Know ThySELF
by Rev. Cory Bradford-Watts
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Readings
Luke 9:1-6
When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.
Mark 16:15
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”
Read the written message below with music videos
The notion that we must die to ourselves “in order to live” is a striking one, uplifted by many Buddhist and Hindu Jnanis, as well as Christ. The idea might seem a bit negatively self-destructive at first, and yet many of us have probably noted that living primarily for our lower self is the truly destructive force in the world! The practical element of this wise request seems to be for us to watch our minds, letting go of desires and selfish thoughts as they come up, allowing our unity with God to shine through in the peace and intrinsic love within. This “brings us alive” and “wakes us up,” keeping us vigilant to the will of God(dess) and letting us finally know our true eternal selves – without the shackles and blinders of yearning, fear, false identities, and aversion.
In the Christian gospel, Christ asked his followers to start traveling the nations to share his good news. These were his ideas and parables meant to uplift love for all through “complete unity” in God (John 17:23), as well as his teachings that empower healthy modes of living that enable someone to find that love within (instead of being caught up in lust, wealth, vengeance, fame, and other desires and yearnings that stem from not knowing our true self).
Jesus not only tasked the wealthy that came to him to give up all they had to follow him, but also requested this of his disciples – sending them out into the world with “nothing.” (Luke 9:3) Much like a Buddha or a Hindu Atma-Jnani (a teaching sage), he was asking them to give up their earthly desires, to “pick up [their] cross and follow him,” which ultimately meant following their greater love – a love for all life found in the unity with God to be discovered within. Further, he tasked his followers to let go of their obsessive thinking, especially in regard to their history, future, shortcomings, and bodies – just like an Atma-Jnani. This letting go quiets the mind and leads one to discover the deep wisdom in the present moment and an awareness of the oneness of all creation and the presence of God.
Despite the words’ misdirection, Christ was showing us that true selflessness meant finding our Higher Selfishness – finding that Divine love within for God and for everything, which makes a one – a love for our Greater Self. As the mystic Swedenborg might say, being lower-case selfishness is a state of falsity, because that self, the one separate from God, doesn’t truly exist – only God exists. And worshipping that limited self, in other words, being selfish, turns us away from Higher Truth. Swedenborg writes that all seeming separateness between us is an appearance, which is why Christ writes, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity.” (John 17:22-23a) I believe that Christ points to eternal truths in these words: that we have always been one at our core and should discover that more fully.
But however you read his words, the task still remains: find unity, let go of everything and follow God. The hardest part about this request for most of us is that we often think that it’s asking us to literally give away everything! Or, as we’ve seen in many religions, often someone is highlighting these words in order to get us to follow their narrow definition of God – subject to their gatekeeping and approval. Weirdly enough, a spiritual approach makes this more digestible as it tasks us with starting within, with finding our deeper selves. Let go of all that you own, within. All the thoughts, all the attachments, all the fantasies about the future and deluded thinking about the past, and find the living God in the present moment, where she always is. Get to know thy Self, in the peace of meditative or prayerful quiet and open awareness.
In this state, when verbal and affectional thoughts come up and flow by, we start to see them for what they are: something we tend to have little direct control over, much like the rest of the world, even though when we identify with and follow them we feel as though they’re us. Our habitual reactions, thoughts, and desires are but aspects of our selfish and deluded imprisonment. Becoming aware that we are racked by these false ideas and inverted loves we’ve gathered, we start to pay less attention to our thoughts and limited conceptualizations about things and find freedom in peaceful awareness of whatever we perceive. In this light of peaceful awareness, we start to see that what we often call knowledge is a form of ignorance, the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil that takes us out of the Garden.
Furthermore, this type of recentering within centres us on the thing that all of us share at our core: the seat of watchfulness, the openness and ubiquity of awareness itself – the thing that watches all minds. Discovering this stable, shared aspect of ourselves can have a similar effect as finding out that an enemy is a long-lost sibling – or discovering that no one has to convince you that a loving God exists, you’re starting to know it.
Sit with yourself for a while, focusing on that part of you that never changes amidst a changeful mind – the light from God that is awareness. When false identifications pop up, typically in the form of conceptualizations about yourself, others, or things, just note that they are rooted in false ideas, that in truth you are one with God, with awareness, with all things, and the walls you’ve given yourself and others are imaginary.
Peace and care to you,
Cory