Within the Ruined Temple

Neville's Inner Vision

Isaiah's lament sounds to the ear as an external tragedy, but in Neville's vision it marks the moment when awareness turns inward. The 'holy and beautiful house' is your inner sanctuary—the state of worship you inhabit in consciousness. The fire that devastates is the burning away of fixed stories, not a punishment from without. The question, 'Wilt thou refrain thyself... and afflict us very sore?' is the old habit of thinking that God is distant and you are left to endure. Yet the I AM—the seat of your awareness—never leaves you. If you refuse the old narrative and affirm that the sanctuary stands now, you invite restoration. See and feel the walls rebuilt in your mind; sense the praise of your fathers returning as a present reality in your consciousness. The ruin dissolves as you occupy a new state: the state of being the one who has already received what you seek. Imagination is the instrument: imagine the temple restored, and live from that assurance, and the world conforms.