"At the heart of Merton’s spirituality is his distinction between our real and false selves. Our false selves are the identities we cultivate in order to function in society with pride and self-possession; our real selves are a deep religious mystery, known entirely only to God. The world cultivates the false self, ignores the real one, and therein lies the great irony of human existence: the more we make of ourselves, the less we actually exist."
But who, what and where is the "real" self?
ReplyDeleteBecause ones self-presentation goes through three cycles every day, and furthermore it changes during the "waking" state depending on what arises in the "world out there", or when confronted/modified by the inherent stress of having to deal with both other human beings, and objects too.
Is it the left-brained thinking "self" that you dramatize i the presumed "world out there" or what we call the "waking" state, which is actually a form of zombie-like sleep-walking.
Is it the very fluid and plastic "self" that creates and participates in the multiple states of the dream world?
Is it the formless and wordless witness consciousness that we enter into in state of deep dreamless sleep?
Or is it a state of uncaused radiant being, or everyman's samadhi ( Sat-Chit-Ananda) which is always already prior to "waking", dreaming and sleeping.
www.consciousnessitself.org
It appears that if you continue to question the way you are questioning you yourself arrive at an answer.
ReplyDeleteRespectfully,
Anbazhagan
Something is mystery to you.Something is belief.
ReplyDeleteWhy believe? Why not just be the awareness!
One would influence many!