The Perfection of Ego
Getting Connected, Continued
I think of this as the coda to Connections. The idea is so simple, yet so powerful, that I need very few words to express it.
The whole idea I want to share here is easily stated. (I've been working on saying things with fewer words, I hope you are appreciative!) It's like this:
Proper spiritual death of self is an increasing, not a decreasing, of You.
We are talking about the difference between self negation, ("negative death," aka suicide) not a spiritual death of ego, ("positive death," aka transcendence.) God does not want you to die, but your ego, those selfish tendencies that keep you isolated.
I'll try to make this clear with a seed. A regular, ordinary seed:
The little dot next to the penny is a mustard seed.
Imagine the seed has self-will. In negation ("negative death," aka suicide) the seed destroys itself. It dissolves its husk in acid. It rips its proverbial guts out, so that there is simply nothing left.
When we follow this pathway, we decrease. We do not exercise, we refuse to use our talents, we throw our life away, we harm ourselves and become suicidal.
In transcendence, things are very different. The seed dies, yes indeed. It enters the earth, it is buried. And then, magic happens. In the presence of the soil and water, the seed reaches out, extending beyond itself:
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It joins with the earth, as it's roots grow. |
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It joins with the water, and that waters begins to flow through the seed's new (resurrection!) body. |
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It joins with the air, not as a tight, self-contained seed, but as glorious, flowing leaves. |
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And, most dramatically, the seed joins with the light of the sun, as the photons animate everything the seed has, is, and does. |
Negation: The seed is simply destroyed.
Ego: The seed remains isolated, an "island unto itself."
Transcendence: The seed dies to its ego-self, reaching-out to the soil / water / air & fire. In so doing it gains a new "resurrection body" (with roots, stems, leaves, even flowers) that it could not possibly have "imagined," becomes a member of a community (forest), and it becomes attached to the entire Earth. The seed does not disappear, it grows a planet!!
I hope, really hope, that the connections to us are obvious.
Negation: We are destroyed. We never reach health. In psychological terms, we never become "self-actualized." We have no strength, no knowledge, no resources.
Ego: We remain isolated, an "island unto ourselves." We have strength, knowledge, and resources, but never use them for anyone other than ourselves.
Transcendence: We die to our ego-self, reaching-out to those around us. In so doing we gain a new "resurrection body" with capabilities we never imagined. Maybe it's a newly healthy body. Maybe our hearts are reborn with new love. The "resurrection body" takes many shapes and exists in many dimensions. In so doing, we become a member of a community, and become attached to the entire World. We do not disappear, we grow a world!!
The details are infinite. Examples are, too.
The point is that all too often we miss the Middle Way, the Central Column, the Narrow Way that leads to Life.
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On the "left" is negation. The people dying of starvation have no self to deny!!! Theirs is NOT the way of human fulfillment. |
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On the "right" is selfishness. The people endlessly seeking "enlightenment," without giving a moment to a fellow human, have no enlightenment at all. Theirs is NOT the way of human fulfillment. |
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In the "center" is having a healthy, strong Self, which dies to itSelf, and in so doing becomes connected with every one and every thing that Self dies to. Theirs IS the way of human fulfillment. |
Transcendence is the true way of dying to self. For that to happen, though, you must first have a healthy self! But as long as that self remains isolated then, like the unplanted seed, it is only an infinitesimal fraction of its True Self.
True dying to self reaches out. In so doing, like the seed, the self is not eliminated, but becomes open to what it never was, and in so doing finds its true destiny.
God's Way is a Perfection of the Ego. Like the seed that "grows an earth," you become the entire universe:
"ALL things are yours!!" 1 Corinthians 3:21
(Have you ever read that before? Have you ever heard a preacher speak on it? It makes sense now, doesn't it?)
When your little ego "grows a universe," the ego part of it is so small by comparison, that the ego is dead, having been lost in the transcendence of what has become.
To use a common parable, (amazing how much hate mail I get over this one simple parable) the raindrop that returns to the ocean does, indeed, die to its individual identity. But in so doing, it inherits the ocean.
I invite you to return to your Bibles, especially the New Testament. In the light of what you have read here, reexamine what you read. Only through transcendence can we become a community. Only through transcendence can we grow the new body, and from it the purpose of our souls, in which the world can taste the Fruit of the Spirit.
Do you see? Please tell me you see.
Reaching out to you....that I might ever more become more than I am......In the genuine dying of self that is our Greatest Blessing......Ahyh
