The False-Self, Healing

"This was also the point in my life when I became a master at masking my true thoughts."    --an unknown blogger

Simple Mindedly browsing though some blogs, I came upon this curious and very honest statement, "this was also the point in my life when I became a master at masking my true thoughts..."
How many of us relate to this? One guesses very many; it seems that one of our many fears is that we will not be accepted as we are, that we apparently see ourselves fearfully as a certain type of monster. While there are those rare individuals in every society who rub against the grain, some who are evil, for most of us this is a fear we face each and every day.

Recalling the words of R.D. Lang, "every man is involved whether or to the extent to which he is being true to his nature." The false-self as Lang views it is the complement of an inner, spiritual self, if you will, which is occupied with maintaining its identity and freedom by being transcendent, unembodied, and thus never grasped, pinpointed, trapped or possessed.
Its aim, writes Lang in his book, The Divided Self, "is to be a pure subject, without any objective existence. Thus except in certain safe moments, the individual seeks to regard his existence as the expression of a false-self, not himself.

 In spiritual terms, this is devastating, and it is very common. How often do we encounter the "fake" smile and the yawn which quickly follows it? How often do we feel divided, yet proceed with the response that is expected, even when it feels untrue to our deeper self?
And how often must we force ourselves to comport an attitude which we don't feel yet believe for social reasons to be obliged? In some societies these behaviors are usual and expected; societies in which the group is more valued than individuals frequently demand this behavior; one learns, 'a smile often hides a frown.' And in these groups, this behavior is normative.

Yet here in the West, often there is the sense of a dis-connect with the self and others. We are afraid to say who we are, or what matters most in our short lives; maintaining this stance may lead to a sense of grief, depression or loss over time.
As Lang expresses the situation, having an identity for the self, a private identity and another identity developed for the consumption of others is at times functional, and also may be at times non-functional leading to a sense of dis-reality, a feeling of not being real, a fake.
While living one's truth is not always easy, healing the self, gaining a perspective beyond the solution of the "false-self" is very healing to a soul; the soul seeks its original wholeness.

The false, divided self is like a child, eternally small, anxious, weak and not responsible for what happens in any given interaction. This is because a feeling arises that it wasn't truly me who did those things--it was someone else. Alternatively, there is a sense that one may do things--but only to a point-- because the truer, inner self would not go that far, or allow those thoughts or behaviors--would they? So it's not me.

The end point of many spiritual traditions is to encourage the maturity of the individual, to acknowledge the rightness of all creation, individuals included, so as to bridge the gap, with the clear knowledge, the belief in the harmony and rightness of matters to each one.
This existential dawning of both 'false' and true, undivided, self is widespread across today's societies; writers as diverse as Henry Fielding, Kierkegaard, Sartre, D.H. Lawrence and Carl Jung have acknowledged its role in the modern world. It is becoming a constant theme as societies settle into an industrialized, group identity. This leaves little room for the self, so you then must carve a whole one.

In Praise of the Holy Fool

"The soul prospers in the failure of perfection."--Thomas Moore

While we may perceive events either as immanent or as transcendent, the soul of a person knows no time but its own. When relating to others, it isn't always easy to open the soul to another, to risk opening the self, hoping that another person will be able to tolerate its sometimes rationality, and sometimes irrationality. It may also be equally difficult to be open, or receptive to the revelations of others.

The light of Oneness not withstanding, there is great temptation to separate, to judge, to make comparisons of these oddities of soul. Yet this mutual vulnerability is one of the great gifts of love. To give another sufficient space in which to live and express one's soul in its reason and unreason, and then to further risk revelations of your self, in all its potential absurdities may be perceived as quite loving.
The courage required for this process is not easy; it is infinitely more demanding than either judgment or comparisons. While most of us contain ourselves fairly well, the soul and its ways eventually surface bringing forth the unexpressed that we sense stirring inside.

We all have to some extent, a sense of the fearfulness of such an enterprise. Oneness by its nature asks that we move aside, that we move beyond with others to a place that may ask a share of soul in its completed form.
 In the story, In Praise of Folly, Erasmus says, "it is precisely in their foolishness that people can become friends and intimates. For the greatest part of mankind are fools... and friendship, you know, is seldom made, except among equals."

As modern thinkers, we may present to the world a well developed intellect, a sense of proportion, but the soul is more fertile in its own imagination, in its own earth, finding value in sometimes irrationality. Perhaps this is in part why great artists and inventive minds seem a bit eccentric or mad to the average onlooker. At times when seized by strong passions, our greatest anxieties often comprise the fear of being seen by others as foolish.
We fear in love, in Oneness that we appear irrational, foolish, but that is just the point. The soul is not the least concerned with reason or intellect. It operates more deeply, and more persuasively. So then, love in Oneness calls for acceptance of a Soul's less rational outposts, a recognition that a heart may contain both love and contempt.

We need not only to know more about ourselves, but also we need to love more of ourselves, in an unsentimental way; that is the way to oneness. Tolerance, "honoring that aspect of the self that may be irrational or extreme is the basis for intimacy," writes Thomas Moore.
We have fewer expectations of perfection, less judgement; less and less are we separated by these notions. We come to recognize that the soul, in its meanderings, tends to move into new and positive areas in spite of, and because of the oddities expressed.
In Oneness a beloved may be surprised by these developments, but not be undone by their unexpected appearance. The soul, the creative being, does prosper within the failures of perfection.

The Parting of the Way

"As to the sage, no one will know whether he existed or not."   --- Lao Tsu

The book, The Parting of the Way, by Holmes Welch, is a short examination of the Tao and its historical development. Today many would find that the Tao, and Zen Buddhism, especially, are quite similar.

In fact today many practitioners of Zen are also observant of some practices of Taoism. Of its founder, Lao Tzu, believed to be also the writer of the Tao Ti Ching, Confucius remarked, " I have seen... But when it comes to the dragon, I am unable to conceive how he [Lao Tzu] can soar into the sky riding upon the winds and clouds. Today I have seen Lao Tzu, and can only liken him to a dragon." Taoism is an important part of Chinese spiritual understanding for multitudes over a span of more than a thousand years.

In fact, some suppose that the principle text of the Tao, the Tao Ti Ching, is the most translated Eastern religious text; others have remarked upon its ethos to the Christian story. Welch writes, "In recent years there has been a growing interest [in the West]in Buddhism, especially in Zen," owing much to Taoism in its development as a distinct denomination within the practice of Buddhism.

Some have proposed that the Tao Ti Ching was a "manual" fashioned for the practitioner of tso-wang, an early form of yoga practiced in China. This text is not to be a manual on breathing practices leading to trance, yet it gives allusion to the Taoist practice of meditative trance. Ultimately the impact of the Tao Ti Ching, according to Welch, lies in the demonstration of how such power that "trance states give over the material world, and also how such trance states can be the basis for the metaphysical realm.

'In Trance, the ruler returns to the roots of his nature, perceives the Unity of the Universe, the non-existence of absolutes, and the non-existence of contraries. One must be empty of desire to achieve trance, and the Power that it gives. "How does this Power work? It makes possible to act without action, to bring things about without interfering, to act by bypassing the contraries of every event.
Those who try by other means--by [exterior imposition of] morality, by fear or punishment-- only spoil what they do as fast as they do it." Welch writes that different language translations have inserted their ideas into the work, some more mystical.

On the other hand, translators such as Northrup, says Welch are metaphysical. Northrup was interested in comparing the Asian texts with religious texts of the West. Some call this "comparative religion," with an interest to learn both the sameness and uniqueness of humankind universal.

Northrup believed that all Asian religions are founded on the Aesthetic component of mental functioning. Reality in this way is directly sensed, experienced, unlike the west which tends towards intellectual exploration. In this view, by experience, it is then possible to paint ones' experience from the inside, viewing the outside.


Later Taoism developed ideas of immortality. From Buddhism, the Chinese also developed a concept of the soul. While the Buddha himself did not historically believe in a "soul" as is supposed in western thought, anatta reduced persons to five "heaps of matter" which included interior aspects of the human person.

As to the personality, classically the Chinese view is that a personality is composed of those anatta aspects as a composite. At death part of one ascended to heaven, part descended below and part, the life breath, simply faded away, not to return.

The schools of Buddhism which historically became most practiced in China were those schools that taught and believed in an immortality of the soul. Immortality to these practitioners had to be both physical and metaphysical. Gradually both these ideas were adopted by the Taoists.

These ideas came into place after the Han dynasty. Over time, historical Taoism developed a strong theocracy to administer to the social hierarchy of the faith, and of everyday matters of the people. The historical wizard-shaman of the Tao was born in this time. In contrast to the corruption of the Imperial court, the Taoist structure rapidly came to be seen as more stable, more helpful, and more beneficial to the people. Its practice in the early period spread wildly.

Yet Lao Tsu did not urge his values on anyone; however, he said that, "everyone under heaven says our Way is greatly like folly." He also, while not urging his views upon others, noted that while they are "good and right," if we do not follow them, we invite disaster.

In the time of the Song or Sung dynasty, the Jade emperor came into great importance among the people. This was a time of strife and war with invaders from the north. The Jade emperor was a god believed to be with a vast court containing many persons and complex rituals. Once a year it was thought, that all the gods came to pay court to the Jade emperor, giving homage and accounts of their administration. If they did well, they received rewards, if not, they were punished.

The deities were many, and as diverse as those gods of the sun, the moon, the neither worlds, the hearth, etc. Since the time of the Sung or Song dynasty hence, the pantheon of Taoist deities has been relatively stable with a concept of heaven and hell included in the theology as well.

The Tao today continues to share with Buddhism deities such as Kwan Yin, goddess of mercy, Kuan Ti, god of war. Few persons are exclusively Taoist or Buddhist in much of China today. Sharing its patrimony with other religions of China, Tao values are: honesty, kindness to all creatures, speak truthfully, do not gossip or slander others; be not boastful or hypocritical, do not take bribes, nor covet another's possessions, nor his wife; respect the elders. This is consistent with the simple mind, the Confucian teachings, and many Buddhist denominations.

Truly, any or all of these values mentioned here could be placed in a Christian Sunday sermon as well, without notice. They function as core human values. We are, it seems, more alike than we are different.

Love Is Not Rude

"At the end of your life, you will be judged by your love."
--Saint John of the Cross

With the approach of another Saint Valentine's day, retailers remind us there are wide swaths of the world taken over by its sentiments.
While Saint Valentine was a real person in history, very few greeting cards, retailers or restaurateurs, candy makers or the like recollect this. Saint Valentine's belief and message to mankind was essential and simple. Like Saint John of the Cross he believed:
"as the bee draws honey from plants and makes company with them for that reason, so must the soul most easily draw the sweetness of love from all that happens to it. It makes all things subservient to the ends of loving God, whether they be sweet or bitter. In all its occupations, its joy is the love of God."
--Daily Readings with St. John of the Cross, ed. by Sr. Elizabeth Ruth, ODC

He followed in the way of the teaching to 'love one another.' But what does that mean? His view was something like this:  
Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, It is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians chapter 12:31-13:13 or 13:4-13

Charity is the greatest social requirement. It recognizes and respects others and their rights. Charity requires the practice of justice, and charity alone make us capable of doing so. Charity is love. Because love has the function of uniting persons and communities, love is the center of human life.
 Celebrate the feast day of Saint Valentine, and Saint Valentine is with you, building your spirit in love.

The Prosperity of Perfection

"The soul prospers in the failure of perfection."--Thomas Moore

While we may perceive events as either immanent or as transcendent, the soul of a person knows no time but its own. When relating to others, it isn't always easy to open one's soul to another, to risk opening the self, hoping that another person will be able to tolerate a sometimes rational, and sometimes irrational nature. It may also be equally difficult to be receptive to the revelations of others.

The light of Oneness not withstanding, there is great temptation to separate, to judge, to make comparisons of these oddities of soul. Yet this mutual vulnerability is one of the great gifts of love.
To give another sufficient space in which to live and express one's soul in both its reason and unreason, then to further risk revelations of your self, in all its potential absurdities is a great gift.
The courage required for this is not easy; it is infinitely more demanding than making either judgment or comparison. While most of us contain ourselves fairly well, the soul and its ways eventually surface bringing forth the unexpressed that we sense stirring inside.

We all have to some extent, a sense of the fearfulness of such an enterprise. Oneness by its nature asks that we move aside, that we move beyond moments with others to a place that may ask for a share of soul in its whole form.
In the story, In Praise of Folly, Erasmus says, "it is precisely in their foolishness that people can become friends and intimates. For the greatest part of mankind are fools... and friendship, you know, is seldom made, except among equals."

As modern thinkers, we may present to the world a well developed intellect, a sense of proportion, still the soul is more fertile in its own imagination, in its own earth, finding value in sometimes irrationality. Perhaps this is in part why great artists and inventive minds seem a bit eccentric or mad to the average onlooker.
At times when seized by strong passions, our greatest anxieties often comprise the fear of being seen by others as foolish. We fear in love, in passion, that we appear irrational, foolish even, but that is exactly the point.
The soul is not the least concerned with reason or intellect. It operates more deeply, and more persuasively. So then, love in wholeness calls for acceptance of a Soul's less rational outposts, sometimes recognition that a heart may contain both love and contempt.

We need not only to know more about ourselves, but also we need to love more of ourselves, in an unsentimental way; that is the way to equanimity. Tolerance like patience matters because, "honoring that aspect of the self that may be irrational or extreme is the basis for intimacy," writes Thomas Moore.
With proportionately fewer expectations of perfection, less judgement, less and less are we separated by false notions. We come to recognize that the soul, in its meanderings, tends to move into new and positive areas in spite of, and because of the oddities expressed. Perfection plays no part here.
 In Oneness a beloved may be surprised by these developments, but not undone by their unexpected appearance. The soul, as a creative being, does prosper in the failures of perfection.

The Most Personal Words

"Words become more personal the more emotional they are."  The Path to Love by Deepak Chopra

In loving practice, the "most valuable things you can learn about yourself  is what you mean by the words, 'I love you'." The phrase is complex because it involves you, says Chopra.  
This phrase has both past and present contained within; it is filled with self-expectation, and expectations for others. 
Some of these may be painful. In reflecting on the meaning of the phrase, it is both helpful and creative to actually 'brain storm' and write down words which you freely associate with 'I love you.' Chopra then asks his reader to reflect on the type of words and person(s) associated with them who surface in your unique list; he interprets for his reader.

Bringing the conversation back to the basis in Dharma, there exists a deep mystery of the 'soul,' one which is not easily defined or perceived. For in love, there is the 'blending' of soul, two making something which one is not alone. This creation forms uniquely between the two. What began as 'me' is now 'us' or 'we.'
The realization of an 'us' or a 'we' forms "the essence of surrender." Being in Dharma makes 'us' or 'we,' a possible reality by healing a sense of separation. There is a sense of a unified spirit acting in the best interests of the Oneness. This is not just rhetoric.
When you come from love, unity allows a clear view of another's viewpoint. You understand the one who is not exactly your self, and not yet so very different from you.

There is another meaning to surrender. It is the falling into what you deeply desire. The spirit "frames it as, 'I see that you need me." It is the process that is essential; the focus is just that moment to moment experience. The outcome is less critical. 
 "Spirit has no such ulterior motives. It acknowledges the other person's need, but it neither takes responsibility for that need nor denies it."
It accepts, even if you may not immediately understand. So the need that we most have is to be seen (known, recognized), to be invited, and to be welcome in our own daily life as we move through our dharma. The absence of these things is the source of much of alienation in modern life. Surrendering in the spirit of service gives "rise to joy."

All great religious traditions point to the Way, the spiritual path by that tradition. Often these ways are counter-cultural; they may be radical or culturally subversive. They ask for risk, for forward movement into places initially mysterious or even frightening; for outcomes which we cannot initially foresee. They may even seem to lead to death of a certain kind.
The "Vedas teach that human beings are capable of personal evolution." So Kali may not actually be Kali, nor Lord Siva, Siva.
When we are confused, we are out of dharma; if we refuse synchronicity, our path loses focus; we temporally lose our way. Everything happens in an ordered fashion. The way of dharma sees to that.

 Chopra continues his point. He writes that "love and attachment aren't the same thing...Isn't it love when you share your world with someone else? ...be exclusive in this way?
The answer is surprising, the deeper you  look, the more you will see love and attachment are not the same thing." Love, he says allows freedom of the Beloved to be unlike you.
Attachment seeks conformity; Love imposes no particular demands.
Attachment expresses overwhelmingly an 'urge to merge.' Love expands and includes; attachment wishes to exclude all others. It is possessive; it's jealous.
"The seduction of attachment is a feeling of security from the outside world." However that may be what deadens and insulates us.
But for some, it also prompts a cloying feeling, a paradox which jump-starts one, propelling them back into life itself.

Love Transcending, Walt Whitman

"How beautiful is candor..." Walt Whitman 1855, preface Leaves of Grass

Published in 1855, just prior to the American Civil War, Leaves of Grass was Whitman's work written in a sensuous manner for the more ordinary in society, the common, everyday man of America. While many writers of the period wrote for the elite about the elite and their day to day lives, Whitman determined that for his work, he would not follow in like fashion.
He stated in the preface of the 1855 volume that his desire was to 'united the physical flesh with the spiritual,' to be a poet of the physical, a poet of the soul. He was striven to accept all of life as revealed to him on simple, equal terms. While many of his contemporaries were offended by such overt references, Whitman excluded nothing, accepting all in nature.

Like author D. H. Lawrence who wrote in the 20th century, Whitman was intent on exploring the mind/spirit/body connections of everyday life. His frankness was shocking to many, and the book was declared obscene immediately upon publication in 1855. This however only added to its cachet. And yet clearly his stated intention is not the intent of those in the 20th and 21st centuries who wish to use him and his words for their and their own devices.

"A woman waits for me, she contains all, nothing is lacking, Yet all were lacking if sex were lacking, or if the moisture of the right man were lacking. Sex contains all, bodies, souls, Meanings, proofs, purities, delicacies, results, promulgations, Songs, commands, health, pride, the maternal mystery, the seminal milk, All hopes, benefactions, bestowals, all the passions, loves, beauties, delights of the earth, All the governments, judges, gods, follow'd persons of the earth, These are contain'd in sex as parts of itself and justifications of itself. Without shame the man I like knows and avows the deliciousness of his sex, Without shame the woman I like knows and avows hers. Now I will dismiss myself from impassive women, I will go stay with her who waits for me, and with those women that are warm-blooded sufficient for me, I see that they understand me and do not deny me, I see that they are worthy of me, I will be the robust husband of those women. 

They are not one jot less than I am, They are tann'd in the face by shining suns and blowing winds, Their flesh has the old divine suppleness and strength, They know how to swim, row, ride, wrestle, shoot, run, strike, retreat, advance, resist, defend themselves, They are ultimate in their own right--they are calm, clear, well-possess'd of themselves. I draw you close to me, you women, I cannot let you go, I would do you good, I am for you, and you are for me, not only for our own sake, but for others' sakes, Envelop'd in you sleep greater heroes and bards, They refuse to awake at the touch of any man but me. It is I, you women, I make my way, I am stern, acrid, large, undissuadable, but I love you, I do not hurt you any more than is necessary for you, I pour the stuff to start sons and daughters fit for these States, I press with slow rude muscle, I brace myself effectually, I listen to no entreaties, I dare not withdraw till I deposit what has so long accumulated within me. Through you I drain the pent-up rivers of myself, In you I wrap a thousand onward years, On you I graft the grafts of the best-beloved of me and America, The drops I distil upon you shall grow fierce and athletic girls, new artists, musicians, and singers, The babes I beget upon you are to beget babes in their turn, I shall demand perfect men and women out of my love- spendings, I shall expect them to interpenetrate with others, as I and you interpenetrate now, I shall count on the fruits of the gushing showers of them, as I count on the fruits of the gushing showers I give now, I shall look for loving crops from the birth, life, death, immortality, I plant so lovingly now."

--A Woman Waits for Me 1856 by Walt Whitman, American Poet

The Transcendentalism of his age is spelled out here, clean within the lines, the poet makes the statement that all is in the world, all joined, simple frankness. And he writes of America as if it were a woman, curiously of sons and daughters fit for these (united) states.What's more, Whitman attributed his 'fire' to the American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, leader of the transcendentalist movement,whom he said brought him to himself, to his fire. In December 1856 Henry David Thoreau paid Whitman a visit. He wrote later that, "he (Whitman) does not celebrate love at all.It is as if the beasts spoke... But even on his side, he has spoken more truth than any American or modern at present." 
 Whitman, through sexual energy, identifies with the generative aspect of nature itself. And he holds a belief in both the seen and the unseen.
As for Emerson, he declared that 'every man should commune with the divinity of the animating soul within himself.'
These thoughts have animated spiritual thinkers for the modern age and beyond.

The Imagining Heart

"The images that we carry about in our reverie, in our dreams, in our deepest waking hearts become vividly real to the aware, awake heart."   --J. Hillman, author of the Force of Character

Reading the book, The Force of Character by James Hillman carefully, one stumbles upon many great and grand insights. It may take a few reads to grasp its themes. "Character used to be spoken of in terms of 'the heart of courage,' or the 'heart of generosity and loyalty.' " It is this heart which Hillman wants to address. He says this is also the heart that consoles the weary, that cooks a meal and shares its comforts with others, and delights in laughter.
But there is a second heart, he says, that is even more familiar. It is the romantic heart of flowers and sweets; we 'give our heart away,'  'we are broken-hearted.'

And  Hillman writes of still another, a third heart. This heart is the one observed and practiced by early "great Christian writers, especially  Saint Augustine." This third heart is the one of inmost feeling, of true character. It is the me-mine, the closet of intimacy, an inward dwelling place." Because this heart is so deep and so private, "Augustine often refers to it as an abyss." Writers over time have elaborated upon this heart, calling it also 'the sacred heart.'
Many practice devotions to realize and awaken this deepest heart. "The Sacred Heart is the heart of compassionate mysticism; it sets out a discipline of love parallel with the path" of Bhakti yoga, a part of Hindu tradition; it sets its path likewise with Jewish mystic tradition, the Kabbalah, Binah a mothering, discriminating intelligence-heart, leading one into an expanding character with regard to charity, compassion and mercy.

The "oldest heart of all, is the Egyptian Ptah, who created the world from the imagination of his heart! While the more recent Christian bible dares to state that the world was created by the Logos, the word which was with God, Ptah states "the same idea, except that for ancient Egypt, the words start out from the heart and express its imaginative power. The world was first imagined, then declared."
Imagination, the 'ability to see things as images, is an ability of the heart, according to Arabic philosopher, Ibn Arabi."
The images that we carry about in our reverie, in our dreams, in our deepest waking hearts become vividly real to the aware, awake heart. "Otherwise we assume them to be inventions, projections, and fantasies," Hillman writes.

This "imagining heart converts such indefinables as soul, depth, dignity, love and beauty-- as well as character and the idea of 'heart' itself into felt actualities, the very essence of life." Without it we only have a bio-mechanical pump to keep us going. And many of us do, when the occasion warrants, write to others, "I love you with all my heart."

Like Hungry Ghosts*

"Like hungry ghosts*, they come creeping in the night, using other people as their food. Darkness and ignorance are their true friends" -- a simple mind

In the war of hearts how do we harm one another? Are things really so difficult that it is necessary that we battle and injure one another? Must we engage in forgiveness, like a band-aid, ever at the ready? In the way of the West, we live "east of Eden". Cast from the garden, the darker forces of the world engage in every opportunity for confusion and obfuscation in the bid to gain the upper hand of ones' souls. The Evil One, enticing, hitches up like Pinocchio to a wagon, pulling it along in dark bidding. Donkeys they are, on a path of disaster.

While dramatic in its depiction, a number of bible stories expose the work of the world, in its darker paths as one of gloom and despair, not unlike animals hitched to an eternal wagon, slavishly pulling it about the heavens. The ancients clearly saw the folly of such a scene. The forces of evil pull us away from the light, from what is for the good. And that brings the wonder of the Christ story to western minds. The Christ story teaches us forgiveness which penetrates the dark, the unconscious, the forgotten places; places where we hid away shame, somber and unfeeling. Free by this redemption, we are retrieved to leap with love.

Authors Allender and Longman write in their book, Bold Love, "One reason that we are so easily blinded by the vital importance of forgiveness is our penchant to deny" that we struggle, that we war with our self and with others. We will value forgiveness when we see the purpose of its relation to the Divine; it becomes the foundation for the comprehension of the goodness that divinity offers, and hope for the fallen.

When a lonely, alone feeling overtakes us in the dark of night some turn to others for a quick, easy escape. They think like the donkeys in Pinocchio there is an easy route out. But there are no shortcuts.
Relationships are messy. While we may see that "plank in your eye," we cannot always perceive the very same plank in our own. Thus writes authors Allender and Longman, "harm comes from those who use anger to harm us... to insult... to assault us... but minimizing the assaults of others rarely, if ever, enables us to deal with anger."

There is the passionate, driving desire for more... desires to possess... through rarely satisfied in a way that acknowledges the loneliness, the empty ache inside... Often the resulting emotion is anger or rage. In the case of children, for example, they are vulnerable and dependent upon adults for their well being. The abandonment of a child is abuse; "the profound omission of involvement, or the equally destructive commission of shaming a child is abuse." paraphrased

The parent betrays a child by means of abandonment and shame. The family unit is demeaned. Children such treated may come to find other means to stave off loneliness or aloneness. Some find it in food, others in cruelty, others in deviant behaviors. Still the aching hole remains. Often a murderous rage simmers within their souls. Some find temporary, though false, relief in relationships. As adults they engage in the "use of other people as food for their empty souls." Like hungry ghosts, they lust to gain satisfaction for their lack.

If we can see for one second, remove our own "planks", we are imbued with the light of the Creator, a desire to glory in the Divine, and that brings us full circle to the value of forgiveness for those whose anger, murderous rage and contempt have been harmful.
That we may find redemption and a new, clean heart to begin again, to accept good and reject evil.
"You want something, but you don't get it; you kill and you covet." James 4:2

* The psychological terms "codependent" or "love addict" are also used; here, "hungry ghost" is preferred for its clearer, more spiritual meaning.

What About the Soul?

"Humankind are creatures in which spirit and material meet together and are unified in a single whole."-- Ratzinger

The word soul conjures for most things like: immutable, essence, animating, spiritual; also leader, fervor, exemplification or personification. Some say there is no such thing while others say it is as the wind--known by feeling, not by sight.
and while a majority of the world's people may admit themselves to the notion of an afterlife or an idea of reincarnation, what about the soul?

In the west, the soul is given often as a separate entity from the body. However within some of the great religions (great in terms of world wide adherence), be it Judeo-Christian, Muslim or Zoroastrian, some forms of Buddhism and Hinduism and others, there not only is a well developed sense of reincarnation but also of the corresponding soul, which ascends.

In recent times there is increasingly talk about a soul but a clear confusion, even avoidance of what it means. It seems more frequent that people wish to talk around it whenever possible. Ratzinger writes: Some Christian denominations try to persuade that it is actually a Pagan conception and somehow not within the Christian realm. This thinking is indeed at odds with the basics of Christian thought for it involves the splitting of the body from its spirit; in this way there cannot be unity for all manifestations of creation joined with the Creator for which we may take part.  Paraphrased

While the concept of the soul may be present in many, many cultures, within the Christian tradition, it is a part of faith, a part of the way of the Christ. He who has come into the world, has come both in a body and a spirit so that we may know the Creator and our part in the creation. Humankind are creatures in which spirit and material meet together and are unified in a single whole.

And if we are to set aside the notion of soul as some would do, then the body is alone, robbed of its dignity and without exaltation as both a creator and the product of Creation itself. It bears no part in the Creation of the world.
Many times people have fallen to speculation that a body has indeed fallen from its spirit, that the spirit roams about unattached. Indeed in Chinese folklore, for example, these spirits are often referred to as hungry ghosts who roam about looking to attach them self to matter. Many times as a result, the living are abhorrent to enter a cemetery for fear of possible entrapment by these spirits. And for those who say the disembodied soul is an absurdity, perhaps they have not understood the teachings on the matter of faith, as it were.

In at least the Christian tradition, the people of the Lord are known as the Body of the Christ; within this body there is the one Lord, whole and unified.  They are the people of the Christ; believers who cannot be lost as spirits, for theirs is contained within the greater body of this Christ!

Reincarnation

"The withering hope in eternity is simply the reverse side of a withering faith."   J. Ratzinger

For as far back as recorded history exists, there rarely has been prevalent the idea that everything ends with death. Some form of the notion of judgement, and forms of salvation may be found the world over. In places with a strong tradition of faith within non-theistic religious expression, the imagining of  "other" life, life "beyond the veil," is sometimes vague and imprecise. While not quite an existence in nothingness, this unknowingness, or obscure relation, is perceived in a remarkable way, connecting itself with the everyday, living world.

Firstly, there are connections in many of those traditions, with the spirits of this shadowy realm who need the help of the living to continue to survive; first they need offerings and continual attention: food, prayer, money, housing, and other comforts. This makes for their immortality; they are not forgotten. And secondly, they, as spirits, are powerful; members of a universal realm, they may pose either as a help or as a threat to living persons.

People as often admire the departed spirit as they fear, even dread them.Over the ages a variety of rituals have been engaged to address the spirits and to sometimes protect themselves from them. Simultaneously the spirits of one's ancestors, primarily those who are seen in a protective role for the clan, are most often worshiped to ensure their favor. This practice of ancestor cults is one of the most ancient forms in human society.

Ancestor worship gives evidence that the bonds of love, family and community are unbroken, even by death. The belief of incarnation in these instances may be understood as a remedy for the justice or injustices of the world. One may, for example incarnate as a simple life form such as an animal or an insect, or they may attain perfection and complete their spiritual journeys, in the view of believers. The teachings of incarnation lend a sense of an inflexible justice, expiation for wrongdoings in life and a correction for that karmic condition. However when the bulk of life experience in this world is experienced as suffering, trans-migration of souls may not be enough. The goal may then be described as the intention to escape the bounds of individuality, to escape the confusion of the world, cycling of existence, so as to surrender to the origins of the true, universal self. This is sometimes described as the Dharmakaya, the great intelligence-mind.

Reincarnation encompasses a sense of everything and nothing; it is all times, all places and all spirit.  Full of hope and innocence, the belief in incarnation, cause and effect and the transmigration of souls is part of a vast, turning wheel in this world. For many today, however and for many in the West it loses its ancient sense of faith in moral justice; it is not universally perceived as the means by which a hidden power of justice is meted out in the here after.
Instead many now wish to interpret the ancient belief as a type of "energy conservation" wherein the soul's energy is not merely dispersed nor deleted at death; it instead in this view, there requires some form of embodiment. This newer view is at odds with the classic faith of the transmigration of souls.

Spiritual Energy

Love is the great union of the universe."  Theilhard de Chardin

There is no subject in the world which arouses greater curiosity than spiritual, or psychic energy. The energy that animates a body, that enlivens the soul; it lights the eyes and attracts life to itself. Spiritual energy is that which is absent in the corpse. Yet there is scant, scientific evidence that it even exists. Most have an awareness of this energy by their own, daily experience. It is often encountered in the simple, everydayness of life, and as well in the profound.

While science is largely unaware of its presence in the world, its realness, none more opaque scientifically, spawns the whole of Ethics which rests upon it. "The nature of this inner power is so intangible that the whole description of the universe in mechanical terms has had no need to take account... but has deliberate disregard of its reality," wrote Pierre Theilhard de Chardin in his work, The Phenomenon
of Man.
"The difficulties we still encounter in trying to hold together spirit and matter in a reasonable perspective are nowhere more harshly revealed... the building of a bridge between the two banks of our existence-- the physical and the moral-- if we wish the material and spiritual of our activities to be mutually enlivened. To connect the two energies, of the body and the soul in a coherent manner: science has ignored the question... [yet]we must advance."

"The inner face of the world is manifest deep within" and we are most aware of through our concrete behaviors that the two energies do combine, but we cannot easily, or not at all, make out the method. It seems, according to de Chardin, that the method is made of both a dependence and an independence, thus a mutual inter-dependence arises as it occurs to us that the "soul" must be "a focal point of transformation" at which point all energy converges. However attractive it may be to suppose that there is a direct transformation, it becomes clear that in practice, in love, it is their mutual inter-dependence, as clear as their inter-relation arising, says de Chardin writing about the nature of spiritual energy and love.

His book, The Phenomenon of Man, deemed radical when it first appeared in 1940, was blacklisted by many contemporary theologians upon its arrival; today de Chardin now occupies an esteemed place in the world of theology. His ideas give rise to the idea of humanity as a unifying factor of the universe, and man its bearer.

Mature Innocence in Love*

"Innocence is a mystery greater than evil." James Hillman

Innocence in the soul suggests a state in which one exists unwounded by the everyday challenges and trials of the world. Recovering innocence is to refrain from self-cruelty, or the equally prevalent cruelty inflicted upon others, to work and live in such a way as to gain in the strength needed to live a creative life. Spirit moves in innocence.

Innocence in adult life amounts to a renewal, a return to the essential elements necessary to the life of a Creator. It is more than unknowing; in this sense, innocence is not the least opposed to sophistication, to its opposite, a childlike state of openness that finds itself needed in a maturity which is an agile, and graceful continuity. If this is not in evidence, then the perceived maturity is not. Rather, it is simply a form of avoidance  without inherent value. Innocence is the vital element of all forms of play. Experience is key as the buddha taught. Children learn largely by experience.

Innocence is an often overlooked element of deep forgiveness as part of the restorative quality in the soul. Lifes' injuries are nearly unavoidable. However in deep forgiveness, over time, the wounds may be exchanged for the delights and joys of innocence discovered in shared experiences. Maturity need not mark or weigh us down with its cares or disappointments.

Another fertile area of life in which innocence makes its appearance is in love. In mythic terms, love and marriage are markedly different experiences for men and women. The god Eros gains in stature, in strength upon his marriage;  in doing so writes Robert Johnson in his book, She "each woman in marriage must terminate her innocence and childlike naivety," a difficult, but essential experience for the mature feminine psyche. In the evolving process of maturity, a woman while not directly corresponding to her mate, influences and spurs his own development.

At different points in their parallel lives** together, woman who most often bears the light in a man's life, finds that she has nothing to give to him--he simply just isn't looking, or able to look into the light she presents to him. While tangled with him, she may fear as a consequence, what she has then to lose. "There is something in the unconscious of a man that wishes to make an agreement" that she will not look too closely or too carefully at him; yet in maturity she does look, and she must. Like the biblical garden of Eden, the pair in love find one another in innocence; their love experience is powerful. And it must be so to propel them into the experiences that comprise their shared lives. Yet as time unfolds, disappointment and disillusionment inevitably arise.

Paradoxically it is only in forgiveness, in innocence, that the otherwise harsh judgements of one towards the other may be set aside for a return to the Beloved, to the innocence of the earlier garden of Eden, a paradise she may have feared lost.

* A reprint of a reader favorite article that appeared here on July 6, 2009

**a figure of speech.

Merton and the Reality of the Body

"And what God has joined, no man can separate without danger to his sanity"

" If I never become what I am meant to be, but always remain what I am not, I shall spend eternity contradicting myself by being at once something and nothing... --Thomas Merton



While Gnosis is chiefly concerned with the mind, the idea of the body as a perceived reality is discussed by the Catholic Christian monk, Thomas Merton.

In his book, New Seeds of Contemplation, a compilation of his short musings on a variety of subjects he writes, "Detachment from things does not mean setting up a contradiction between things and God, as if God were another thing and his creatures were his rivals. We do not detach ourselves from things in order to attach ourselves to God; rather we become detached from ourselves in order to see...This is an entirely new perspective which many sincerely moral and ascetic minds fail utterly to see..."

There is no evil in the created world, nor can anything created become an obstacle to oneness.

However the obstacle often becomes our self, "that is to say our tenacious need to maintain our separate, external, egotistical will... It is then that we alienate ourselves from reality and from God..."

We use all things "for the worship of this idol, which is our imaginary self; in doing so we pervert and corrupt things, or rather we turn our relationship to them into a corrupt and sinful relationship. We do not thereby make them evil, but we use them to increase our attachments..." To take for an idol is the worst kind of self deception. "It turns a man into a fanatic, no longer capable of genuine love...'

"Whereby a "saint knows that the world and everything made by God is good... while those who are not saints either think that created things are unholy [not unified], or else they don't bother about the question one way or the other, because they are only interested in themselves."

In the eyes of the Oneness, the unified, the holy, the saints, all beauty is holy and glorious; it is without judgement because he knows that his mission on this earth as saint is to bring mercy to all men.

Merton continues. He says, "The only true joy on earth is to escape from the prison of our own false self, and enter by love into union with the Life Who Dwells and sings with in the essence of every creature, and in the core of our souls.
In his love we possess all things... Until we love God perfectly [without fear], everything in this world will be able to hurt us. And the greatest misfortune is to be dead to the pain, and not realize what it is... The anguish that we [feel] belongs to the disorder of our desire which looks for a greater reality than is there... "

"But to worship our false self is to worship nothing... The false self must not be identified with the body. The body is neither evil nor unreal. It has a reality that is given it by God, and this reality is therefore holy. Hence we say rightly, though symbolically, that the body is the Temple of God, meaning that his truth, his perfect reality, is enshrined there in the mystery of our own being.'
'Let no one therefore despise or hate the body... Let no one dare to mis-use this body. Let him not desecrate his own natural unity by dividing himself, soul against body, as if soul were good and body evil. Soul and body together subsist in the reality of the hidden inner person. If they are separated, there is no longer a person... And what God has joined, no man can separate without danger to his sanity."

It is equally false to treat the soul as if it were a "whole" and the body as if it were a "whole."
Those who make this mis-perception fall firstly into the practice of "angel-ism," the study and love of angels, or spirit beings; those who fall for the second mistake, fall into the trap of life lived as below the level given by God to his human creation.
It would not be an acceptable cliche, however, to say that "such men live like beasts; there are many respectable and conventionally moral people for whom there is no other reality in life than their body and its relationship with things.'

'They have reduced themselves to a life lived within the limits of their five senses. Their self is consequently an illusion based on sense experience and nothing else. For these, the body becomes a source of falsity and deception. But it is not the body's fault. It is the fault of the person himself, who consents to the illusion, who finds security in self-deception and will not answer the secret voice of God calling him to take a risk and venture by faith outside the reassuring and protective limits of his five senses."

"You are the secret of God's heart." --unknown

The Basis of Oneness

"feel your lightness and let it merge with others..."
--Tao Te Ching
"Many poets are not poets... they never succeed in being themselves."
--Thomas Merton
"I am the will, the heart, the soul, the spirit, the self, the I..."
--Peter Kreeft


Ways of seeing, vispayana, are many and yet they are few: some spiritual traditions are unique, and yet they are universal:

"If you know what it is, don't talk it away:
If you don't then you don't understand.

Hush, keep it in, and your doorway shut--
Steer clear of sharpness and untangle the knots.

Feel your lightness and let it merge with others,
This we say is our basis of oneness.

The sage who does this doesn't have to worry
about people called 'friends' or 'enemies,'
with profit or loss, honor or disgrace--

He is a Master of Life, instead."
--Tao Te Ching, chapter 56, translated by Man-Ho Kwok

"I have three priceless treasures:
The first is compassion
the second, thrift
And the third is that I never want to be ahead of you.

If I have compassion, you will die for me. I know that.
If I waste nothing, I can give myself to you all--
And if I don't seem perfect, then you'll trust me to lead you.

These days people scorn compassion. They try to be tough.
They spend all they have, and yet want to be generous
They despise humility, and want to be the best.

I tell you that way is Death's.

If you have loved your people, you will know it
they will fight tooth and nail for you in attack or defense.

This is the protection of Heaven, and your harvest.
--Tao Te Ching, chapter 67, translated by Man-Ho Kwok


Thomas Merton, Integrity

"Many poets are not poets for the same reason that many religious men are not saints: they never succeed in being themselves. They never get around to being the particular poet or particular saint they are intended to be by [gifts of] God... They wear out their minds and bodies in a hopeless endeavor to have somebody elses' experiences, or write somebody else's poems, or possess somebody else's spirituality... There can be an intense egoism in following everybody else. People are in a hurry to magnify themselves by imitating what is popular-- and too lazy to think of anything better... Hurry ruins saints as well as artists... In great saints you find that perfect humility and perfect integrity coincide. The two turn out to be practically the same thing. The saint is unlike everybody else precisely because he is humble... since no two people are alike, if you have the humility to be yourself, you will not be like anyone else in the whole universe... Individuality is something deep in the soul... humility brings with it a deep refinement of spirit, a peacefulness, a tact and common sense, without which there is no sane morality...How do you expect to arrive at the end of your own journey if you take the road to another man's city?

--Thomas Merton, Trappist monk from his book, The New Seeds of Contemplation

Peter Kreeft, The Most Important Thing

"Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man." Matthew 15:11

"This is true not only of the mouth or the body, but also the soul. What comes into my soul is not necessarily what I will, but what comes out of my soul is precisely what I will. The Greek philosophers did not clearly recognize this personal center. They were intellectualists; they thought the deepest thing in us was the mind. Thus Plato taught that whenever we really know the good, we do it... Aristotle defined man as a rational animal." When asked about his teachings, Jesus replied, "My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If any man's will is to do this [the Father's] will, he shall know whether the teaching is from God." John 7, verses 16,17

"The will leads us to wisdom... Know thyself, was the first and greatest command for the Greeks. It was inscribed upon every Temple of Apollo... To answer that fundamental question: What is the self? What am I? What is the human person? The key of love unlocks the deepest answer...

--Peter Kreeft, The God Who Loves You
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