{"id":22720,"date":"2023-08-07T08:23:06","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T12:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22720"},"modified":"2023-08-07T09:19:58","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T13:19:58","slug":"22720","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22720","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Walk Home Lyrics by Young the Giant\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MDcgL_6GnEw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">True Self \/ Separate Self<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This week the Daily Meditations focus on the fifth of CAC\u2019s&nbsp;<\/em>Seven Themes of an<em>&nbsp;<\/em>Alternative Orthodoxy:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u201cseparate\u201d self is the major problem, not the shadow self which only takes deeper forms of disguise. [1]<em>&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard Rohr believes that growth in spirituality involves <strong>detaching from our separate or false self and living from our True Self. <\/strong>Richard explains:<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I learned the terms \u201cTrue Self\u201d and \u201cfalse self\u201d from Thomas Merton (1915\u20131968)\u2014words he used to clarify what <strong>Jesus surely meant when he said that we must die to ourselves or we must \u201close ourselves to find ourselves\u201d<\/strong> (Mark 8:35). Merton rightly recognized that it was not the body self that had to \u201cdie\u201d (which much of Christian history seemed to believe), but the \u201cfalse self.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u201cseparate\u201d self is the major problem, not the shadow self which only takes deeper forms of disguise. [1]<em>\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Thomas Merton memorably describes&nbsp;<\/em><em>his mystical experience of&nbsp;<\/em><em>the True Self:<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut [<em>now<\/em>&nbsp;<em>Fourth and Muhammad Ali<\/em>&nbsp;<em>Boulevard<\/em>], in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness.\u2026 The whole illusion of a separate holy existence is a dream\u2026.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God\u2019s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really&nbsp;<em>are<\/em>. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed.\u2026 I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other. But <strong>this cannot be&nbsp;<em>seen,&nbsp;<\/em>only believed and \u201cunderstood\u201d by a peculiar gift\u2026.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the <strong>center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will.<\/strong> <strong>This little point of nothingness and of&nbsp;<em>absolute poverty<\/em>&nbsp;is the pure glory of God in us.\u2026 It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody,<\/strong> and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely. [3]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mining for an Immortal Diamond&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Richard Rohr invites us to the transformative process of discovering our True Selves:<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the first ending to Mark\u2019s Gospel\u2014the oldest gospel\u2014the text ends on a very disappointing, and thus likely truthful, note: \u201cThey ran away from the tomb frightened out of their wits. They said nothing to a soul, for they were afraid\u201d (see Mark 16:5\u20138).&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such running from resurrection has been a prophecy for Christianity and much of religion. I interpret this as the<strong> human temptation to run from and deny not just the divine presence, but our own True Selves\u2014our souls, our inner destiny, our true identity.<\/strong> Our <strong>True Self is that part of us that knows who we are and whose we are, although largely unconsciously. Our false self is just who we&nbsp;<em>think&nbsp;<\/em>we are\u2014but thinking doesn\u2019t make it so.<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are <strong>made for transcendence and endless horizons, but our small ego usually gets in the way until we become aware of its petty preoccupations and eventually seek a deeper truth<\/strong>. It is like mining for a diamond. We must dig deep; and yet we seem reluctant, even afraid, to do so.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The question the three women ask in this first moment of would-be resurrection is still ours: \u201c<strong>Who will roll away the rock?\u201d (Mark 16:3). Who will help us in this mining operation for the True Self? What will it take to find my True Self?<\/strong> How do I even know there is an \u201cimmortal diamond\u201d underneath and behind this rock of my ego, my specific life experience, my own culture? Up to now, it has been common to religiously believe that Jesus\u2019 physical body could really \u201cresurrect.\u201d That was much easier than asking whether&nbsp;<em>we&nbsp;<\/em>could really change or resurrect. It got us off the hook\u2014the hook of growing up, of taking the search for our True Selves seriously.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Up to now, we have been <strong>more driven by outer authority than drawn in by the calm and loving inner authority (the in-dwelling Holy Spirit) of&nbsp;<em>prayer, practice, and inner experien<\/em><\/strong><em>ce<\/em>. This has a much better chance of allowing us to meet and know our True Self. For all practical purposes, this<strong> change of identity from the separate self to the connected and True Self is the major\u2014almost seismic\u2014shift in motivation and consciousness itself that mature religion rightly calls&nbsp;<em>conversion<\/em><\/strong><em>.&nbsp;<\/em>It is the very heart of all religious transformation (\u201cchanging forms\u201d). Without it, religion is mostly a mere belonging system or a mere belief system, but it does not radically change our consciousness or motivation.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The clarification and rediscovery of the True Self lays a solid foundation\u2014and a clear initial goal\u2014for all religion. We cannot build any serious spiritual house if we do not first find something<strong> solid and foundational to build on\u2014inside our self! \u201cLike knows like\u201d is the principle. God-in-us already knows, loves, and serves God in everything else.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"307\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-500x307.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22724\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-500x307.png 500w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-300x184.png 300w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-768x472.png 768w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-1536x944.png 1536w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-2048x1259.png 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>True Self \/ Separate Self This week the Daily Meditations focus on the fifth of CAC\u2019s&nbsp;Seven Themes of an&nbsp;Alternative Orthodoxy:&nbsp; The \u201cseparate\u201d self is the major problem, not the shadow self which only takes deeper forms of disguise. [1]&nbsp;&nbsp; Father Richard Rohr believes that growth in spirituality involves detaching from our separate or false self [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22720"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22720"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22728,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22720\/revisions\/22728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}