THE INNER GURU
Probably the wisest words ever inscribed in stone can be found at the entrance to the oracle of Delphi where ancient Greeks came to seek answers to problems in health, relationships and career - just three simple words: "Know Thy Self." Shakti Gawain once said, "The source of happiness comes from being connected to the higher self, or the spiritual self, within us. So you can visualize money and cars and new jobs and new houses and all sorts of things, and you can probably manifest them, if that's what you really want and need in your life. But of course you're going to discover in the process that what really makes you happy is the fact that you discover that you're a creative being. That's the joy, that's the fulfillment of the process. So as long as people are still hung up on the externals, they create a lot of disappointment for themselves. They either can't manifest what they want, or they manifest it and discover that it still doesn't bring them happiness. And, you know, sometimes you have to go through that for awhile. But eventually what it does, or what it did for me, is it takes you back to a sense that the process itself is what's really exciting -- the process of creation that we're doing every minute."
Idries Shah tells this Sufi story about the Mullah Nasrudin that explains why people search for happiness outside of themselves:
One day Mullah Nasrudin was seen on his hands and knees in front of his house, apparently searching for something. Some people came along and asked, "Mullah, what are you doing?" The mullah answered, "I have lost the key to my house." Everyone got down to help him, but they looked for some time fruitlessly. Finally, exasperated, someone said, "Mullah, just where exactly did you lose the key?" Nasrudin answered without bothering to look up, "I lost it inside the house." Astounded and feeling put upon, the person asked, "Then why are we looking out here?" The wise mullah answered, "Oh, it is very dark inside. There is much more light out here."
Thus people search for happiness outside of themselves in leisure activities, relationships and worldly success because they don’t want to deal with the darkness within. The darkness is the darkness of ignorance which covers up the true nature of their selves. Another term for this darkness of ignorance is the unconscious.
Psychotherapy tries to bring the light of conscious awareness on the unconscious aspects of our ego, those fragments of ourselves buried in the unconscious due to past trauma. Think of psychotherapy as an archeological dig and the ego as a broken pot we are restoring. In self analysis or psychotherapy, we uncover buried pieces of the ego, fit them together and integrate them with the glue of understanding until it is whole.
The more we are aware of our unconscious selves the more we can integrate these facets of ourselves and their positive qualities into our personality and thereby strengthen it. Freud saw the integration of the the fragmented ego as the highest goal of individuation. He completely refused to acknowledge the spiritual dimensions of the psyche. This was one of the reasons Jung eventually parted ways with Freud. Jung saw the integration of the unconscious selves, particularly the Shadow, as a step toward the ultimate goal of integration of the ego with archetypes, especially the archetype known as the God-image. To Jung, the ego is restored to wholeness so that it may be filled with the spirit of the God-image just as the restored pot can be filled with water.
I believe that Jung encountered his own God image in the form of a mysterious figure he called Philemon, who he said was like "a guru with a superior intelligence." Even though Jung thought that Philemon was a spirit guide, I think that it was indeed his higher Self or God image guiding him through the most difficult period in his life and establishing the basis for his life’s work.
Thomas Ashley-Farrand, in Healing Mantras, writes that the higher Self or Narayana "conforms to the devotion of each person. Thus when Narayana manifests, it is as the person’s chosen ideal... One person may see Krishna and another, Jesus." That may explain why, in near death experiences, some people see Jesus at the end of the tunnel and other people see other religious figures. Jung had no devotion to any religious figure. However, he did have a passion for Greek and Egyptian mythology and Gnosticism. So it’s not surprising that he described Philemon as "a pagan who brought with him an Egypto-Hellenistic atmosphere with a Gnostic coloration." Also he described him as an old man, and in Greek mythology, Philemon is the name of an old man who was blessed with immortality by Zeus.
The higher Self has many names: the God image, the permanent part of the soul, conscience, intuition, the inner guru or teacher, the upaguru, the real self, the true self, Narayana, the Christ Self, and part of the divine Self. Every major religion teaches the same basic truth that God dwells within. Thus, the higher Self of me is the same divine Self in every person and thing in creation. For example, Jesus told the Pharisees that "the Kingdom of God is within you"? (Luke 17:21) In the Gospel of Thomas he said further, "The kingdom is within and it is without. You will discover this if you come to know yourselves, and then you will realize that you are the offspring of the living source, but if you do not know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty and you are that poverty."
The fourteenth century Christian theologian and mystic Meister Eckhart wrote: "There is something in the soul that is so akin to God that it is one with Him. God’s seed is within us. There is a part of the soul that is untouched by time or mortality: It proceeds out of the Spirit and remains eternally in the Spirit and is divine....Here God glows and flames without ceasing, in all His abundance and sweetness and rapture."
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says to Arjuna "And when a man sees that the God in himself is the same God in all that is, he hurts not himself by hurting others; then he goes indeed to the highest path."
In The Zen Teaching of Huang Po we have "The One Mind ...(Universal Soul) is the Buddha and the Buddha is in all living beings. It is not the less for being manifested in ordinary beings, nor is it greater for being manifested in the Buddhas."
Hua Hu Ching wrote that "(The Tao) is always present and always available... If you are willing to be lived by it, you will see it everywhere, even in the most ordinary things. Worlds and particles, bodies and beings, time and space: All are transient expressions of the Tao."
Rabbi Schneur Zalman wrote that "Everyone who has insight into the matter will understand clearly that everything created and having being is as absolute naught with regard to the Activating Force, which is in all created beings. This force constitutes it's reality and draws it forth from absolute nothingness to being.
The Koran declares that "Wherever you turn, there is the Face of Allah" and that "He is with you wherever you are ..."
I could go on with quotes from other religions and cultures such as the Native American concept of wakan or spirit that exists in all things, but I think you get the point.
Two other universal concepts that are often associated with the higher Self are the secret chamber of the heart and the three-fold flame. The higher Self, even though it has been called the higher or superconscious mind or the "mind that was in Christ Jesus," actually dwells in your heart or the energy center that includes the heart. More specifically, the higher Self dwells in the secret chamber of the heart. The Mundaka Upanishad says that "the effulgent Self, who is beyond thought,...shines in the secret chamber of the heart." The cover of my book is one depiction of this secret chamber. It shows an eight-petaled lotus containing a three-fold flame with pink, yellow and blue plumes. The gold petals represent eight powers such as bilocation and seeing at a distance and the three plumes represent the God-qualities of Love, Wisdom and Power. This secret or hidden chamber has many names: Christian mystics called it "the sacred heart." In Hinduism, it is called the hrit padma chakra or eight-petalled lotus of the heart. In Chinese medicine, it is a nonphysical organ called the "triple burner" after the three-fold flame. The common expression "heart of hearts" refers to the secret chamber of the heart. When I say, "I know in my heart of hearts that you are telling the truth," I mean that through attunement with my higher Self in the secret chamber of my heart, I intuitively know you aren’t lying.
Why aren’t the concepts of the higher Self, secret chamber of the heart and three-fold flame taught in churches, temples and synagogues and why do some spiritual gurus insist that their disciples be dependent on them rather than on their own higher Selves. Well I think it all boils down to fear. Religious authorities and some spiritual gurus are afraid that if they allow people to listen to the voice of their own higher Selves rather than to their teachings or that of a well-defined orthodox hierarchy, they will start believing in things that are not part of the established dogma. And if they stray away from the straight and narrow path, they will go to Hell or miss out on enlightenment.
Now, I’m not saying that gurus and established religions are not needed. They are instrumental in guiding and teaching the soul through its spiritual infancy, childhood and adolescence. They prepare us for spiritual adeptship just as parents and academic teachers prepare us for adulthood. But there comes a time in the spiritual development of every person when he or she must leave the nest and test the wings of the higher Self. And the priest, minister, rabbi, or guru who stands in the way is an obstacle that must be overcome. Shel Silverstein in his poem "The Voice" wrote that,
There is a voice inside of you that whispers all day long,
"I feel that this is right for me. I know that this is wrong."
No teacher, preacher, parent, friend or wise man can decide
What's right for you - just listen to the voice that speaks inside.
Thomas James Hickey, in "The Way of the Higher Self," wrote "The purpose of every outer teacher and all external teachings is to introduce the Inner Teacher, the higher self of all, who is both the source and goal of...wisdom, power and love."
Thomas Ashley-Farrand wrote that "the true spiritual teacher knows that the upaguru is the teacher without form, the teacher within both student and spiritual guide. The true spiritual teacher knows that it is the upaguru that prods us to become seekers after truth in the first place, and that it is the upaguru which leads us to a qualified teacher at some point... So honor the teacher who may come into your life and be grateful for what you receive. But never forget that even the greatest teachers are merely servants of your own inner guru."
