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Word Gems exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
Surrender & Acceptance the ego's training wheels
return to 'surrender 1-minute' page
Editor’s note: This writing is being posted on several pages, including “true self,” “reincarnation,” “surrender and acceptance,” and others.
On the “Summerland 1-minute” page, we explored the question “Will I ever feel good again?” having experienced the traumas of life on Earth. There is ample evidence to indicate that we will, in fact, enjoy substantial well-being when we transition to our home-world. A closely related question, too, is “Will I always be tempted or tormented by the dysfunctional ego?” As we’ve discussed in other articles, it frequently creates a sense of “otherness,” a “me against them” dynamic, which, if allowed to express, becomes the root cause of all evil on the “sorrowful planet.” Editor’s note: On the “consciousness” page, we asked “Why is world peace so elusive?” Why can’t people just live quietly and peaceably, instead of grasping for more and more? The solution to such is not to be found in political treaties but within the realm of spirituality. Every bad thing that people do on Earth might be traced back to its source, the ego’s distorted perception of “I don’t have enough” because “I am not enough.” World peace, in any meaningful sense of the term, must begin with peace within the individual heart and mind. As one’s “eyes open” to greater awareness, we see the tricks and wiles of the ego more plainly, always trying to get its own way, always inclined toward using others to fill up the emptiness inside. As such, we’re led to ask: What will happen to this egocentrism-toward-evil when we cross over? Can it be removed? Do even the ancient Spirit Guides still have to deal with this sordidness within? We might wonder if this “inner poison” could somehow, like a festering cancer, be surgically removed. How can we truly enjoy our eternal life in Summerland if we’re constantly having to monitor ourselves to maintain equanimous mind? This “trying very hard” won’t work though. We can’t just excise the ego -- because we need it. The ego is our sense of “I” and our most fundamental purpose in coming to the Earth is to become a person in our own right. We need this perception of individuality, supplied by the ego, to eventually emulate the mental freedoms associated with Mother-Father God. But if the ego cannot be expunged from our beings, how will it finally be “neutered and declawed”? The energies of the ego need to be reorganized. The ego is not a thing as such, not part of the brain we can point to. It’s more of an energy creating a certain orientation or direction. It has a goal. The ego is intent upon making us independent, autonomous sons and daughters of God. Without this element of personal freedom, we would exist and function only robotically with no capacity for creativity or self-management. The ego creates individuality as this takes us to the essence of what it means to be human. But the ego feels like a rogue element of one’s person right now. In one’s immature state, the ego’s constant “me against them” mode of thinking does not create a good person -- but it does create a person. As the ego strives with all others, it fashions us, almost inadvertently, into a separate and stand-alone entity. And this is the first step in fitting ourselves for what comes next in Summerland. training wheels But the immature ego’s near-constant, sometimes relentless, emphasis on “me-ism” and “I need to get mine” serve as “training wheels” to the process of becoming a person.
We don’t really need to be so “me against them” to build a sense of individuality, but, for immature ones, it’s the easy way of becoming an autonomous person. learning by suffering is an optional side-trip A long time ago I came across someone’s very wise saying that, we learn by suffering and pain only until we’re ready to learn by joy and positive experiences. I didn’t understand the significance at the time. Editor’s note: It’s not the good or bad experience per se that change us, but these might eventually open a doorway and invitation to the inner life, which was there all the time. Reincarnation teaches that much experience will transform us, but this is error. See much discussion on the “reincarnation” page and also below. We can get rid of the “training wheels” any time we like, but most do not yet understand this. We can move from learning by suffering to learning by joy when we choose to. What does this mean? It means that the energies of the ego can be reorganized. It will still lead us toward a greater sense of individuality but without the dross of “me against them.” The ego can be restructured to operate on a higher level. When this happens, a fostered and strengthening individuality is no longer prompted by “me against all” but now we’re led by “I love life and want to live it to the max.” And this is how the mature and ancient ones on the other side experience life. By what process is the ego reoriented? Not by a “gritting of the teeth” and “trying very hard.” A disciplined and stalwart effort might produce temporary change at the surface of life, but eventually it all falls apart in “burn out.” It takes too much energy to live in this constrained manner, and programs built upon a philosophy of intense regimentation always fail in time. 100%. Then what does work? It happens easily and naturally. Briefly, we simply need to allow the “inner life,” one’s soul energies, to percolate upward from the depths. When this occurs, it transforms one’s entire surface-conduct and view of life, and it will also reorient the energies of the ego. Dr. Joseph Campbell spoke of this:
Yes, what’s “running the show”? Not what we are at the surface of life but the inner “made in the image” soul energies; that is to say, our hidden link to God, to Universal Consciousness. I recall a comment by Jesus, reported in the Gospel of John, chapter four. In his discourse to the woman at the well in Samaria, Jesus spoke of the inner life as a kind of artesian spring, ever bubbling and issuing forth, with no effort on our part required at all. The woman, who was weary of the hard work of drawing water from a well, said, “Oh, please show me this source of water, it would be so wonderful to have this without all the hard work.” But he wasn’t talking about common H2O but another kind of refreshment. Being directed, and living, by “the joy” reminds me of a favorite writing on the WG site: “What we stay alive for.” Once we experience “the joy,” we just want to live that way all the time. This positive and uplifting energy, emanating from the hidden soul-energies, begins to pervade one’s entire being, and even the ego, the former domain of “me against them”, is transformed in the onslaught. There are many teachers on the other side who say that it’s easier to learn our ‘kindergarten’ lessons here, on the difficult and sorrowful planet. What do they mean by this? For many years I didn’t understand their message, but I think it’s clearer now. In the opening paragraph, I said that we will feel very good when we live in our home-world, Summerland. So good, in fact, that many teachers over there lament that lots of people don’t really want to do all that much, just walk on a beach or sail a boat. They don’t want to study or serve others but just to lollygag about. And they will do this, maybe, for quite a long time, until they awaken to higher, broader callings from the inner life. In other words, we feel so good over there that it would be much more difficult, as we said, to become persons in our own right. Here, someone or something is always poking or jabbing us, which prompts us to react in “me-ism”, but there’s none of that unpleasantness in Summerland. Now, many babies and small children take up residence there without having achieved a sturdy personhood, but, with help and guidance, it is possible for them to “finish kindergarten”, the ABCs of becoming a person. But it’s more difficult there. And maybe we can see why now.
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