is simply to become present, to let the labeling mind grow quiet so that you actually see and hear what is here.
Ego v. Being lensGo deeper in the app
Ego v. Being lens
Live Romans 11:8 today
- Look at one ordinary thing today, a tree on your street, the steam off your coffee, for thirty seconds without naming it or thinking about it. Just let your eyes actually meet it.
- In your next conversation, listen all the way to the end of what the other person says without rehearsing your reply underneath. You will hear something you would have missed.
- On your commute, put the podcast away for five minutes. Let the sounds and the light come in without a soundtrack over them.
How much of today did you actually see?
The same truth in other traditions
Zen
When you drink tea, drink tea. The whole teaching is that most people are elsewhere while their hands are busy.
Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius
People sleepwalk through their one life, present in body and absent in attention. Wake up to what is actually in front of you, because this hour is all you hold.
Buddhism
The mind is thick with its own chatter, and the chatter gets mistaken for the world. Let it settle and things appear as they are.
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