Knowing Yourself.....in earnest

[Diana]

In doing metaphysical work you need to find your center. You need to find what you are living for and what you would die for.

We read this whole passage recently in my study group. The bolded above is the only part I don't line up with. I free this sort of perspective tends toward the martyrdom Ra speaks of. (Oh dear, I've ended two sentences with a preposition. .)

This certitude that arises not from the acquisition of knowledge or the demonstration of competency at some task, but of the authentic contact with the true self, this is a power unto itself.

I very much agree with this, based on my own experience since I was old enough to be aware of thoughts that can be expressed in words (hence, memories one can access; it is quite difficult to access pre-language memories). There is nothing wrong with the word power. I have always known I was a powerful being, and that all possibilities were open to me. This knowing, when I look back at childhood, helped me in every circumstance to withstand the challenges of this life.

I don't think that this certainty in the self is inimical to the humble nature. It is only the standing upon the bedrock. In this awareness, humility should be natural for the self, for in order to reach this deep interior, the self has disidentified from many of the most superficial of the illusory husks, that which would contribute to inflated personality. And there the self finds strength which, when known in the full integrity of the self, when pure in the whole heart, and when unmitigated by doubt or distraction, becomes unconquerable to the negatively oriented being; this not through any specific training, per se, but by virtue of the qualities inherent in the light of beingness itself.

I so agree with this as well. Put another way, this idea is that of the objective observer, who sees the stage on which 3D (or early 4D as the case may be) is played upon (the Significator of the Mind), but is simultaneously aware of the bigger picture. What that bigger picture is can be debated, and considering we live under a veil, there is presumably no definite answer. But the recognition of this acting here based on the ephemeral (which is no less important than anything else, as it is how we learn and evolve), when done from the vantage point of the eternal self, is an integration that does indeed lead to an understanding of a truer picture of this reality, thus, the recognition of "illusory husks." This can't be forced, as none of evolution can. But we can practice, which opens up possibilities in the mind, and can lead to true evolution.

It brought to mind the iconic scene of Gandalf on the bridge facing the Balrog. Knowing who he is, Gandalf declares himself and in so doing sets up a barrier beyond which the Balrog cannot pass.

I just love that scene. It indeed demonstrates this idea of the authentic self. And I will add to it my favorite quote of Gandalf's:

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

This line of Gandalf's I feel lines up perfectly with a Wanderer's purpose. Not to fix things here (that is not to say a Wanderer can't wish things were better), but to utilize one's uniqueness in service to this world (and that would be true of the STO or the STS path), and to try to move forward in that service no matter how difficult it is here. And the perspective of the observer, or eternal self, coupled with the usefulness of the self which is acting here (the Significator[s]), is a good balance to achieve in that effort.