Realization and Manifestation of the True Self
- Becoming the Fullest Possible Human
- Authentic and Appropriate (Helpful and Useful) Interaction with Others, Respecting and Furthering the Divine Seed in Others.
- Undermining and Rooting Out the Ego, both by work from outside in and inside out to dissolve this ultimate barrier to becoming your own True Self.
- Reconstructing the Self – separating the wheat from the chaff.
If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.
—Gospel of ThomasBe yourself, everybody else is already taken.
—Oscar Wilde
This dimension focuses on how you relate to yourself internally and also to the world around you. The ego is universally recognized by diverse spiritual and religious traditions as mankind’s chief obstacle to human freedom. Becoming your true self involves freeing yourself from the burden of the ego in all its guises and maneuvers, so that you can discover more of a connection and commonality with humanity rather than having a separate, unique ego-identity. For however unique we are, we’re more alike than different in every respect.
Another aspect of this dimension is developing your qualities and capacities, the gifts you were given to fulfill your role in the world. What kinds of talents, qualities, mood structures, and type of body you are bequeathed with, tells you a lot about what it is that you were born to do. That aspect of your seed requires the same things any seed or pure potential does to grow and become all it was meant to become. If you are going to get the job done of preparing for and fulfilling your potential, your seed will need to be supplied with the right environment within which it can be cultivated and the right ‘nutrients’, in the right measure, delivered at the right times.
A sample of some key things to be focused on throughout the day in working with this dimension:
1. Use body sensing and self-observation, along with observation of the consequences engendered outside of you by your thoughts, words and deeds – to help you sort through the real effects all your behaviors and thoughts are having on your body, mind and spirit (feelings). This can help you determine what is serving your development and manifestation and what constitutes a genuine expression of yourself, verses what doesn’t.
2. An important adjunct to this process involves studying closely who, how much, and why you seek out others – Is it for real nourishment or just for void-filling attention because you don’t truly have yourself? What is the real value of the content of the communications and the time you are spending with others?
Heaven lasts long, and Earth abides.
What is the secret of their durability?
Is it not because they do not live for themselves
That they can live so long?
Therefore, the Sage wants to remain behind,
But finds himself at the head of others;
Reckons himself out,
But finds himself safe and secure.
Is it not because he is selfless
That his Self is realized?
—Lao Tzu
