The reified mind operates in the world on self-images and the conceptional. The true artist is able to step into another dimension to produce a true self-portrait.
Author: John
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Good and Evil
Came across this today in Your Soul’s Compass:
We’ve defined the Soul’s Compass as an intelligence located in the heart that’s capable of perceiving and responding to the good. In Hebrew there’s a concept called yetzer ha-tov – the urge to good. Sometimes yetzer -ha-tov is imagined sitting on one shoulder, and yetzer ha-ra’ – the evil urge – on the other. We grow in wisdom through our attempts to inquire into, and ultimately transcend the tension of those opposite impulses. The function of the evil urge is to clarify the good, the true, and the beautiful by motivating us to orient to the visible fruits of Spirit in our choices.
St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, was the Catholic dean of discernment. In the late 15th century, when he was born, discernment was indeed centered on distinguishing good from evil in the classical theological sense of whether a thought came from God or the devil. In the theology of Ignatius, which reflected the thinking of the time, the devil was thought to be a crafty creature intent on leading us astray who was separate from our own more primitive, instinctive desires and inclinations. But regardless of where the “evil urge” originates – most likely from our own inborn nature and conditioning – we can easily distinguish it from the action of our higher nature by the inner state it produces, which Ignatius described as desolation in contrast to consolation.
– Consolation is a feeling of inner warmth, of being loved by and loving the Creator. A state of interior joy, consolation is characterized by a quiet mind and an open heart. One feels inspired, confident, courageous… held and supported by unseen but beneficent forces.
– Desolation is a state of interior disturbance that Ignatius called “darkness of the soul.” Sadness, sloth, and separateness from God are its hallmarks. Today’s common maladies of burnout, depression, despondency, addiction and hopelessness are all symptoms of desolation.
This is fine example of how authors Joan Borysenko and Gordon Dveirin bring wisdom from the past and from differing traditions to their open-ended inquiry into spiritual guidance. Your Soul’s Compass is a great blend of insight from the past and present into the question – What is Spiritual Guidance?
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Disidentification
I came across this post while looking into disidentification. The post, in part, has an exercise in disidentification. There are a lot of “I” statements in the exercise and then this paragraph:Through the process of disidentification you become more and more your own manager. You find yourself becoming more free from concerns about the expectations or judgments of other people. The self is the inner director.
There is little in this exercise, as I see it, that involves disidentification. In fact, just the opposite it increases identification with an idealized self.
Disidentification is a natural result of open-ended inquiry into the nature of the self. Who am I? What am I? Exploring my beliefs, attitudes and convictions is part of the process of disidentification.
The process of disidentification often begins with a situation in which we are totally charged, reactive and identified with some self-image from the past. These processes are psychodynamic slices of a larger overall process for the seeker of true nature.
This manager and director of the self mentioned above is the central identification. The deeper implications of disidentification are clearly seen in the Buddha’s questioning of the existence of self.
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Deep Love Lives On
From an email that has probably been forwarded to millions…
These two guys reared this lion from a baby in England but the authorities would not allow them to keep it once it reached maturity so they were forced to give it up.
They took it back to Africa and placed it in a wildlife sanctuary.
A year later they went to see it and were told it would not remember them …[ad#post468]
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Rapprochement
In Googling rapprochement, 3.3 million results are returned. In scrolling down the page, it appears that more than 90% of the returns elate to rapprochement in its use in diplomatic relations.A rapprochement, which comes from the French word rapprocher (“to bring together”), is a re-establishment of cordial relations, as between two countries. In the political scene of an individual country rapprochement means the bringing together of diverse political factions.
In terms of human development, rapprochement refers to a human developmental milestone occurring around 18 months. The child moves away from and then returns to the mother for reassurance.
The rapprochement conflict is something that recurs on the spiritual path more than most people are aware of. The rapprochement conflict usually reasserts itself anytime we are challenged with leaving the familiar for the unknown. On the spiritual path, this happens a lot.
This rapprochement conflict is usually reenacted in our work, after the Personal Essence is experienced in a sustained manner… We find that every individual, regardless of how integrated he is on the ego level, has an unconscious rapprochement conflict. A.H. Almaas
Maintaining a familiar sense of self is JOB #1 at ego central. Thus, venturing afar from our familiar identity can trigger insecurity and anxiety. This usually quites down when we return to the familiar and is one of the reasons why the ego likes to reify or co-opt spiritual experience – so, it becomes part of the familiar.
When identity shifts from ego to true nature, the rapprochement conflict ends as identity is not fixated now but resides in a flow of consciousness from one unknown moment to the next.
What do you notice about your relationship between the unknown and the familiar? Do you love wandering afar into new territory, but also feel the need to return to the familiar? Can you spell – rapprochement?
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Stroke of Genius
This is a video that is worth every minute of your time and more. It is a must see for those who have an interest in the Eckhart Tolle – Oprah online presentations and all others interested in spiritual development. What is not addressed in this video is how one’s being can synthesize these two selfs into a real integrated, functioning person.
Brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor studied her own stroke as it happened.
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