Our Little Self Has Been Caught in Adolescence

“He seems a sorry figure, weary, worn, in threadbare clothing, and with feet that bleed a little from the rocky road he walks. . .

“This is your chosen self, the one you made as a replacement for reality. This is the self you savagely defend against all reason, every evidence, and all the witnesses with proof to show this is not you.” (ACIM, W-166)

Do we really want to see ourselves as this quotation depicts? Certainly not, but this is our picture of ourselves when we are feeling sorry for ourselves. And we feel sorry for ourselves when we lose track, even momentarily, of the grace in which we live. When we lose track of God.

Jesus is very poetic in his descriptions. When we fret and worry, we make ourselves into a tragic figure, one that we feel sorry for, and that others may as well.

This is all so unnecessary. When we know that we are guided to the right thought and action, when we know that we are never alone, our lives smooth out and we feel safe again. Turn to guidance when you have questions. The

Answer will usually come immediately. If not, go about your day in the surety that the Answer will come.
And that Answer that you need will come. Be assured of that. There is no better way to live a life.

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“To say that the personal self will not exist only as the self you present to others is to say that the personal self will now cease to be seen as your reality.” (ACOL, Treatise on the Personal Self, 1.10)
The “little” self has been the self of the ego, which, A Course of Love assures us, is not our way any longer. This little self is also known in ACOL as the personal self. We do keep this self to present to the world, but we really don’t believe in it any longer.

We know that there is a deeper Self Who rules our lives. And with this we are satisfied.

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“Our discussion merely examined the reality you chose to believe in, the reality of an ego-self, a self-concept seemingly stuck in an adolescent phase of development.” (ACOL, Treatise on the Personal Self, 2.12)
We are adolescents when we choose to rebel against reality, choose to rebel against God. God had to let us go our own way at this point, eons ago. He made no attempt to rein in our free will, which was to make a reality that tried to leave Him out.

Of course, we could not really do that. God cannot be left out of the equation, for we are part of Him. But we could imagine ourselves independent of God, and the imagining became very real.
And lamentable. But we know more now. We know that we don’t have to forge ahead like a ship with no anchor. God is our anchor, and well it is that this is true.

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“Your Self and God will be but memories to you while your reality remains that of the physical experience and the personal self.” (ACOL, Treatise on the Personal Self, 13.2)

Our Self and God are memories to us, because we are recollecting what we have known previously. But to become more than a memory, we must try to reach beyond the physical reality in which we are embedded. The elevated Self of form will use this physical reality, but in a new way. We will know that we are fully united with God, that He is always there for us, that we aren’t independent little entities with no mooring.

The personal self will be transformed into the elevated Self of form. And in this transformation will the character of our world change for the better.

We need this elevated Self of form to live happily in a world that perception used to rule, but that now knowledge rules. We will create again, not “make.” And we will be home in a new world, creating anew a new place to be. We will know creation of the new.

Intimacy

“This intimacy itself will allow you to see your ‘self’ as an integral part of all that exists within your world rather than as the small and insignificant personal self you generally accept as your ‘self.’  By eliminating the personal, the universal becomes available.  As the universal becomes available, you will have no desire for the personal.  Even so, you will find that what you consider your individuality or uniqueness is very much intact, but that it is different than you have always imagined it to be.  (A Course of Love, 22.23)”

Affirmation:  “I would encourage intimacy today.”

Reflections:

1 – Moving Away from the “Little” Self

This passage is an excellent statement of what we will gain when we give up focusing so much on the personal, or “little” self.  We will still retain individuality and uniqueness, but we will also be part of the unity of our world, and we will be in relationship to others, always.  We have been so self-centered that we have forgotten our brothers and sisters.  And we would not do that.

2 – Transcend the Personal Self

The universal will be joined in unity and relationship, two words that are used repeatedly in A Course of Love.  The personal self will be deemphasized, as we reach outward to other people.  We will not denigrate the personal self, but we will transcend it.  And then we will know the universality in our experiences.

3 – A New Uniqueness

We will come to know a new individuality or uniqueness in ourselves.  This change will help us to both honor ourselves and others.  We will not lose anything thereby.  On the contrary, we will know the best of all possible worlds, for our perception will have been cleansed, and we will have moved into knowledge granted us by God.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would know this new “uniqueness” today.  I would move away from, just turn away from, without resistance, the personal self that has been too much turned inward to a self-centeredness.  When I reach out to my brothers and sisters, I reach out in Your will.  But that does not mean that I neglect myself.  All in good time.  To give and receive are one.

Be with me as I explore this new uniqueness of self.  It is something that I don’t know enough about, yet, and I implore You to show me.  May I still recognize myself in the true sanity of the real world, and may I not be jolted out of my accustomed world into a new and strange place.  I ask for a gentle Awakening.  Thank You for those glimpses of the Awakening that come to me from time to time.  I ask that all of my brothers and sisters experience the same, in gentleness and in love.

Amen.

Deemphasize the “I”

“Begin to imagine life passing through you rather than getting stopped for examination at its intersection with you.  Begin to imagine seeing the world without the emphasis on your personal self.  Begin to form sentences and eventually to tell stories without the use of the ‘I’ pronoun.  (A Course of Love, 22.20)”

Affirmation:  “I will deemphasize my personal self today.”

Reflections:

1 – An Onion

The affirmation summarizes what our passage for today is saying, but the passage usually particularly vivid illustration.  Jesus has used the image of an onion to explain what his passing through is all about.  There are various layers, all of which represent parts of ourselves and our world.

2 – Don’t Get Stuck in a “Layer”

But we are not to get stuck in any given “layer.”  We are to let all of reality, true reality, just pass through us onto something else, one adventure after another.  And life can be an adventure.

3 – Avoid “I”

We are encouraged to stop saying “I” so much.  We are encouraged, in sentences nearby, not to refer to other individuals as “mine.”  We are to free others as we wish to be freed.  This does not mean that we love any less, only that we recognize the ultimate right of all to be free.  And when we grant freedom to others, we automatically receive it for ourselves, for giving and receiving are one.

4 – Analysis

We often have analyzed too much.  This is the mind at work, and A Course of Love encourages us to look to our hearts (and, then, our mind and heart in conjunction, which make for “wholeheartedness”).  When we have analyzed too much, we have not let life pass through us.  We have stopped at various points in the layers of the onion to consider what everything means.  And we will be wrong, for it is only in the passing through, the letting go, that we truly experience the real world.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would deemphasize the personal self today.  I will not say “I’ so much.  That should encourage others to likewise deemphasize the “I.”

May I have a good day.  May I just let events flow through me.

This day You have given me to enjoy.  And to observe, coming closer to You and others, as well as my Self, all the time.  When we seek to serve You and others, we are also serving ourselves.  Let nothing hinder this threefold way of service today.

Amen.