Transformation of the lower self is essentially the release of an ugly, congealed mass of soul substance back into its flowing essence. Just as solid matter will, through the application of certain physical processes, dissolve into gaseous energy, so does the lower self—through the application of the spiritual practices of investigation, acceptance

Each time we meet and embrace a hidden part of ourselves— something that was rejected in childhood as unacceptable or bad—we create more inner unity. We become more alive by awakening from our numbness and self-rejection.

The fundamental agenda of the lower self is to convince us that we and life are bad, untrustworthy, and hopeless, so that we will maintain our defensive separateness and not surrender to the Life Force or God within and around us. Our negative intentions are an expression of our deepest fears that the lower self is our ultimate reality. That is why

As we name what is true without denial, we shift our identity from that which is being named to the namer. We become the observer, not that which is being observed; we become awareness, not the contents of our awareness. This gradual shift of self-identification lets us be less attached to and ashamed of the lower self and builds our grounding in t

Each of the stages of inner child, adult ego, soul, and God consciousness coexist at the same time in any adult person, whether or not they have been made conscious. The process of spiritual growth involves learning to anchor in the higher self while also honestly and lovingly accepting the other aspects of the psyche. For example, we may call on t

Our healing depends on just such a process of incorporating opposites. The competent adult steps aside and reveals the damaged child. The wounded victim yields to uncover the cruel perpetrator. Our spiritual path will lead us to embrace every pair of inner opposites, bringing out of the shadow whatever has been hidden away as unacceptable, mean, pe

This truth must not be used to put ourselves down when our lives are going badly nor to aggrandize ourselves when our lives are going well. It is easy to distort the idea of self-responsibility into blaming ourselves for the “bad” things in our lives, or taking credit for the “good” things. The creation of our lives is not a matter of ego blame or

When we dissolve our personal limitations, our expansion has an impact on everyone around us, in a ripple effect. Whenever any one of us makes the leap of expanding his personal boundaries, deepening his sense of inner security and safety to include more of life, then all of humankind expands. The evolutionary process of the species is furthered.

Spiritual evolution is the process of gradually expanding and integrating our experience of what it means to be human. As adults, we live most of the time within a very limited idea of who we are. Our minds are narrowed; our energy is held and compacted, or diffuse and unfocused. Our experience of life is constricted. In order to expand beyond our