‘The true self is above and beyond the ego. It is part of the universal whole, the indivisible and eternal Unity.’ Photo: Kristian Strand on Unsplash
Having a word with yourself: Rosemary Brown to the letter
‘It is much used because it is much loved.’
There are more than a billion English speakers in the world, and yet there is one simple word that has a different meaning for every one of us. It is composed of a single letter, but that letter is a capital. Its place in the alphabet is between H and J. It is what each of us uses to refer to themselves.
In Latin, the word can be translated as ‘ego’. That perhaps gives us some warning about its use. And it is much used because it is much loved. It is often the very first word of a sentence: it takes pride of place.
Often it introduces some piece of information which the speaker or writer is indeed proud of: achievements, possessions, books read, famous acquaintances… The letter after H has a marked tendency to parade itself in a favourable light. It has three reliable relations always at hand to provide support: me, my and mine. Together, they have an insatiable demand for recognition and praise.
Our little word is by no means a one-armed bandit, however. It frequently has an equally-powerful shadow side, and this manifests as self-pity. Oh, how many problems the poor self has faced and still faces in its life. It is full of its own woes. The mind can run round and round within itself, increasingly self-ish and resentful. In this mode, the self is seeking sympathy, while turning blinkered eyes to the suffering of others.
In some religious practices popular in the past, an attempt was made to focus on one’s own faults and do penance, but even then the mind was looking inward to the self.
A mystic might look at the whole issue within a wider spiritual context.
The true self – which may be called the soul or that of God within everyone – is above and beyond the ego. It is part of the universal whole, the indivisible and eternal Unity. It has nothing to assert or prove, and nothing can hurt it.
The false self, which sees itself as separate and embattled, can cause us to lose sight of the Truth.
Mysticism offers us a useful metaphor of each life being like a wave in the ocean. This wave emerges from the sea, and can be seen as ‘a wave’, but it has no existence separate from the ocean. In time it merges back into it.
We are not ‘other’ from the rest of creation and we will be happier and more peaceful when we accept this. The ninth letter can go back into the alphabet with its twenty-five siblings.
Comments
I
I’m the fluid letter. I began as a small blot but I grew in size and gained sides. I changed shape and was called a BLOB. But when I found all those other shapes and I pulled my sides in they welcomed me and I became a Friend.
By AndrewF on 27th January 2022 - 20:48
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