(Quarta Via) In the World but not Of it -1
Extract:
In the gospels we read the words, “To be in the world but not of the world”. This phrase can have many meanings. It depends on the situation, and on your level of being and understanding. Today I would like to talk about the meaning of this very phrase, so that you can understand better the reason why we are here on this earth. When a child is born, it is made up of wonderful Essence, pure Being. Naturally, this Essence is not the same essence as that of an adult. It is a childlike, undifferentiated essence.
At the same time, the personality begins to develop through interaction with the surrounding environment and, as far as the early years are concerned, mainly with the child’s parents. Since the parents are identified with their own personality and Essence, they influence the child, and do not encourage the development of his/her Essence. After a few years, the Essence is forgotten and replaced by personality and by various identification mechanisms. The child now identifies with one or the other parent, with one experience or another, and with a whole range of information about himself, from which, as an adult, he will be unable to free himself.
At the beginning, the Essence just was, and it still exists, but unfortunately it is no longer seen, felt, experienced. However, although it may be rejected in all kinds of ways, it is still there. It is sheltering under a protective shield that hides it. That shield is personality. There’s nothing wrong with having a personality; you have one yourself, and it would be impossible to live without it.
But if you consider your personality to be the truest part of you, what you really are, you will end up distorting reality. Because you are not your personality. Personality consists of past experiences, ideas, notions, identifications. You have the potential to develop your own individuality, your Personal Essence, which is different from the personality covering it. Unfortunately this potential is taken over by what we call “ego”, our acquired sense of identity. If someone believes that he is his ego, which is the result of identification, ideas and past experience, he is said to be “…not in the world, but of it”. He is not yet aware of who he really is. The ego, or sense of identity, takes the place of what we call true identity, and personality takes the place of Essence. Personality is a substitute, an impostor.
The world is the same for both Essence and personality, but it is perceived differently. A person who is “… not in the world, but of it” is oriented towards the personality, to the detriment of the Essence.
Personality needs to prove its level of prestige in the world to itself continuously. It needs to create a place for itself in this society, to show at all times that it is strong, successful, independent, capable, whatever the cost. These are its major concerns. Personality cannot tolerate displays of human weakness.
Whereas Essence seeks a very different kind of independence, which springs from within, and bases its development mainly on elements of an inner nature. Independence from past identification, not independence based on the things you do in the world. What you do in the world can be an expression of what you are, but it doesn’t define you. We usually think that the job we do, whatever it is, shows us what we are; this means that we are identified, that we have become the exterior, we have introjected it. We have become the world. This is the worst distortion of reality. (CONTINUED…) <>
In the gospels we read the words, “To be in the world but not of the world”. This phrase can have many meanings. It depends on the situation, and on your level of being and understanding. Today I would like to talk about the meaning of this very phrase, so that you can understand better the reason why we are here on this earth. When a child is born, it is made up of wonderful Essence, pure Being. Naturally, this Essence is not the same essence as that of an adult. It is a childlike, undifferentiated essence.
At the same time, the personality begins to develop through interaction with the surrounding environment and, as far as the early years are concerned, mainly with the child’s parents. Since the parents are identified with their own personality and Essence, they influence the child, and do not encourage the development of his/her Essence. After a few years, the Essence is forgotten and replaced by personality and by various identification mechanisms. The child now identifies with one or the other parent, with one experience or another, and with a whole range of information about himself, from which, as an adult, he will be unable to free himself.
At the beginning, the Essence just was, and it still exists, but unfortunately it is no longer seen, felt, experienced. However, although it may be rejected in all kinds of ways, it is still there. It is sheltering under a protective shield that hides it. That shield is personality. There’s nothing wrong with having a personality; you have one yourself, and it would be impossible to live without it.
But if you consider your personality to be the truest part of you, what you really are, you will end up distorting reality. Because you are not your personality. Personality consists of past experiences, ideas, notions, identifications. You have the potential to develop your own individuality, your Personal Essence, which is different from the personality covering it. Unfortunately this potential is taken over by what we call “ego”, our acquired sense of identity. If someone believes that he is his ego, which is the result of identification, ideas and past experience, he is said to be “…not in the world, but of it”. He is not yet aware of who he really is. The ego, or sense of identity, takes the place of what we call true identity, and personality takes the place of Essence. Personality is a substitute, an impostor.
The world is the same for both Essence and personality, but it is perceived differently. A person who is “… not in the world, but of it” is oriented towards the personality, to the detriment of the Essence.
Personality needs to prove its level of prestige in the world to itself continuously. It needs to create a place for itself in this society, to show at all times that it is strong, successful, independent, capable, whatever the cost. These are its major concerns. Personality cannot tolerate displays of human weakness.
Whereas Essence seeks a very different kind of independence, which springs from within, and bases its development mainly on elements of an inner nature. Independence from past identification, not independence based on the things you do in the world. What you do in the world can be an expression of what you are, but it doesn’t define you. We usually think that the job we do, whatever it is, shows us what we are; this means that we are identified, that we have become the exterior, we have introjected it. We have become the world. This is the worst distortion of reality. (CONTINUED…) <>
posted by Borrowed Wisdom at 11:34 PM
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