The Self: Relative and Absolute

The Self: Relative and Absolute Spiritual awakening is and always has been about self-discovery. Spiritual practice, to a large degree, is about learning to master the challenging art of differentiating between the many dimensions of your own self. This is no easy task. For all but the rarest among us, our sense of self, our experience of subjectivity, is so close to the eye of awareness that we find it difficult to gain enough distance to make these all-important and liberating distinctions. Indeed, although we experience our sense of self changing from one moment to another, we rarely understand what is actually happening. When we experience deep states of meditation, for example, we may taste the primordial freedom of the timeless ground of Being, and find our sense of self engulfed in fathomless peace and bliss. In the same way, in moments of powerful spiritual inspiration, we may become so overwhelmed by the ecstatic urgency of the evolutionary impulse that we unselfconsciously experience that passion and energy as our own self. But sooner or later we may fall back into a more familiar, unenlightened, personal sense of identity. And throughout all of this, we are just aware of the rise and fall of different emotional, psychological, and spiritual states. What we do not realize is that we are actually shifting between different dimensions of our own self. If we aspire to consciously evolve, it is essential that we cultivate an objective interest in who we are and how we are, and this kind of discrimination and self-inquiry requires spiritual inspiration and enormous effort. Without it, no matter what higher potentials we may awaken to, we will likely remain lost in the existential confusion and subjective drama of our ever-changing inner experience. I cannot overemphasize how important it is to know how to discriminate between the different dimensions of who we are. Even though we may be familiar conceptually with the internal universe, it is a rare individual who is spiritually developed enough to actually possess direct experiential knowledge of its multidimensional nature. And it is an even rarer individual who can navigate this challenging territory with the maturity of evolutionarily enlightened awareness. * * * Teachings of enlightenment, whether traditional or evolutionary, present us with a unique way of thinking about and understanding who we are. What makes an enlightened perspective different from any other perspective is that it emphasizes the significance of those dimensions of self that are non-relative, or "absolute." What does "absolute" really mean, for human beings like you and me? For most of us who have grown up in a secular culture, almost every way we are accustomed to thinking about ourselves could be called relative. For example, we tend to think of ourselves as individuals with a unique personality based upon some combination of our psychological experience, our ethnic identity, our cultural background, our gender, and our personal strengths and talents. Some of us even base our fundamental sense of self on our shortcomings, weaknesses, or misfortunes. While these are real and valid aspects of ourselves, they are all relative because they are only partial. There is, however, another dimension altogether upon which we can base our sense of identity, a dimension that is radically different from all others because its very nature is non-relative or absolute. Absolute is a metaphor for that which is infinite, that which has no boundaries. If the spiritual impulse has awakened within you, and you find yourself compelled to become an enlightened person, then it is the non-relative dimension of your self that you are most interested in. But if you are not deeply committed to your own enlightenment, then knowingly or unknowingly, you are going to be invested in a relative or partial definition of self. And most importantly, you are going to be convinced that that is the whole of who you are. Just imagine for a moment: Who would you be and how would you be if each and every relative expression of your self was recognized to be only a small part of an infinitely bigger picture? * * * In traditional enlightenment teachings, awakening to that which is absolute is what liberates us from the existential prison of the relative self, or ego. Now, ego is a tricky term, because it is used by many different people in many different ways to mean many different things. The way I talk about ego is very context-specific. There are many other ways to look at ego, and these are valid within their own contexts. For example, a psychologist's interest in what ego is and how it works comes from a very different perspective than that of a spiritual master. My interest in ego is context-specific, and that context is Evolutionary Enlightenment. I use the word ego broadly to refer to that which is an obstacle to our individual and collective potential to evolve, that which is inhibiting our capacity to become enlightened men and women. And often, it is our conscious and unconscious attachment to different relative forms of self-identity that profoundly inhibits the process of spiritual evolution and enlightenment. So for the purposes of this discussion, we can say that "ego" is a shorthand for all the ways in which you are consciously and unconsciously identified with and attached to relative dimensions of self that are inhibiting your higher evolutionary development. The question of what ego is remains a complex and subtle subject. But anyone who is interested in any kind of spiritual enlightenment, including Evolutionary Enlightenment, will become very interested in this particular dimension of the internal universe. Enlightenment always has been and always will be about evolution beyond ego. Most educated people are, at least to some degree, familiar with the term "ego" and some of its many definitions. But those of us who are deeply interested in spiritual enlightenment find this subject an ongoing source of profound fascination and contemplation. As this book continues to unfold, we will explore many of the different faces and facets of the ego, both individual and collective, as they reveal themselves in light of the aspiration to evolve. You will only begin to appreciate how significant ego is in relationship to the seriousness of your spiritual aspiration to transcend it. Only to the extent that you have lived beyond the ego can you appreciate what an awesome obstacle it truly is. And the only reason I take ego so seriously is that the path and practice of Evolutionary Enlightenment is dedicated to creating a new world in the territory that lies beyond it. To be clear, in this territory, the ego does not cease to exist altogether. But our conscious and unconscious investment in and attachment to those dimensions of the self that inhibit our evolutionary potential has been released. Once again, the way that this occurs is through the transformative awakening to a dimension of self that is absolute. * * * In Evolutionary Enlightenment, there are two ways that one can awaken to a dimension of self that is absolute. As we explored in the opening chapters of this book, the first is found in the timeless, formless, primordial ground of Being. That deepest dimension of each and every one of us is what we discover when we have let go of thought, feeling, mind, time, and world. Remember, that is where we always were before the beginning, before the universe was born. The nature of the self, as timeless, formless Being, is experienced as radical, unconditional freedom. Freedom from being trapped in time and form—freedom from the mind and personality, freedom from everything that is relative, freedom from the whole world. That's why that deepest dimension of our own self is always so exquisite and delightful. Experiment with this radical release in the infinite depths of your own interior. Give yourself the freedom to experience the unconditional freedom of Being. Allow yourself to let go so deeply that you feel as if everything that happens within the realm of manifestation is incomparably mundane and even painful, in contrast to the profound lightness of being that is the deepest nature of your own unmanifest self. When you awaken to your absolute identity in the depths of pure Being, there is always a distinctive quality of radical immediacy to its liberating nature. Because there is no time there, you don't have to work anything out or solve any particular problems before you can access its glory. That deepest dimension of yourself has never been trapped in any of your problems. The moment you experience this infinite empty ground, that liberating immediacy is always there. Traditionally, this has been the source of enlightened awareness. Traditional enlightenment teachings call on us to transcend ego through shifting our deepest sense of identity to the Self Absolute that abides in and as the ground of Being. The foundation of Evolutionary Enlightenment is that same ground that is the final resting place and goal of traditional enlightenment. But Evolutionary Enlightenment doesn't stop there. It asks you to take another leap and to embrace a very different shift of identity—one that is equally profound but much more relevant to the life-conditions in which we find ourselves today. This is where we discover another dimension of self that is also absolute. In the new enlightenment, we recognize that the evolutionary impulse or urge to Become is also an absolute, non-relative dimension of who and what we are. That impulse, as I have described, is nothing less than the energy and intelligence that initiated the creative process and is still driving it right now. And in the same way that the nature of your timeless, formless self is absolute, there is nothing relative or partial or less than infinite about the cosmic desire to exist in and through time and form. Consider how this impulse manifests in your very own experience. It can be utterly overwhelming. The character of the evolutionary impulse is relentless ecstatic urgency. It is the non-relative Absolute expressed as an energetic compulsion to become. And it's a primordial drive that, once you awaken to it, will not leave you alone. As I've previously described, you can locate this impulse at every level of the self—from the physical drive to procreate, to the creative compulsion to innovate, to the spiritual urge to evolve. When that impulse manifests in the human experience, as either an inspired act of creative genius or a surge of spiritually illuminated wisdom or insight, it temporarily becomes who you are—what I call the Authentic Self of the individual. The purpose of this teaching is to create a receptivity within the self so that the evolutionary impulse can burst forth as who you are. And for this to happen, the ego must be displaced. In traditional mysticism, when the Absolute as the timeless, formless ground of Being, emerges in your experience, the ego falls into the background and what comes to the fore is infinite depth, overwhelming peace, inherent freedom, and profound clarity. In the same way, when you awaken to the Absolute as Eros, or the evolutionary impulse, the ego also falls into the background, but now what comes to the front is a liberated passion, fearlessness, courage, joy, and inspired readiness to evolve now. You directly experience your own self becoming a manifest expression of Eros in human form. In the new enlightenment, when you undergo this kind of shift of identity, the ego is displaced to a significant degree by the evolutionary impulse, and you find yourself animated by that same inspired energy and intelligence that initiated the creative process. Your very self-sense becomes infused with that cosmic passion and purpose and the expression of your personality becomes illumined by that spiritually enlivened consciousness. The goal of Evolutionary Enlightenment is for that creative impulse to become internalized, so that it is not just a temporary experience or a momentary source of inspiration, but your primary sense of self. You become that and that becomes you. Enlightened mystics bearing witness to the absolute nature of Spirit have long declared: "I Am That" In Evolutionary Enlightenment, as I've been describing, the "That" is not only the eternal ground of Being but also the evolutionary impulse. And it is the identification with That that awakens the Authentic Self and gives us the spiritual confidence and inspiration to do things we would otherwise not have the courage or audacity to do—too hemmed in by the inertia of our psychological fears and the unenlightened values and limiting perspectives of our shared culture. Once again, the Authentic Self is the evolutionary impulse mani­fest in and through an individual who has freely, consciously chosen to identify with that as self. The Authentic Self is the evolutionarily enlightened self. If you are evolutionarily enlightened it means that your ego—which once again means all the ways in which you are consciously and unconsciously identified with and attached to relative dimensions of your self that inhibit your higher development—has now been overshadowed by the blazing light of the evolutionary impulse. And this kind of awakening really does change who we are, because it transforms our deepest motivations. When you are identified with the evolutionary impulse, with your own Authentic Self, you will find yourself in touch with a sense of imminent, infinite, immediate higher potential. And when you are flying on the wings of the Authentic Self, it literally feels like anything is possible. In those moments, the energy and intelligence that is driving the creative process comes alive in your own consciousness as the awareness of infinite potential. The nature of the Authentic Self is always already spiritually motivated, turned on, tuned in, ready to respond to the radical immediacy of now. It experiences no fear, no doubt, no hesitation, no procrastination. Your Authentic Self is always already inspired and spiritually on fire. This is a new manifestation and expression of enlightened awareness. Once again, traditional enlightenment is the experience of consciousness beyond ego that is the natural result of awakening to the timeless ground of Being. The new enlightenment is the experience of ego-transcendence carried on the wings of the evolutionary impulse.