Sacrifice Your Self To Your Own Cause - A Path Towards Enlightenment

"Sacrifice your self to your own cause" - this is my motto. One of them, anyway. It is a motto for one seeking the Higher Self. It's a path I've been on for 20 years, and I'd like to share it with you.

First off, the "self" is not talking about your body or your life. This does not mean to end your life or mutilate your body. Quite the opposite, its about really living your life with real meaning and purpose - your purpose. The self is the attachments of the ego. Note I didn't say the self is the ego - we all need an identity in this world. Its the attachment to things you do that aren't on your path to betterness.

"Your own cause" - this is what you really believe in. It concerns your ideal self, who you could be if you could be anything. But in order to be a legitamate path to betterness, it has to be based on what you really want. Not what your ego wants. Not what you've been told you want. Not what you've been programmed by society to want. What your soul wants.

Now many of you have different things you believe in concerning what's at the next level of consciousness, or you may not believe in the soul at all. What I believe in is the Higher Self. It is the soul, it is your guardian angel, it is who you are really talking to when you pray to God. It is the part of your being that is connected to you through the inside, above mind consciousness, outside of the realm of space and time, that understands where you've been, has an idea about where you're headed, and has the answers to those questions like "Why am I here?" or "Does life have a purpose?". I will tell you that your life does have a purpose, but everyone's purpose is different. Unique. That's why you need to contact your Higher Self if you want to know the answers. That is where you find your cause.

When you find your cause, it resonates within you, and it becomes self-evident what is important and not important. You may already have some kind of connection to it. It makes you feel genuinely good, even when there's no one around to talk about it to. Its a private joy, and it turns plain-old living into an amazing experience.

Sacrifice your self to your own cause. What am I attached to, that I know is not good for me? What am I attached to, that I have been told by someone else to want? The answers are different for everyone. I'll give you a recent example from my own journey. I know that my cause is to enjoy life, be a good parent, play & write music, and help teach others what I know well. Let me introduce a problem: I enjoy a beer or two now and then, but since developing IBS (irratble bowel syndrome), alcohol leaves me with the aftereffect of having a really hard time eating & digesting, for up to 10 days. I continued to drink in small amounts on some occasions; I love beer, and have been enjoying it for 20 years, at least. But even if I tried to take it easy, I still got sick. Finally, I opened my eyes to it: I am attached to drinking, but it isn't good for me. I sacrificed the part of myself that loves beer, for my own cause: being healthy and able to be a good parent. It's been 6 months, and I don't miss it one bit. (Well, maybe I miss Guiness a little.) In any case, I have not been sick in 6 months, and that just takes me closer to my ideal self that I'd like to be: happy, feeling good, and in touch with the big picture in my life.

This is probably the 200th sacrifice I've made in this journey. There is no real destination, but onward and upward. What I can say is, with every step I've taken towards my own cause, my life has improved, my enjoyment of live has improved, and coincidences and synchronicities start bubbling up everywhere. It's like you're in tune with the natural wavelength of life itself. Floating in an ocean.

The important thing is to recognize that there is a higher self inside of you that has a purpose for you, and its your self, it belongs to you and no other. You are unique and powerful, and a complete mystery unto yourself. Once you start removing the ego, the false programming about what you should want, stop caring about what others want you to do, you will find your path. Deep down inside, we all have the answers to right and wrong. We know what to do in our hearts. Often, we can't hear it because the mind programming is busy chattering away to us, dictating our lives to us. Take the steering wheel and go off road for a while.

Take want you really want from life - don't wait for someone to tell it to you. Stand up for your rights and the rights of others. It's time.

I agree with everything you just said, I thought it was clear and very insightful.

Thank you for putting this out there.

In my belief it takes a second agreement to move a mountain, and I gladly would add my "second", or voice that what you have said is a direct truth.

Cheers!

This is a beautiful and very helpful message, thank you for sharing it!

Treespeaker
I agree with everything you just said, I thought it was clear and very insightful.

Thank you for putting this out there.

In my belief it takes a second agreement to move a mountain, and I gladly would add my "second", or voice that what you have said is a direct truth.

Cheers!

Thanks for your support. We all need to work together, because humanity itself is on a path, and it is our path. We still get to influence the future. Sometimes, with all the bleak news and insane events out there in the "real world", it gets to feeling dark & cloudy in the forecast. But I am determined to do what I can to keep the light on. After all, my kids are just starting to live their lives; we need a positive message for them, because being a kid these days can be pretty overwhelming.

How positively non-New Agey of you TTTommy! To suggest that personal advancement and growth sometimes means genuine loss and sacrifice, not just vapid imagining and pretending and hoping.

Your comments put me directly in mind of a portion of the Havamal, a Norse poem regarding the various sacrifices that the god Odin made for his individual wisdom and power ... particularly regarding his achievement of the Runes:

137.
I trow I hung on that windy Tree
nine whole days and nights,
stabbed with a spear, offered to Odin,
myself to mine own self given,
high on that Tree of which none hath heard
from what roots it rises to heaven.

138.
None refreshed me ever with food or drink,
I peered right down in the deep;
crying aloud I lifted the Runes
then back I fell from thence.

Source

reply to post by TwoTonTommy


Thank you for sharing that. I agree with everything you said. It gave me hope that not everyone is lost in this world. I needed something positive today, and that was it.

Gryphon66
How positively non-New Agey of you TTTommy!

To suggest that personal advancement and growth sometimes means genuine loss and sacrifice, not just vapid imagining and pretending and hoping.

I agree. Many new-agers fall into the trap of being arm-chair adventurers. They're missing out on a lot of the fun. If they'd step out of their comfort zone a little, they'd find that the hardest challenges in life produce the most powerful results when overcome.

BTW, nice poem, and I love the Kallisti apple in your avatar; I'm a big fan of Robert Anton Wilson, and even got to go over his house once for mac & cheese by one of my above-mentioned synchronicities. The shame was, I was so in awe over meeting him, I couldn't think of anything intelligent to say. If I could turn back time, I'd definitely ask him a few more things.

Good Thread for those who have BIG Ego's. Everyone has somewhat of an ego and that really shouldn't get in the way of what you want to achieve in life and living life in general. Just my opinion.

reply to post by TwoTonTommy


In agreement. My respects.

reply to post by TwoTonTommy


You had pasta with RAW? Amazing. I would probably have sputtered and beamed as well. I remain in awe of many of his ideas. The Apple is, for me, one of those multi-phasic symbol-sigils that just keeps unfolding with new little treasures. -- chaotic, Celtic, Greek, Norse, did you know there's always a star in the core?

I hope I didn't seem too disparaging toward our friends in the New Age; I can respect a desire to emphasize the positive, I've just always found myself most often in the Shadowlands, even if I might prefer the Summer Kingdom. And as far as "ego" goes, it may be problematic when it inflates, but, it yet remains our Vessel for the moment. The ego doesn't need to be suppressed or destroyed, it needs to be integrated. I really like how you wove in threads of seemingly disparate flavors in your presentation (really resonant on many levels, I might add) ... did a detect a hint of Crowley above?

Gryphon66
reply to post by TwoTonTommy

 

You had pasta with RAW? Amazing.

I would probably have sputtered and beamed as well. I remain in awe of many of his ideas. The Apple is, for me, one of those multi-phasic symbol-sigils that just keeps unfolding with new little treasures. -- chaotic, Celtic, Greek, Norse, did you know there's always a star in the core?

I hope I didn't seem too disparaging toward our friends in the New Age; I can respect a desire to emphasize the positive, I've just always found myself most often in the Shadowlands, even if I might prefer the Summer Kingdom. And as far as "ego" goes, it may be problematic when it inflates, but, it yet remains our Vessel for the moment. The ego doesn't need to be suppressed or destroyed, it needs to be integrated. I really like how you wove in threads of seemingly disparate flavors in your presentation (really resonant on many levels, I might add) ... did a detect a hint of Crowley above?

I had met a nice girl in Santa Cruz and spent the night chatting. The subject turned to books, and I said "You've got to read Illuminatus! by Robert Anton Wilson." She responded, "You mean Bob? I'm over at his place every Thursday where we listen to Ulysses on tape. You want to meet him?" That was 15 years ago. Prometheus Rising remains one of my biggest all-time influences.

I tried to destroy the ego back in the early days, but it makes living in the modern world exceedingly difficult. I ended up deciding to go slower, and just take one step at a time instead of trying to cram all of enlightenment into a handful of years.

And yes, there is a hint of Crowley in my experience. He had an excellent grasp on some of the esoteric sciences of Will, Higher Self, etc. I have put my feet in the water of many different systems, and tried to get to the core truths that unite them all. That's one of my guidelines - how well does an idea fit in with the other sources I trust. Ultimately, it comes down to trusting my gut, and sticking with what works as verified by my own personal experiences. Like RAW was always saying, "Is this useful to me?"

As far as the apple, I just noticed the star thing the other day. Pretty cool. If you check out the movie Thrive, there is an excellent discourse about natural geometry, the torus, and the shapes of fruits, as well as other things.

reply to post by TwoTonTommy


Good for you man. Have you tried fasting? A ten-day brown rice fast can do wonders. I try to fast a couple of times per year. It's hard to find lengths of time but its worth it. It makes meditation a snap and its very healthy when done right.

You got a good motto. The kind that can help you keep your head on straight when you meditate enough to learn how malleable identity really is.

BlueMule
reply to post by TwoTonTommy

 

Good for you man. Have you tried fasting? A ten-day brown rice fast can do wonders. I try to fast a couple of times per year. It's hard to find lengths of time but its worth it. It makes meditation a snap and its very healthy when done right.

You got a good motto. The kind that can help you keep your head on straight when you meditate enough to learn how malleable identity really is.

edit on 14-12-2013 by BlueMule because: (no reason given)

I've never tried anything but a 2-day juice fast, and that was a long time ago. I'll have to put it on the list. I am working on eliminating toxins from the diet, GMO's, etc. What we ingest definitely affects us quite a lot.

TTTommy:

I'm wondering, in your conception of the Soul/Higher Self/Guardian Angel, if you see a hierarchy and if so, what is the measure of that scale, i.e. does the system function like:

Soul - ? -->

Ego - identity -->

Self - desires and attachments, societal expectations, programming ...

or is there another schema that you think fits the bill better. Also, is the Soul an entity in its nature or a source of (energy, power, spirit, "soul-stuff") for the system of being, a sort of "primum mobile."

I run into issues, in my own mind, with the terminology used in these discussions. Terms which arise from religion, philosophy, psychology, etc., seem inadequate to contain the multi-phasic concepts and experiences garnered from my own Inner Work. For example, in one of my conceptions, there seems to be a "psychic field" which has all the properties of a thick viscous fluid in which certain structures form (in appearance not unlike amoeba or jellyfish) that also serve as centers or nexi of what Jung would have called complexes. The Ego, in this conception, is merely that which represents the "survival of the fittest" from among the complexes, as it absorbs these other "essences" (which can be fears, beliefs, neuroses) into it's own framework (but is also changed by them).

Hmmm ... that may have been TMI. At any rate, cheers!

Gryphon66
TTTommy:

I'm wondering, in your conception of the Soul/Higher Self/Guardian Angel, if you see a hierarchy and if so, what is the measure of that scale?

I've studied a lot of different systems, and Ego seems to be a word that is used for multiple different things. When I say Ego, what I am talking about is the description of ourselves that we live by. "I am a mechanic" "I am a father" "I am helpful to others", etc. The version of Ego I use is from the works of Carlos Castaneda, which is where I base a lot of my framework from. Basically, the Ego is who we think we are in respect to others in human society. The Ego is not real at all, has no basis in the real or spiritual world - it is just a temporary construct of the Unconscious, in order to promote survival. That is different than the Conscious Self. Our Conscious Self is real, as a human, as a living being; our Conscious Self is the real part, our Ego is the fake part superimposed over it. In the language of RAW, the Ego is the map, the Conscious Self is the territory.

In addition to the waking body, on a parallel level with it, is the Dreaming Body or Double. I believe it is the same as the Astral Body. I believe when we dream we are in the Dreaming Body, and that things can be accomplished with the Dreaming Body in the dream world as well as the real world if you get to the point where you can bring the Dreaming Body into the real world.

I see in hierarchy at the base, the Waking Body and the Dreaming Body in parallel. Above that is the Conscious Self. Above that is the Unconscious Self, which is like the operating system. Above that is the Higher Self. And above that, God I guess, but there are likely more layers in between the Higher Self and God.

Is the Higher Self an entity, or a unit of energy borrowed for life? I think that was the gist of your next question. I tend to think of the Higher Self as the permanent part of me - that bodies and lives come and go, but the higher self is always there, in commonality with all of my lives past and future, simultaneously. I believe the Higher Self is outside of space & time, and it is "who we really are". I think life is just a game for the Higher Self. It is on a totally different dimension from us, but we are its offspring.

Going higher from that, I believe the higher self is just a cell in the body of God. Or possibly, a cell in the entity called "The Soul of Humanity", where we are all just sub-units of a greater entity common to all humans.

Parallel to the higher self, I have seen "helpers" or "gnomes". They were working to assemble reality for me behind the scenes, like a TV crew on a set that you never see on the screen, but there were like 5 or 6 of these little funny gnomes telling me how much work it was to "assemble a reality" for someone, but that's what they do all the time. In the interest of full disclosure, I had this experience in a hallucinogenic state, but afterwards I researched it and found it to be a consistent phenomena of shaman worldwide.

So, in summary, I see at the base level the Physical Self, then the Conscious Self (which is our consciousness), then the Unconscious Mind (the Ego is a mechanical construct of this level), then the Higher Self. Or like in the Lovers card of the Tarot, Conscious --> Unconscious --> Superconscious.

Also, when I speak of "higher", what I really mean is deeper inside, deeper into the depths from which mind arises.

Hope I was making sense; it can get confusing trying to sort out the multi-dimensional being that is a Modern Human. Also, this is just my experience of it. I don't claim to be some kind of guru or anything - just another guy on the path, trying to solve the mysteries of the universe.

Feel free to ask whatever you want, I love discussing this stuff! I wish more people were interested in exploring the depths. Thanks for your comments!

I have yet to find any "system" that is not severely limited by its own parameters, and I'm just innately resistant to limitations. (a la a "better to reign in hell than serve in heaven" kind of rebelliousness/individuality). That's why I am teaching myself to avoid hierarchical structures in my own practice unless I am fully and consciously aware of using them as "semantic mechanisms" or what I think of personally as "tech" or "praxis" ... a given system of definitions, terms, logical structures, meanings, and (and this is the tricky one for me) beliefs that are intentionally designed to produce certain effects.

As the Tao Te Ching comments, I try to oscillate between the One, the Two and the Ten Thousand Things with as much aplomb and elan as I can manage. I always try to realize that ideas like unity, multiplicity, objective, subjective, real, imaginary, concrete, abstract and absurd are not demarcation points on a spectrum (unless that paradigm is useful to me at the time) but are instead more like ... musical keys or artistic media or scatter-graphs ... one can wallow in the bliss of Oneness or struggle in the hard streets of Multiplicity or crown one's chakras with Rationality or dive into the depths of the Collective Unconscious ... as needed.

Your mileage will vary. Sometimes the Magic works, and sometimes it doesn't.