Tag Archives: True Self

REALITY AT ALL LEVELS

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How can we see like Jesus could see –
As fully human and fully God?

He saw with two eyes – one a human’s and one God’s.

A real human eye is found only in a “true self” –
Like the eye of an infant – where everything is fresh and new –
And, as the scientists say,
Pure uninterrupted experience is limited to three seconds,
But is never found in the head of a wooden puppet – like Pinocchio
As an “ego” or a “false self.”  

God’s eye is different –
It sees through time (eternity) and space (infinity) –
Set within the four cardinal points of love, truth, justice, and beauty –
With the lines meeting at the top of a spiritual pyramid –
Love meeting truth, truth meeting justice, justice meeting beauty,
And beauty resting on love –
All conjoined at the tip – where God lives.

Two eyes – one a human being’s and one God’s.

Jesus could see through a child’s eyes
Balanced by those four spiritual attributes of God.

When those two eyes exist in a single head
They see reality – and at all levels.

EXCHANGING THE EGO FOR A “TRUE SELF”

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             Some say the most profound scientific discipline is theoretical physics which has vastly expanded our understanding of the structure of the physical universe using the language of mathematics, but I think this now needs to be matched by an even more profound spiritual/theological discipline that can further our understanding of the relationship between God and the human self through expanded human consciousness of love, truth, justice, and beauty as expressed through the arts. Materialistic evolution via science and technology has taken us about as far as we’re going to get while still retaining our basic humanity, but the prospects for our species will be pretty dim if that’s the full extent of what we’re ever going to achieve.

             I propose it’s time for human beings to make a conscious choice about which evolutionary path they should take: materialistic evolution (especially digital artificial intelligence) or the next step in humans’ spiritual evolution. Greater spirituality, however, won’t necessarily increase our intelligence or ability to manipulate the material world, but could, eventually, evolve us into an entirely different type of humanity – the kind originally pointed towards by Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed.

            When a person enters the world as a baby, they’re totally open to God – arriving as pure energy in human form. Because they come straight from God, they’re completely natural upon arrival. After their surprise landing in this world, however, they need to figure out how to survive in this particular time and place. They eventually do, but the cost is often high. They’re faced with the necessity of becoming the kind of person that other people readily recognize and the surrounding culture use. Since usually they’re raised by parents – people who’ve already made the requisite compromises and adjustments – the baby ultimately learns how to “fit in.”

            This baby, who started life as a tiny energy “sun,” eventually begins “dimming” because so much of her original natural energy will be perceived as “alien” to her family’s world. Eventually, the baby matures and becomes a “person” by developing an ego – and ultimately joins society. One day, however, that baby – after attaining adulthood – might begin wondering where all her previous energy had gone – and whether it might ever be regained.

            In traditional societies, a person’s roles remain largely the same throughout their life and also determine how their children will turn out.

            In modern societies, however, by early adulthood, a person usually gains abilities and opportunities to change “who” they are by making individual choices – leading them away from predestined family roles – becoming partly a family-destined person and partly a self-determined one – in a “composite” role. Nevertheless, whatever this composite role turns out to be, it’s still just a role.

            All roles, traditional or modern, become included in one’s “life story.” As Shakespeare asserted in As You Like It: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” So, the problem with developing an “ego,” along with one’s accompanying “story,” is the temptation to “make up” that story as one goes along – like in a dramatic film – even if carried out mainly unconsciously.

            Another problem with “roles” is their need for consistency and continuity, so the self can seemingly remain “the same.”

            This is why “higher” values are necessary to effect any serious changes in our quotidian roles and stories. Traditionally, humanity’s highest values have been attributable to a “Spirit” (usually “God’s”) – as well as to divine spiritual attributes like love, truth, justice, and beauty.

            Roles and stories, however, compel us to live as unfree. Since we believe these roles and stories (as reinforced by the surrounding society) constitute our “identity,” we sometimes even believe we would need to “die” as the price for achieving freedom. If a person becomes threatened with losing their identity, frequently, they’ll think they might as well be dead. That’s how important roles and personal stories are for a normal human being. In fact, there’s a general consensus in the humanities, as well as in psychotherapy, that the ego, as a person’s chief fictional character, is one’s essential self.

            So, how is it possible to free ourselves from embedded roles and stories that obstruct our natural human self-understanding and close down our best, most spontaneous thoughts – in order to gain the freedom necessary to become our “true selves”?

            The answer is that we need to be “born again” – at any age. That is, we’ll need to reverse direction, spiritually, and become a “child” all over again so as to become as free as God.

             Jesus himself said this, did this, and then died for it – all to show us how.

             To be “born again” is scary – few can do it all at once. Most people need time to shed their artificial roles until they’re free enough to make a long daring leap into their “true selves.” Starting at an older age, it actually becomes easier to work towards greater spirituality by breaking up and discarding pieces of one’s earlier “false selves” and gain a greater naturalness and openness spiritually even though one is at the same time physically degenerating.

NOBODY

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             One trump card used by “enlightenment masters,” when meeting prospective new followers, is asking: “who are you?,” knowing in advance they can’t answer that – because, in actuality, at the deepest levels underneath their “ego,” they’re “no one” and “nobody.”

            Recognizing the need to rid myself of ego before taking up the search for my “true self,” I started studying Western medieval mystics like Marguerite Porete and Meister Eckhart, as well as more modern writers, like Emily Dickinson and Simone Weill, all of whom wrote about becoming “nobody” or “no one,” as being necessary to approach God directly. Marguerite Porete wrote: True freedom is when we “become love.” This reaches far beyond simple humility (because, obviously, a lot of pride can be hidden behind a show of humility). Going all the way – to zero – and then experiencing the world – is what they seemed to be recommending. At first, this approach seemed meaningless to me, even nonsensical, yet they repeatedly kept saying it.

            Eventually, I came to accept their approach as being centered on freedom. That in order to escape one’s ego, one first had to free oneself of one’s “old” self – along with all the wrong ideas and assumptions about one’s “life” and “the world.” Apparently, becoming nobody does the trick! As Marguerite says: “The soul swims in a sea of joy!”

            We need to go to the place where we stand alone – waiting for the promised meeting with God –and then just wait. As Meister Eckhart says: “To be empty of all created things is to be full of God, and to be full of created things is to be empty of God.”

            The promise is that God arrives out of “nothing,” That by accepting loneliness – even depression – and waiting patiently, God will eventually “come home” – into your heart.

            Immediately upon “waking up,” you’ll be seeing through fresh eyes – a newborn’s eyes – and what you’ll see and experience is what God sees and experiences – through you – just as if you’re God and God is you.

            This is the easiest, as well as the hardest, thing in the world to accomplish – to give up your ego in order to find your “true self” – to become the individual you were born to be. It’s what Jesus understood – that one’s old self has to “die” for one’s “true self” to come to life.

            And this is what he accomplished – and why people either spontaneously followed him or desired to kill him. The former filled with a joy they’d never experienced before, while the latter became angry that any human being would dare to become that kind of person.

            As Meister Eckhart says: “God’s ground and the soul’s ground are one ground.” That is, God’s essence and the soul’s essence are the same – at least in the eyes of great mystics

GAINING ENOUGH SUBSTANCE TO LOOK DIRECTLY AT GOD

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The common and usual “self” expands by sticking “things” onto its body –
As well as manipulating other people into its lower orbit –
While rolling and trolling around in egoistic sweet desires.

This kind of “self,” however, sometimes disconnects from itself –
Like a space capsule unlocking from a mother ship
Into a self open to enjoying everybody and everything
With the freedom to be objective and to tell “the whole truth” –
Because there’s no longer any false self remaining.

A self that’s left its false self behind becomes a “true self” –
Free to think God’s thoughts,
Love like God,
And tell the truth like God –

That’s not to say, however, that these experiences can’t end up being a bit “shallow.”

The first step, however, is to gain spiritual freedom –
The second requires a lot of hard work – (because God is not a lightweight) –
Even 10 years of sustained and persistent work
Might only get us as far as being a decent human being –
Even after exercising the freedom of God.

People courageous enough to look God straight in the face
Sometimes still come to realize that working spiritually for most of their lives
Might not add enough weight
To gain the attention of a single person
Desiring to know something about the “real” God.

WAKING UP

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If the “self” is a problem
And finding one’s “true self” the main issue
How will we ever find our “true” self
Without first establishing a true world?

It’s a conundrum, isn’t it: since, in most cases, there can’t be a true self
Without first establishing a true “world”?
But such a true world can never be founded
Except by true selves.

This is where psychology merges into politics
And politics back into psychology –
Always in the context of an “alive” God
(No old, stale Gods for us!)

Love, truth, justice, beauty and, of course, freedom, are essential aspects
Of any “living” God
Who can make possible both “true selves” and a “true world.”

Everything, however, can and, eventually will, get better – it just takes time –
Along with large scoops of hope and love –
And, certainly, a lot more awakeness –

God, please help us wake up – NOW!

“BOOM!”

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Humans’ initial “true self” was an animal self –
That we didn’t have to think about because we were it.

Later on, in the Garden of Eden, shortly after choosing a fruit to eat,
Eve, upon becoming Homo sapiens, suddenly saw herself
And, as a result of this “seeing,” split in two –
Eve saw Eve!

God yelled that this was forbidden since she might lose her “self” –
That is, her animal self might be gone forever.

The consequences of Eve’s consciously looking at herself in this way
Was that she plunged irrevocably into a conscious world of work and suffering –
Where she was compelled to “see it all.”

Her immediate remedy to this suffering was to try to “re-make” her self.

Eve, looking at Eve, and shocked by the “nakedness” of what she saw –
Decided to design a “clothed” Eve –
Fashioned for survival in this harshly conscious world –
An ego “self” capable of taking cues from others –
Able to transform herself in a mental flash – or flashes –
Virtually, a “strobe” human being.

But, ultimately, this failed because Eve’s ego was a self-made “mask”
With no real life of its own.

To become a “true self” as a human being,
One has to give up the post-animal “ego self”
And become “no thing” – just like God –
While remaining human – certainly not by trying to become God.

A “no thing” human is able to act in the same way God would act if God were human –
Committed to embodying the highest spiritual standards –
Performing a “spiritual dance”
Related to the reverse-particle explosion of joy –
“Boom!”
Experienced at the very beginning.

HOW EVE BECAME GOD AND SAVED THE WORLD

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At first, Eve was a happy animal –
But one day she ate a piece of fruit
And, spontaneously, split in two.

Instantaneously as a result of this split,
She found herself outside the garden
Looking back at her happy self still inside.

She experienced herself “naked” – out in a tough world –
The fault of her newly-found “consciousness” –
A “mixed power” she had acquired through “seeing herself.”

Of course, the story doesn’t end there –
There’s both good and bad in the gift of consciousness –
For example, she was able to trick all the still unconscious beings
And take anything she wanted –
But it didn’t take long for them to join her in this newly conscious world.

After thousands of years of humans tricking one another
And getting pretty much nowhere –
One day, one of Eve’s descendants decided to “become herself” – i.e., her “true self”
And stop working so hard at trying to trick the rest of the world.

This descendant became her true self by mimicking “God” in human form,
And, as a result, became willing to lead human beings out of their ego-delimited world –
But, just before she could accomplish this,
Adam intervened by saying: “Get back, woman!”
“The world is not finished with tricky male egos yet” –
“We still have a long way to go” –
Adam enforced this command with a warehouse full of iron patriarchal laws,
Male-preferenced customs, and an infinity of direct and indirect physical threats.

This worked!
So well, that Eve was compelled to step back from her new God-gifted freedom,
And, as a consequence, the world fell into Male-Ego Hell –
Which eventually got so bad that even Adam began to get scared
And thought he might want to invite Eve back into a more active role –
But Eve said “No” –
“Not me.” “Not now” – “unless and until you admit you’ve been a jerk” –
“And a violent jerk, at that!” –
Adam refused to admit this, and so the entire world died.

The end.

An alternative ending is Adam did admit he’d been a jerk –
And allowed Eve to re-gain her freedom –
Free, she looked around, and thought, again, it might be time for her to embody God –
But only the kind of God a woman could believe in:

A God closer to Nature –
A loving and family-friendly God –
A truthful God.

This God was entirely a female creation –
So that when Eve determined that her God was “good”
She was able to immediately step into her waiting role.

Eve became God, as a human being, much like Jesus had done in the past –
And, as a consequence, took her turn at saving the world!

The result was that men eventually became happier (even if reluctantly),
And the earth and all its other inhabitants – animal, vegetable, or mineral –
Were saved
Because Adam was willing to step aside
And allow Eve to become the kind of “God,” in human form, she best understood.

Now, all the beings on earth live happily, including all the Eves and Adams –

This is the second, and fortunately happy, ending.

THE VALUE OF INTERMITTENT ENLIGHTENMENT

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Talking over some earlier posts with my brilliant wife
She pointed out that complete enlightenment –
By achieving “no one” or “no thing” – was too abstract for her
And that she, as a woman, couldn’t “feel” the reality of that kind of existence.

I gave her examples, including Jesus and the Buddha, but she rightly countered
That women with families and worldly obligations
Wouldn’t be attracted to becoming “no one”
And that such “freedom,” even if achievable, would be meaningless to most people.

This made me think she might be right.

So I reflected further, and determined I should not be arguing
For achieving complete and absolute enlightenment –
That is, for people to become “god-like,” in imitation of Jesus or the Buddha,
But, instead, an enlightenment that’s more like the periodic use of a physics equation (e = mc2),
But, in spiritual terms, a formula showing (“no ego” = “no one”) –
Available for use, intermittently, that is, whenever one actually needs it.

I believe that enlightenment is available to everyone on this planet –
But, thanks to my wife’s critical observation
I no longer think it’s an “all or nothing” enlightenment –
But rather enlightenment available for use at critical junctures in our lives
So that important life decisions can be made at the highest, best level –
Individually, as well as for those desiring to affect the world as a whole.

The first, and most important, step in this formula
Is to become conscious of one’s ego self
Because, without an objective view of oneself, nothing else is possible –
This is not an insignificant step because it’s where people face the most resistance –
Taking that “first look” – since almost no one dares it –
But if you do have sufficient courage to look directly at yourself,
You’ll be able to see the puppet you’ve become (and that everyone else can see) –
And then, if you wish, decide you don’t want to be a self-driven puppet –
At least during that precise next moment – given what’s immediately facing you.

Of course, a lifelong attachment to one’s ego is not easy to efface–
So you don’t – all that happens is you become aware
That you can, consciously and contemporaneously, look at yourself,
See what you’re actually doing at that moment,
And then decide whether or not you want to do something entirely different.

That is, you don’t have to helplessly continue along the path
Of embodying the ego your mother so loved
Or that your friends and world have accepted as being “you” –
Instead, at this critical juncture, you can simply look at yourself and say “No” –
I want to do something else – something my heart and mind agree upon –
Something my “true self” has decided.

This “true self,” later on, may itself come to appear somewhat limited
Even though it’s infinitely superior to that former ego “puppet” –
Limited in the sense of not having all the freedom God possesses –
If you want that kind of high, almost infinite freedom – you have to take the next step –
And, again, through the use of our spiritual formula – become “no body” or “no thing” –
Asking, at this particular inflection point, “What would God do?
Not as an all-powerful being –
But as a vulnerable human being called upon to act as God would act if God were human –
And then, do it!
After all, this is what Jesus had been able to do!

This is what I’m saying anyone can do any time they want
Through the use of intermittent enlightenment.

Most of the time, people, including myself, act only through their ego selves –
For example, when eating, going to the bathroom, or talking quietly with friends –
But the possibility of acting through one’s “higher self” is always present
And can be acted upon at critical life-changing moments.
You don’t need to use this knowledge, this ability, solely for saving the world
Like Jesus or the Buddha (since you’d probably get killed for having such presumption) –
I’m saying that you can use this hard-earned spiritual ability to consciously see yourself
And then make a decision about what you really want to do –
Anytime, anyplace you decide.

This is the singular value of having access to intermittent enlightenment –
You can have it whenever you actually need it!

This is my gift to you, dear one –
The realization that you can be as enlightened as Jesus, Buddha, or Socrates –
Not for saving the world – but for use in ordinary, but important to you,
Day-to-day life situations.

By the way, all enlightened beings – including Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, and Socrates,
Were never enlightened during every moment of their lives –
History captured them as acting at specific critical moments at their highest, best level –
And then spotlighted that period as being a permanent condition.
But, actually, it was only an intermittent moment – even for them –
Remember, the spotlight of faith and history bounces off
The highest, most critically important moments experienced by humanity –
Which is not the same as actual ongoing reality.

All of them were human, just like you and I are,
But they could and did act at critical moments with the ultimate freedom of God –

Just like you and I can also!

THE WORLD APPLAUDS HYPOCRITES

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The more suitable word for ego is “hypocrite.”

In ancient Greek theatre, hypocrites were actors –
Those who “play a part” –
From which the word “hypocrite” originally derived.

I’ve often spoken of one’s “true self” as opposed to one’s ego –
Because we create egos as our “face to the world” –
And, sometimes, more than one such “face.”

The Greeks used masks in their plays –
So egos are our contemporary “masks”
Used by us to “play” the world
And manipulate society (along, of course, with our own selves).

So who are we fooling?
Is the world nothing more than a huge “theatre” – as Shakespeare intuited –
In which all of us cooperate in playing out our several parts?

What happens, though, when a person enters the world and refuses to play that expected part –
Refusing to be anyone but her “true self”?
I think she might get killed – even if not physically –
Certainly, she’ll face rejection for her refusal to “go along.”

The world insists:
“Play your part – whatever it is – and don’t try to be ‘real’” –
Because that might call everything into question!

 

QUESTIONS

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What gender is the “true self” –
Does this always match up with one’s physical self?

For example, could a man, say, Jesus, over time become more like a woman spiritually –
Raising the question whether there may be evolution in spiritual gender?

And, if so, what would a man who evolved spiritually in the direction of women “look like” –
Would there be physical evidence of such a change?

On the other hand, what does a spiritual woman look like –
And would that be any different from a spiritual man?

Do angels, spiritual or human, have sexual attributes –
And, if so, how is gender manifested at the angelic level?

Do enlightened human beings emanate sexual differences,
That is, spiritually, are they one sex, the other sex, or both at the same time –
Or do they simply “shimmer” in some metaphysical sense
So we become attracted to these “higher selves”
And desire to follow them throughout the rest of our lives?