FOREWORD
FORWARNED
This is the first of a two part offering.
This week: the fake out of the false self.
Next week: the real deal - the true self
It'll be heavy lifting, a real work out.
.
******
Dear All of Us,
The Emperor spent
a lot of fuss and funds
getting dressed up.
For naught.
Faked out.
Ended up strutting
an illusion
down main street.
And he's not alone.
There's a parade of
pretend posturing
way worse out here
on main street daily life.
It's the folly of the
False Self
Using a different metaphor,
Thomas Merton wrote
a see-through review of this
naked nothing dress up,
this
Bad Wrap
Let's do some honest
Soul Sizing
"All sin starts from the assumption that my false self,
the self that exists only in my own egocentric desires,
is the fundamental reality of life
to which everything else in the universe is ordered.
Thus I use up my life in the desire for pleasures
and the thirst for experiences, for power, honor,
knowledge, and love
to cloth this false self
and construct its nothingness
into something objectively real.
And I wind experiences around myself
and cover myself with pleasures and glory
like bandages in order to make myself
perceptible to myself and to the world,
as if I were an invisible body that
could only become visible
when something visible covered its surface." (1)
PHEW!!!
That's a lot about the nothingness
of the
False Self
Both the emperor and the false self
strut wrap around illusion
trying to cover naked nothingness.
In the next whiles let's take Merton
line by line
praying over:
- how does our culture
try to sell us a bill of no goods
on the who and how to be self?
- Let's actually list the pressures,
posturings, pulls and pushes
that try to seduce us into
wrap around phony false.
- Let's check out our
lifestyle, career, family, church,
havings, gettings, goings, doings, not doings.
- Let's prayerfully size our souls by
checking our checking and credit card accounts,
our friendships, scheduling, wardrobes,
social engagements,
the wheels we drive,
the trips we take,
the place and way we live,
what we read and watch.
Do they wrap us false or
let flow the true?
In the words of classic spirituality, all this is an
Examen
of conscience, contact and conduct
What's what with self?
Where's it taking us?
What are we walking down Main Street?
It's good to remember that every step
the False Self takes tripes up our actual self
and we don't keep it to ourselves.
That sadly goes for churches, governments,
corporation, media, every and all institutions.
Lots to look at.
Next week a wonderous freeing
as we pop the cork on
The True Self
Here's a tiny teaser.
"The privilege of a lifetime
is to become
who you really are."
C.G. Jung
******
(1) New Seeds of Contemplation
p. 34
******
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to
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
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as well as more from Singapore.
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Here's to a for real,
wonderful week.
Love to all
John Frank
******
