Be Determined to Give Up Specialness

“While you desire specialness for yourself, your true Self will remain hidden and unknown, and since this is a Course that seeks to reveal your true identity, specialness must be seen for what it is so that you will desire it no longer. You can have specialness or your true Self, but never both. The desire for specialness is what calls your little self into being. This is the self that is easily wounded, the self that takes on grievances and refuses to give them up, the self that is prone to pettiness and bitterness, resentment and deception. Be truthful as you examine yourself and you will see that this is so.” (ACOL, C:15.3)

Jesus appeals to our better nature when he asks us to consider what the little self is really asking of us; it is asking for pettiness and bitterness, resentment and deception. Are there really any among us who would want these things? And these things are come as a result of our desire to cling to specialness, thinking that we are better than anybody else. What a bad deal this really is!

There is nobody among us who has not, in league with the ego, wanted to think that we are superior in some way to others. This is a reverse to an inferiority complex, and psychologists say that there is no such thing as a “superiority complex,” that it is always a feeling masking the sense of inferiority. This makes sense, for we have long blamed ourselves for not feeling right with God. We sense a separation from the Almighty, and we think that we are to blame for this, adding guilt to our sense of having somehow failed. This is the dynamic that is really going on in the push to be special. We sense that we somehow have failed at life (which we have), and we think that specialness will cure this deep feeling of despair.

Specialness won’t cure anything. It will only compound troubles. We are encouraged to give up thinking about specialness for ourselves as well as our significant others. We are to love, and love freely (though within certain physical restraints). We want to let the Self out to play, the Self who knows true reality and will lead us rightly. We cannot cling to the specialness of our little self and also acknowledge the true worth of our real Self. And our real Self is our salvation.

The Self who is real will free us to be ourselves, for the first time in eons. When we let go of our desire to be special, we will see that the Self holds our release from dark imaginings.

Let’s concentrate on giving up specialness as much as we have concentrated on giving up the ego. They are the same in different words.

Be determined today to right the sense of inferiority that has always clung to us. We are not special, but we are good in the eyes of God, good and innocent. And never let us forget these truths.

Better Not to Feel Inferior Nor Superior

“You cannot have feelings of superiority and not an enemy make. The same occurs when you would make yourself inferior, and you are always making for yourself a place at one of these extremes. And all this effort and conflict arises simply from your insistence upon being separate.” (ACOL, C:14.3)

Most of us have been caught in the trap of feeling inferior or superior to others, and we suffered as a result. Our feelings of inferiority gave us many moments of sadness and dejection. Our feelings of superiority were often compensation for the inferior feelings—when our ego had had enough of feeling dejected.

Was there any truth to any of this? Absolutely none. We are neither inferior nor superior to any other human being. All of us are, truly, created equal.

It is a particular desire on the part of those on the spiritual path to feel better than others who aren’t on the path. But this is nothing less than self-righteousness, surely the least lovable of traits. This is an edge into the superiority to which the ego turns when tired of being dejected with a sense of inferiority.

Be rid of such foolishness. All gifts, ultimately, are shared equally by the children of God. If one now, temporarily, has more, remember that this is only a temporary state. The same for having less. Talents will even out in the long run.

And we make enemies of other people. Nobody even likes someone else who harbors feelings of superiority, especially. And another may also look down on one who feels himself/herself to be inferior in some way.

This is a game we can’t win. One we ought to give up forthwith. The way to the spirit of love is the truth that all are equal in the eyes of God. Only time separates us in any way, and time is an illusion.

The best way to live is to assume equality. This is a truth in our society as well as in spiritual matters.