Inner Refuge, True Justice

Neville's Inner Vision

Think of the city of refuge as a state of consciousness, not a place to retreat from life. The verse speaks to a habit of seeking satisfaction from others' failures—an old pattern of judgment that would barter for safety by pressing the past into the present. The priest, in Neville’s dialect, stands for the authority of law and memory that says you must pay or be removed from the land. When you imagine the priest’s death, you kill that voice and let the I AM—your unconditioned awareness—rule the terrain. In this new inner government, you do not require satisfaction from the fugitive, nor do you chase a karmic score; you simply dwell in the truth that you are already safe, protected, and whole. Mercy becomes practical: when you revise the image, you revise the feeling that penalties must be exacted. The apparent conflict dissolves as you feel the real reality: consciousness creates form, and your present state dictates the appearances.