| |
Spiritwalk
On Self Realization
Contents
The True Self

The True Self
"It is not humility to insist on being someone that you are not.
- It is as much as saying that you know better than God
- who you are and who you ought to be.
- How do you expect to arrive at the end of your own journey
- if you take the road to another man's city?
- How do you expect to reach your own perfection by leading somebody
else's life:?
- His sanctity will never be yours;
you must have the humility to work out your own salvation in a darkness
- where you are absolutely alone...
- And so it takes heroic humility to be yourself and to be nobody but
the man,
- or the artist, that God intended you to be.
- You will be made to feel that your honesty is only pride.
- This is a serious temptation because you can never be sure
- whether you are being true to your true self or only
building up a defense
- for the false personality that is the creature of your
own appetite for esteem.
- But the greatest humility can be learned from the anguish
- of keeping your balance in such a position:
- of continuing to be yourself without getting tough about
it
- and asserting your false self against the false selves
of other people."
Thomas Merton, The New Seeds of
Contemplation, New Directions Publishing Co. 1961, p. 100-101

-
[Return to Spiritwalk Archive
or Library]
[Search Spiritwalk]

Home Contents
Newsletter Library
Archive Bookstore
Brochure E-mail Mailing
List
© Spiritwalk
|