Gentle Shepherd Of Inner Consciousness

Neville's Inner Vision

Within you, the flock is your life in formation—your thoughts, desires, and beliefs. The shepherd is the I AM, your unconditioned awareness, feeding and sustaining this inner life. To be gathered, the lambs are the small, vulnerable aspects of self—your budding desires and intentions—that seek attention and alignment. The arm that gathers is the steadfast will of your consciousness, drawn to your center with tenderness. Carrying them in the bosom means you hold these possibilities close to heart, not by forcing, but by loving acceptance and confident expectation. Gentle leading of those with young points to the patient guidance you give to growing faculties—imagination, reason, emotion—nurturing them with quiet, present awareness until they mature into steady action. Seen this way, the verse is not about external care but your own inner condition: you are fed by awareness, carried by love, led with gentleness. The practice is simple: assume the state of being tended by this shepherd now, revise any sense of lack to a living feeling of provision, and let imagination make the scene real where your life is continuous, guided, and secure.