The Appropriate Self


A man in search of truth once noticed that, in his room, all objects were only apparencies because of the refection of light. To find his way closer to truth and Source, he determined to investigate the source of this light business. So he unscrewed the bulb in his room, and felt around in the socket with his fingers to find out what was going on in there. His body convulsed when 110 volts of alternating current ran through it and started eating his nervous system for breakfast. Naturally, being philosophically inclined, he wondered where he had gone wrong, and what lesson he should learn from this painful experience.

The lesson was that of the appropriate self. While his exploration did bring him closer to the generating power behind the light, he would have been well advised to explore this realm attached to a more appropriate identity. Instead, he chose a self -- the body -- which was geared to resist the very nature of the reality he explored with it. This is like wearing a leisure suit into the Arctic.

Explore realities without number; but first, seek selflessness. For every level of form which is there in creation to discover, there is a level of identity with its creation. Playing in traffic as a paraplegic, rather than as a driver or as a city engineer, defeats the purpose of integration and makes for rough times on the path. Seek selflessness and the appropriate self. As you are free to have whatever self you can imagine, prefer with courage those self-patterns which will add harmony to existence.

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