No one walks the world in armature

Question

No one walks the world in armature but must have terror striking at his heart.
***

Hello, everybody~

The above sentence could be understood to mean either...

(A) If anyone walks the world in armature, then he is destined to have terror striking at his heart.

(B) Only those who have terror striking at his heart will walk the world in armature.

I believe the correct understanding should be (A).

Or is the sentence ambiguous and can mean both (A) and (B)?

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

If you go around with your defenses so high, you must be very afraid. Normal people don't guard themselves from attack.

I am assuming it's metaphorical - your "guard is always up" because you fear human interaction on an emotional level.

Pructus · Answer

Thanks BarbaraPA for the explanation and for Mister Micawber for the verification!!

So you native speakers think (B) is the proper understanding...

The whole context, which is not shown here, fits more to the understanding of (A).

Isn't there any possibility of understanding according to (A)?

Enoon · Answer

pructusIsn't there any possibility of understanding according to (A)?

No. I went and read the lesson from "A Course in Miracles" that this passage is from. The language is archaic, by the way. We don't use "but" that way today, and "armature" does not mean "armor" now.

Pructus · Answer

I see... I see...

Thanks enoon!!

Pructus · Answer

Hi, enoon....

Just for crystal confirmation.....

For your consideration, below are some more examples in the same book.

No Thought of *** but is forever pure.
Nothing around you but is PART of you.
Nothing you gave to specialness but is HIS due.
Not one of them but has thought that *** is cruel.
No thought of theirs but has the power to heal all forms of suffering.

*****

Even with these other examples, understanding according to (A) is still impossible?

Enoon · Answer

pructusEven with these other examples, understanding according to (A) is still impossible?

Right.

but conjunction, def. 7 (AHD)

I called that archaic, but you still see it sometimes, except you don't see it used exactly that way, such that it is considered to form a complete sentence. It is not in the colloquial English of my dialect.

Pructus · Answer

I see....

Thanks a lot, enoon!!

Anonymous · Answer

????? Pructus!

The meaning expressed simply is:
Everyone identifying in form lives in fear of hurt and loss
(They may learn ingenious ways to hide that fear but it is not absent - just unconscious or denied).

The fear of death and destruction and loss is the fear implicit to the born existence. By faith is it hidden from raw exposure - but faith given fear to defend against exposure is what Jesus in the Course calls faithlessness - for it deliver you unto the very evil it promised to save you from.
But your point B is interesting - for the belief and experience of terror is the root belief of the density and fragmentation by which the Son of *** experienced himself a body in which to hide

There is no call for future tense in A or B or the original phrase - it is about a presently perceived condition - whether that is baseless in truth is not the point - it is a sense of one's delaying of the inevitable.

Does this help?
I know you often want JUST your A or B and not distracting complications of what it all actually means - but translation calls for an intimate familiarity with the context of the meanings - not just the literal word for word.

I think you will recognize me - so I leave you to guess.

Anonymous · Answer

pructusNo one walks the world in armature but must have terror striking at his heart.***Hello, everybody~The above sentence could be understood to mean either...(A) If anyone walks the world in armature, then he is destined to have terror striking at his heart.(B) Only those who have terror striking at his heart will walk the world in armature.I believe the correct understanding should be (A).Or is the sentence ambiguous and can mean both (A) and (B)?

Hello pructus. The meaning is not a quirk of grammar but a corollary of identification with a body. Your mind may mask the terror of death and indeed pain and suffering of the body identity that is 'walking the world in form' .
In the Text, (of A Course in Miracles) it points out that the experience of a private mind in a body in a world, all operate to hide from terror of a belief in a cruel and loveless ***/Reality. For that is the belief it is offering to undo.

Beneath the 'world' of mutually agreed definition is what may be called subconscious or unconscious imprints.
One may seem to be completely unaware of what is denied conscious awareness for periods of time, but unless it comes up to a true healing acceptance within the perspective of what the Text calls the Holy Spirit.

So one who is truly healed is 'in the world but not of it' and so are not exclusively identifying in the body but rather experiencing and communicating through it from a perspective beyond its own framework of meanings.

Without an experiential understanding of A Course in Miracles - any translation - even into more accessible English - is liable to lead in random directions as to meanings. Even those with a mental understanding completely miss what it actually says. Because one cannot put the New Wine into the old bottles (paradigm).

No one walks the world in armature

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