My False Self

---

Work on your own personal salvation with fear and trembling in your heart.

It is God, with love as his only purpose, that puts will an action in you. Paul

In a previous post I made reference to the journey of finding my true purpose on this earth. The Greeks referred to this journey as finding my genius, my true essence. Steven Pressfield argues in his book, The War of Art, that this journey is spiritual in nature and reflects a pursuit for my creative side. As Pressfield states, it is a search for my soul.

Throughout our first phase of life, we strive to meet the expectations of parents, friends and society. This isn’t a bad thing. As I tell my kids, it’s life, get use to it. But something happens as you enter the second phase of your life. Something feels off. All of those layers you have built around your soul start to weigh you down. The pressure at times is unbearable. It’s the ego that your have built up over half a century that is off and you need to begin the painful process of peeling back all the layers, one at a time, to ultimately rediscover who you truly are.

Richard Rohr argues in his book The Enneagram, that our ego represents our false self, and the false self represents our original sin. To fully embrace the full potential that this life affords us, we have to reject our false self and rediscover who we are meant to be. Rohr would agree with Pressfield, it is a spiritual journey. Now, I am a religious man, which means I believe in God. I am not a practicing religious man meaning that I don’t go to church. As you may know from an earlier post, I distrust all institutions and organized religion is one of the biggest. Nevertheless, what Rohr argue resonates with me. It is a scary journey and threatens those closest to me, which makes it a more difficult journey. Regardless, it is necessary journey and one, which I am destined to follow. There is no turning back! My strides are slowly increasing in pace and my load is becoming lighter.

#Soul #Ego #Creative