The Nature of Self
The nature of self is pain, which is a parasite pathologically attached to experience whatever the price in human misery. The self is the alien in the head which, as the thinker, dwells on the past, gets worried and gets its kicks by creating a fantasy world through images stored in the memory. Emotion is the powerhouse of self which fuels the psychic force of unhappiness due to humanity’s abdication of responsibility for life on earth. Whatever the experience, be it good or bad or positive or negative, is inconsequential to the self. The world today is run by the self-interest of people, nations and our leaders, all of whom are possessed by self in varying degrees.
To know my self is awful. It’s awful because everything in existence is self, and to realise life and love as an uninterrupted state of being, an individual must die to the need to exist. This is not as difficult as it sounds when the truth of self is exposed as the spoiler of life on earth. But self is only the spoiler to the degree that it exists in ignorance of the sublime integrity of the source of life. It’s only necessary to exist as a body, which naturally enjoys being at ease and living in harmony with its environment. But most people today have left their bodies and exist as reactionary beings attached to the emotional demands and negativity of self.
Another name for self is fear. The root of all fear is death of the physical form, which is a deeply subconscious psychosis within everybody until negated through self-knowledge. The fear of death attaches the person to the body and to the belief in the world to provide security through the reassurance of hope for a better future. This sets in motion the drive in people to discover something permanent in existence to counter the looming shadow of death. The false assumption that life is over when the body dies is so overwhelmingly disturbing that keeping busy and preoccupied with everything which is unimportant has become the predominant feature in our western culture. Whatever is accomplished or achieved in our relatively short life span on earth is irrelevant at the time of death in the reflection of the true value of the life.
Of all the species only the human animal is unhappy, as is demonstrated by the perennial discontent in people and the appalling condition of injustice and poverty in the world. This is due to emotion, which has corrupted and degraded the instinctual intelligence inherent in the animal body. Only we humans make a problem of life; we do this by holding onto our experience through remembering and replaying events in the mind. Unknowingly, this attaches us to the continuity of living, and before long we become slaves to the clock and the passage of time. Self consists of past. And past obviously has no place in the present. The pure expression of life is instinct, which is the direct experience of life in the moment. The natural creatures are joyous in their instinctual innocence. A fact usually forgotten is that human beings are animals too and instinct can often be seen operating in our daily activities. Touch a hot stove, for example, and immediately the hand instinctively pulls back before the mind has barely registered any discomfort.
The truth of self is out of existence and is the unknowable but all pervasive presence called God, or whatever name is attributed to the inner mystery. The self is everything which can be named, described, visualised and conceptualised in worldly terms. The self has its function as the doer in existence. But unless an individual discovers through the living process something of value to serve, the direction the self takes will invariably be selfish and in revolt to the greater good. The self can only know itself and has no knowledge of the power and the glory beyond its comprehension.
Just as the fear of death creates the psychological impulse for self to drive into existence, the emotional force which gives substance to the body of self is sex. All self arises from sex and the absence of love in the world. Love is the power of original being. But to reach the surface of the world where it’s needed is difficult in these times because love, as it enters existence, is distorted and degraded by self, which is the unhappiness and discontent in everybody. The self detests love but will give the impression of being loving and concerned without revealing its true intent, or hold back from giving all in the exchange.
Most people consider their self through feelings which fluctuate and change like the weather. The self is an impostor which has skilfully hoodwinked just about everyone, as is demonstrated by the absence of profound knowledge of love and truth on the planet. Truth is unknowable, which is why it’s so rare but can be realised through love, the finest intelligence within the body. So what can be done to dismantle the hold of the self? Fortunately the solution is contained within the living process itself. When an individual has suffered enough, there’s a reciprocal impulse from within which reveals a knowledge that it’s now time to come back to me. My self, thank God, is not me. Me, as my spiritual master Barry Long revealed to the people of the earth, is the sweetness and innocence within the body which is recognisable whenever love is present and all is well with the world.