The process of experience brings me to this moment. I give thanks.
As we develop the relationship with our higher selves it becomes very clear that there are two very distinct “selves” that we interact with. There is the “lower” self, characterized by ego and personified as Satan in the Bible and Mara in Buddhism, Kali in Hinduism, and Shaitan in Islam. We are often drawn to belief that this lower self dwells outside of us, and tend to separate it from us in this personification. There is also the “higher” self characterized by love, compassion, peace and harmony. We have personified this higher self and called it “God” in most faiths. We also attempt to separate the personification from our selves.
The mechanism for either attempts at separation for either higher or lower selves is a function of ego. By understanding that we these are not separate from us, we can understand the power we have in creating the conditions through focus on either one. Once we take the responsibility for our actions, we understand this power we have and can then begin creation anew in line with what we seek.
When we are “possessed” by Satan or any of these characters, we are actually possessed by our own egos through the embracing of the lower self. We have embraced the lower self in this manner, so in effect it is not actually possessing us as we are possessing it. Yet, the attraction consumes us and we enjoy the experience we are meant to have in this relationship.
When we embrace our “higher” self, the action is similar although opposite to when we embrace our lower selves. We act in accordance with that higher self, and manifest love, compassion, peace and harmony. This attraction consumes us and we enjoy the experience we are meant to have in this relationship.
It is important to note that, for reasons that will be explained, we should not be judging one as “bad” or “good”, “worse” or “better”. They just are necessary to the experience that is our purpose and perfect because each allows the other to be. We create the experience we wish to have through choice. We can choose to be in line with our lower selves or higher selves at any time and in this way we are the Creator of all things. We should also not judge which choice others have made for we can only create what is in ourselves, not what is in others. It is also important to note that we should not be attached to the outcomes of either choice we make but rather enjoy the moments these experience provide.
From here on I would like to speak from a personal place that may not be universal for everyone. It may be unique to me or not, but it is what I know through the sum of my experiences that have led to this moment. As a result, I wish to speak for my quest to embrace that vision I have of higher self and to live in harmony of the vision.
I meditating on this, I came to realize that I once spent my life in rejection. I rejected everything, from love to hate, from peace to violence, from truth to lies. In this meditative review, it became quite apparent to me that when we come from a place of rejection, that is when we “reject” that which we do not wish to have, we actually attract it. For me, in rejecting the lower self manifestations like cheating, lying, stealing, coveting, hating, and fighting I am actually attracting them because they are part of my consciousness. I give them power over me because they become my focus even if that focus is on the rejection of them.
An example of this would be what I was taught as a practicing Catholic. I was taught about the rejection of Satan, that is rejection of the lower self. In the practice of rejection, we reject those physical manifestations of the lower self which does, in effect, give those manifestations a power over us. The rejection of them becomes the focus, so in effect they become the focus. This practices gives Satan, or that personification of the lower self, power. Otherwise, Satan does not exist.
Today, I don’t reject much of anything, let alone Satan. I can see the folly of this, the giving of power to something that simply would not exist had we simply not given it power. What I do is embrace that which I envision as my higher self. So rather than rejecting lying, I embrace the truth. Rather than rejecting violence, I embrace peace. Rather than rejecting cheating, I embrace honesty. In this way, I can focus on the higher self, and give it power. You simply cannot give something power by rejecting its opposite, in fact you eliminate or reduce the power that which you are seeking has when you only focus on its opposite. Proof of this resides in my present moment, where I don’t see lying, or evil, or bad in my life. I only see love, harmony, and peace. I know both, and have experienced both, so can speak from this perspective of experience without the supposition that many without such experience need to employ. For that, I see all of these experiences as necessary and perfect.
Finally, I would like to offer a “real-world” experience that speaks to this point that I believe we can all relate to. I will use an example from “Desperate Housewives” that I would like to say my wife forces me to watch (which is a joke of course). Pardon me for sounding like one of the girls catching you up on “our shows”, but it does speak to this dynamic quite well.
On last week’s episode, Roy Bender is “forced” to ask Mrs. (Karen) McCluskey to marry him by Susan, as well as “forced” by his doctor to give up salt. Roy is a little miffed at Susan, and basically says to her (and I will paraphrase here):
“You ruined everything. We had a good thing going here and you ruined it. It is like salt. I never gave salt one moment’s thought until I was told I couldn’t have it. Then I wanted it more than anything. Today, I sat behind a blue-haired old lady who I have seen a million times without giving her a second thought. Now all I can do is think about her because I am getting married and will never be able to have her.” He then proceeds to plant a kiss on Susan’s lips as a testament to where his focus is.
How many of us have experienced this on some level? I would imagine most if not all of us. It isn’t so much that we want what we can’t have as much as it is we want where our focus is. Not being able to have something, that is having to reject it, gives it our focus and a power over us that it didn’t have before this focus was drawn to it. It is no different when we reject our lower selves. Now for the rest of the story.
Later in the episode Susan is told by Karen that she has a shadow on her lung that may be cancerous. Susan runs into Roy who has had a complete change of heart. He explains (again paraphrasing) that he realized how much he loved her and that she was all he wanted.
This shows a shift in focus. Rather than rejecting others because of his love for Karen, he embraced the love he had for her. In this shifting of focus, the embracing of higher self (love) manifested love that is not possible in the practice of rejection. It was all a matter embracing over rejecting, and the result was harmony.
I have done the same in embracing being a vegan. I have not rejected meat and dairy, I have embraced a plant-based diet. In this way I don’t desire meat or dairy at all, but love the food I eat and the choice I have made. I don’t think about meat or dairy at all actually because my focus is on the choice I have made, not the choice I have rejected. I often wonder if this same methodology employed in the addictions like drug use and smoking would make the change that much more likely to be. I have used this method for many of my “addictions”, and know it works for me.
Again, I would suspect that we could all point to an experience that bears this out. That is something that we could all meditate on at a personal level and expand on depending on which vision of self you choose to focus on.
©2010 Thomas P. Grasso All Rights Reserved ☮ ℓﻉﻻ٥ ツ
