You Do Not Need to Repress the Self's Emotional Needs
My last article about the egoic experience of personal alienation
as one grows in their awareness of Truth seemed to cause some confusion and perhaps
led to upset for some readers. I was not prescribing a course of action in that
article. Instead I was describing what occurs naturally when one becomes aware
of Truth and of their wholeness in Truth. It was therefore for those readers
who have attained this experience naturally. It was not meant to suggest that
those who have not attainted this experience naturally try to force detachment
to occur through repression or denial of the self’s emotions or emotional
needs.
So let me paraphrase that article another way: As your
awareness of Truth grows and you find yourself feeling whole in that awareness
the ego (personal thought system) will still persist in telling you that you
are not whole and that you need to connect with others to be whole. Your choice
is to accept the wholeness that you are experiencing or to continue to listen
to and believe that the ego speaks for you.
At no time are the self’s emotional needs “wrong” or “bad”.
Lack is simply the experience of the self. And the self is not reality so
nothing about the self has any real meaning. You simply mislead yourself when
you think that the self’s experience of lack is your experience of lack.
However, you will be driven by lack until you experience wholeness in Truth and
naturally detach from the self.
At no stage do you need to deny the emotional needs of the
self. You will naturally detach from them when you experience wholeness in
Truth and realize that the self is not you. This will not result in you repressing
or denying emotions. This will result in you releasing yourself from defining
yourself by them. The self will continue to have needs and to seek to fulfill
them. But you will not define yourself by the self. You will merely observe it
without judging it because you will recognize that it is nothing.
If you cannot understand how this can be then you have not
yet experienced the detachment that will make this clear to you. You must first
focus on growing your awareness of Truth. Then, in time, detachment from the
self will come naturally and you will understand.
On a lighter note it was pointed out to me that my quote of
the song from Rush was wrong.
“The underlying peace” should be “the underlying theme”. Oh, well. I heard what made sense to me…
“The underlying peace” should be “the underlying theme”. Oh, well. I heard what made sense to me…
>>>>
Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, 4 Habits for Inner Peace, and Releasing Guilt for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.
Comments
this continues to clarify the process of returning. as i release all thoughts of separation and its resulting guilt and judgement to the Inner Teacher for undoing, as i release myself into Him, i am having the experience of a very brief falling away of personal boundary. this morning's sharing reminds me to keep returning my focus to strengthening my awareness of This Truth. thank you.
It sounds like you may be experiencing what many students experience in the first years: the ego telling them that they have to give things up to do this process. So they deprive themselves needlessly and think that they are working the process.
Ego is using my work situation , a big overbearing and
threatening corporation to keep the pressure on.
I know its flogging me ( or am i flogging me?)
The pain is of no value, is my mantra.
Thanks for replying
: - )
Alienation comes and goes for me. I like my solitude, but then feel like I "should" interact more with others to share Truth, have more purpose. An ongoing theme for me. But ultimately it's not up to me to know how Truth wants to manifest in the world, and if we find ourselves feeling alienated by naturally moving away from something which no longer serves us, we should remember that we are simultaneously moving towards that which does! In this sense, even the "negative" feeling of alienation is informing us of this. We only need to look forward and not back... to say "Hello!" to where we're going instead of lamenting "Goodbye" to where we've been... because we never lose anything actually, right? Just change our perspectives?
Peace IS the underlying theme! : )
There is some confusion and a certain sadness as I mourn the end of all I thought was real (my small self), but there is also a growing connection to my True, Authentic Self (The Truth In Me), and I'm temporarily vacillating between these two "worlds". I've let go of the old (illusion), but have not fully embraced the "new"... the only thing that brings me any happiness and peace is when I remember to stay focused on the Truth in the One Mind of God. The stuff I think I'm missing never existed anyway, and whatever comes of this, I'm far more better off living in the Truth (and the temporary discomfort of the transition period) than I was when I was pretending to live in the dream of separation.
The Truth shall set you Free!
so its a matter of practising 'detaching from egos use of detachment.. (making the individual self/story real and important) and attaching to holy spirits application of detachment (realising only oneness (or at least.. sameness) is real)'.
this is just using more words to say what liz already concisely said.. 'What I wrote about in these two articles is an experience of feeling the lack of the ego, recognizing what it is, and then being able to turn to Truth to feel whole again. So you are able to detach from the sense of lack and rest in Wholeness.'