Rend Your Heart, Not Garments

Neville's Inner Vision

Picture the line: rend your heart, not your garments. The command points not to religion's outward show but to a shift in consciousness. Your heart is your point of awareness—the I AM you, the living Presence that feels and imagines. To turn to the LORD your God is to turn toward that inner God within, the awareness that never leaves you. God is described as gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness—these are not external attributes but the fluctuations of your inner state when you identify with your true I AM. When you repent of the 'evil,' you do not beg a distant deity; you revise the meaning you give to events by shifting your assumption about yourself and the world. Imagination creates the sequence of experiences; by persistently assuming a state of grace, mercy flows into your life as you would rewrite a scene in your mind. The moment you accept this inner truth, the world begins to answer from that; what you deemed evil dissolves in the light of your new self-conception.