"Some form of suffering or death—psychological, spiritual, relational, or physical—is the only way we will loosen our ties to our small and separate self. Only then does the larger self appear, which we could call the Risen Christ, the soul, or the true self. The physical process of transformation through dying is expressed eloquently by Kathleen Dowling Singh, who spent her life in hospice work: “The ordinary mind [the false self] and its delusions die in the Nearing Death Experience. As death carries us off, it is impossible to any longer pretend that who we are is our ego. The ego is transformed in the very carrying off.” This is why so many spiritual teachers say we must die before we die.
Anything less than the death of the false self is useless religion. The manufactured false self must die for the true self to live, or as Jesus himself puts it, “Unless I go, the Spirit cannot come” (John 16:7). Theologically speaking, Jesus (a good individual person) had to die for the Christ (the universal presence) to arise. This is the universal pattern of transformation. "
~~Richard Rohr
The misery of whatever empty belief you're claiming is that it must be constantly tested, sustained, molded, updated, defended. There is an ongoing demand for consent, credibility, approval to somehow support that presumed personal position of knowledge or experience. There is a constant need to relate one's position to other positions, to compare one's own belief with different beliefs claimed by others in an attempt to impose one's own or to reach some compromise. Until then that belief is not swept away by some new and more suggestive belief that in turn needs to be defended, supported, claimed... without end, without ever achieving any actual stability, no permanent satisfaction, no imaginary approach.
~~Antonio Perrotta
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