(Stock Photo Canva)
By Dan Sherven
A person’s real self is not themselves at all. Sometimes, the more a person tries to be better, from ego and not from God’s grace, the more they fall. Even if it’s not immediate. As everything good is given as a grace. So we participate in God, to the extent that we get out of His way. The self is fundamentally an illusion, which stops us from waking up to the reality that we are always united to God. We are dependent on God for everything we are, and each individual moment of our lives.
The cross is perhaps the best symbol for destroying the ego. But other religions have “rays of truth” too, as Vatican II says. There is a Divine Nothingness, of which we cannot say anything. Silence is the language of God. When one has an experience of God, there is no language which can explain it. By definition. God stands outside all categories. He is Being Itself. Not the biggest being, but the act of pure existing. I Am. So theology will always fail to fully describe God.
We often act out of our ego, and even the cross as a religious symbol anticipates this. We often feel that we must go through difficulty to arrive on the other side. We sometimes think we must ‘die’ in a way which maximizes suffering, to reach the other side, where the experience of God is. We fall into earning Love through the cross. Instead of seeing grace as freely given. Even though there are certainly times of evil and suffering, where all we can do is look to the cross.
We often feel, too, that we must move through ritual to earn our place on the other side. In a sense, there is nothing wrong with acting from ego for religious purposes. We should just always try to be aware that the ego, our idea of ourselves, cannot do anything. It is an illusion. It is a concept which is useful, but which can trap us inside ourselves. The goal of the cross is to have our ego finally give up. Then we are resurrected. We wake up to the reality of God’s presence.
Western man has largely missed out on the experience of God. We might attend every Church service, but we feel that we are an isolated ego in a strange world. Not belonging. Yet in the ground of his soul, there is a fundamental Oneness with God. While still keeping distinction. We are not God in the sense of our ego being King of the Universe. But we do participate in God.
God is constantly creating the world in the eternal now. Anything man does which is good participates in Goodness, which gets its reality from God. So the good man is participating in God. There is nothing man can do to not participate in God, other than sin. But even with sin, Christ has given us a path of redemption. We can always drop evil and return as a Prodigal Son.
The self is an illusion. By the self, it is meant the personality, the will, and the intellect in terms of discursive reason, even emotion. These things are not the essence of the soul. The soul itself is uncreated, even though it is created by an act of God. But that act of God is eternally happening; we are being created right now, as an act of the Uncreated. Therefore, we are uncreated. We are that action of God, when our ego is crucified. The Son of God is born into the ground of the soul at each moment. Each moment without sin. But Western man does not feel this. He feels isolated.
Yet the mystics of each great religion speak the same language. That language is Silence. There are no words which can describe God. Western philosophy has often missed this. We think in terms of logic. But God stands outside logic. All the Divine Mysteries are beyond logic. We need to feel the experience of being united to God. Not just have clear logical ideas about that union.
In the Incarnation, God is so united with man that Christ is fully God and fully man. We are not Sons of God in the way Christ was. Christ is uniquely Son of God. But we are all created in the divine image. Even though sin tarnishes that image. However, one does not need to despair. As confession is meant for healing. Although we often view confession as a legal procedure for waiving condemnation. We would perhaps benefit from more hospital and healing symbolism.
We need the experience of being united to God in a way logic can’t explain. An experience of healing and defeating sin through unity with God. Not through strong will, not through ego. The more you let go of yourself the more you become Yourself. We lack the feeling of being united to God. Even though we do remain distinct creatures. That feeling is not a concept. It is experience.
It’s a reality available to everyone, always. Everyone willing to drop their idea of themselves and step into the present moment. The reality of being both created and uncreated by God’s pure act.
Dan Sherven is the author of four books, including the number-one bestseller Classified: Off the Beat ‘N Path and Uncreated Light. Sherven is also an award-winning journalist, writing for several publications. Find Sherven’s work.
