19.
Who is the You that knows it is you
NOTE:
This is an excerpt from the book The
Least You Should Know About Life.
The first step toward a greater understanding of your total being is
the recognition that there is more to you than the physical body. Most
spiritual teachings say that you were created as a non-material entity,
often called the soul, which resides in the body for a time and has
the potential to continue an existence in an afterlife. Millions of
people have had near-death or out-of-body experiences which proved to
them that their self-awareness can exist independently of the physical
body. In other words, there is more to you than the body and the brain.
Animals do not have self-awareness, meaning that they are not aware
that they exist. Neither do they have individual self-awareness, meaning
that they do not see themselves as unique individuals. What gives you
the ability to know that you exist and to identify yourself as a unique
individual?
The very center of your total being is the seat of your self-awareness,
which can be called the Conscious You or your conscious self. The conscious
self is the seat of your sense of identity. It is the Conscious You
that is self-aware in the material world and recognizes, “I AM.”
It is also the conscious self that – ideally – makes the
important decisions in your life.
The Conscious You is charged with the task of defining your identity
as a co-creator on Earth. You have a spiritual identity that is permanently
anchored in the spiritual realm (described later). Yet in order to express
yourself in the material world, you need a sense of identity as a co-creator
in this world. This sense of identity is not created for you, and you
must define it by yourself. It is the Conscious You which has been given
the task of defining what comes after the words “I AM…”
The Conscious You has a built-in sense that “I AM” but it
has no contents in that self-awareness. Consequently, the Conscious
You can identity itself as absolutely anything it chooses. In theory,
it can identify itself as a rock. This is what gives you the ability
to identify yourself as a spiritual being who is here to take dominion
over the Earth (your high potential) or as a human being who is the
product of hereditary and environmental factors (your low potential).
You can either think you are in the world but not of the world or that
you are in the world and of the world.
Your highest potential is that your conscious self develops a sense
of identity that is based on and in harmony with the divine individuality
that is anchored in your higher Being. When this happens, there is perfect
harmony – even oneness – between the higher and lower parts
of your being, meaning that you are not a house divided against itself.
You can express your highest potential only when there is harmony between
the higher and the lower parts of your being, and it is the Conscious
You that is designed to ensure this oneness. In order for this to happen,
the Conscious You must maintain – or reclaim – a correct
sense of identity as an extension of your spiritual self, as a co-creator
with God. Most people have not yet developed this spiritual sense of
identity. Instead, they have fallen prey to the temptation to develop
a lower sense of identity as material beings. This has happened as a
result of the process that the Bible describes as the Fall of Man. In
reality, the Biblical story of the Fall symbolizes what has happened
to all people. Adam and Eve are archetypes, symbols for the higher and
lower aspects of your being.
What really happened in the Fall was that your conscious self was tempted
into building a sense of identity defined by the conditions in the material
world. Thus, instead of taking dominion over the material world, you
have allowed the world – including your physical body and lower
mind – to take dominion over you, even to the point of defining
your identity based on the current imperfections on Earth. This earthly
sense of identity creates a division between your higher and lower selves
and it prevents you from fulfilling your potential as a co-creator.
Instead, you create imbalanced conditions that lead to suffering for
yourself and others.
The problem is that the Conscious You is expressing itself through a
limited sense of identity that is centered around the human ego (described
later). It now becomes obvious that the master key to improving your
life experience and take dominion over both your inner and outer circumstances
is that the Conscious You must reclaim its true identity and begin to
express it in this world. You must reestablish a conscious connection
to your higher Being, your spiritual self.
Doing this must be a gradual process because it requires you to replace
your present sense of identity with a new sense of identity. You must,
so to speak, be spiritually reborn. If this happened in one sudden event,
you would lose your sense of continuity and possibly experience an identity
crisis. Thus, the safe way is to follow a gradual process that leads
you to a higher state of consciousness. This is a universal process,
a universal path, that transcends all outer religions or belief systems.
You can follow this path while being a member of any religion or no
religion.
20.
The human ego
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© 2007 by Kim Michaels |
