Inner Temptation and Imagination

Neville's Inner Vision

I hear Proverbs 7:16–18 as the clamor of a lesser self within me, the glossy lure of sensation vying for attention. In Neville's lens, the bed and its perfumes are inner symbols—states of appetite projected by my imagination. The invitation, 'Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning,' becomes the inner promise that a story of pleasure can satisfy me, if I forget who I am. Yet the I AM remains untouched by such scenes, for awareness does not depend on feeling but on truth. When I notice this spell, I revise it by declaring: I AM exists here as the sole reality; this dream of appetite is but a passing thought in the mind. I feel the reality of God’s love and the dignity of the Imago Dei within me, and joy rises as the new currency of consciousness. The morning then signals not the end of a night but the dawning of a higher state where true nourishment is found in love of God and integrity, not in transient craving.