A Different Approach To Awakening

There’s been a lot of talk about “projection of the shadow“ onto others, People say “you see the world how you see yourself.” Likewise, I think that the way you see the world is an expression of the state of your psyche in general. That seems to make more sense to me than just some kind of mystical confusion. Since everything is interpreted by the brain, i.e. the psyche, of course we see the world that way, because our psyche is all that our little self is. If we want to see the world better, we can’t just force ourselves to think positively, we have to take up a new practice that affords us a break from the psyche/the world. This gives us a chance to heal, and then we can have a new view of our situation. This is why a meditation practice is so important, especially to those who suffer. If we want to heal, we have to employ healing measures.

When we see, we see through our psyche. When we look at the world, we see the world with our psychic interpretations super imposed over the top of it like a Hollywood green-screen. Whether it be long-held beliefs, a newly discovered difficulty, or childhood trauma, our preconceived notions will affect the way we see the world until we grow out of them. We must find the song that sings us home. This also has to do greatly with how we see ourselves. If we can’t accept ourselves, there’s no way we can accept the world either. Working on accepting our individual shortcomings is important. We’ve all got something we're ashamed of, whether we think we should be or not. This comes down to the part of us we hide from the world, and likewise, the world hides similar things from us. This is often a subconscious dissatisfaction that comes to the surface as judgmental attitudes towards others, but largely based in our judgment of ourselves. This is the shadow we all cast. in Jungian psychology, we are directed to encounter this shadow and embrace and accept that it is a part of us. We can’t grow as spiritual beings until we do this.

When we are confronted with these immovable objects: the shadow, the unwavering discontent, dissatisfaction that does not seem to relent, this is an opportunity. Instead of trying desperately to control and live our own lives as we see fit, we can take this moment to let life live us. If the universe is God, and we are part in parcel to this universe, then how can we be separate from God at any time? So to reiterate, when dissatisfaction reigns, we must release control, because we never really had any anyway. To many of us, this is a terrible fate, but what better fate than being held at all times. We are not divorced from this universe as these tiny, scared, separate selves. We are like rays of light from the one light that animates all things.

We do seem to have a personal identity, though. We have opinions. We have likes and dislikes, and storyline that defines us, but Eckhart Tolle teaches us that we must also have an essence identity, which is the source, the great light, the great consciousness. I saw a teaching from the Catholic monk, Richard Rohr, where he says without reservation, “what else is the universe but the body of God?“ Of course this insight can only come from the source itself. If we live continually in our small self, with our small psyche, and our small identities, with our small religions, and our small judgments, we’re never gonna grow as a species, and we’re never gonna wake up. We must let go of our childish identities that we learned before we were old enough to think for ourselves.

We need to get to our deepest self to understand how to approach our individual lives, because we do exist as people in a world, in a distant dark place in the universe, however, there is much more to be discovered, and we can’t know what we will find until we look. Beneath our unconscious shadow self, according to Jung, is our deepest identity, the Ænima or Ænimus. This is the very cry of the soul itself, our deepest personhood. Deeper even than that, is the source itself. The great consciousness, the light of all being. To know who we are meant to be in this world, as this person, we need to learn who we are at our Ænima. But we must first encounter our own shadow. If this is scary to you, you may have spent most of your life being carried along by lesser minds and stingy hearts. One step at a time, practice silence, practice stillness. All of this has worked well for me, and has helped me greatly to discover a peace within me that is reliable and kind.

May we become unencumbered by our small selves.

Peace to you and yours…