John: In the last two posts (here and here) I have talked about the relationship between the lower self and the higher self, and I just want to delve into that a little bit more because these dreams open up a huge territory in spiritual development, and also provide insight into how our dreams can help that process.
When we are based in the lower self, the ego self, we have the perception that, as we go along in life, we sort things out as they effect us personally. We evaluate everything in relationship to how we feel about it, which is also the degree to which we see the light inside of us as our light. That perception actually affects the light within us. We’ve looked at it enough to recognize that when we relate only in a lower-self way, the inner light diminishes.
Then, at some later point, when the higher self makes itself known to us, we recognize the need to break through the limitation that we’ve imposed on our lives by thinking everything’s personal. What I’m saying is that we basically go out into the world, get ourselves dirtied up by the ways of it (where everyone views life through their egos), and then we come back seeking to recharge the light we have been diminishing, by meditating, reading, or examining our dreams. All these activities (and others) help us relight the light.
Actually, that’s an interesting analogy – when we live in our ego selves, the light of our higher selves acts like a pilot light (on a gas stove) – it sits there at minimum, but nothing’s cooking. To feel greater overall wellbeing, and to access greater understanding, we need to turn the flame up.
I’m still just speaking about a perception – we still look at ourselves as separate in a lower-self way. To be on a development journey, though, we need to elevate ourselves above that perception. So what begins to happen is that, as we feel the inner light getting dulled by things that we’re doing in the outer, we start to practice a process of forgiveness with ourselves.
We might say, “Okay, what was I was doing, in the outer, that caused that to happen?” In some instances, we could say, “Well, what I did was unnecessary.” And in still other instances, we might see what we did as part of an intention that’s important in terms of what we feel we need to do. We might not be able to change the third aspect, but we can change the first two.
Slowly, we begin to watch how certain involvements cause our heart to ache a bit, or to feel how certain relationships drain our energy. That’s the beginning of seeing that the things that dim our inner light can be recognized as something akin to a form of sin (if there is such a thing as sin). We become more and more aware of the things we do that go against our purpose.
The aspects that go against our purpose require redemption, or a degree of letting go, or an act that is akin to forgiveness. So what we learn to do is to bring in, or connect to, a longing. That longing can cause a washing away of the “sin” and a restoring of the light. The longing is basically whatever causes one to surrender and to be able to experience and feel the journey through the heart. The longing turns up the pilot light, and helps release what has been dimming it. That’s the sorting out.
So we go through this back-and-forth process, between the lower-self feeling that everything is personal, and the higher-self knowing that it’s not, for a long, long time. Eventually, we begin to feel, “Gee, I’m not sure if x, y, or z is really worth it anymore.”
All in all, we are still left having to get over, or beyond, something and we still have the dilemma of each day having to contend with it. To the degree to which we are good at sorting these things out and keeping a sense of balance in the outer, we find we can hold it together longer and longer, as we incorporate it into more of our waking life.
Then, along the way, a major, major shift in perspective occurs, and we start to realize that in order to get beyond the up-and-down rollercoaster, we have to attain a deeper letting go.
Tomorrow we will look into the transition from traveling toward god, to traveling in god.
