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29 May 2017
How To Kill The "I"
Endura (definition)
The path of I-demolition, the path of the last golden death through the self-surrender of the "I" to the Immortal Man, the 'Christ in me'. It is the path of the Johannine man, 'who makes straight the paths. The endura is a voluntary 'dying' to realize True Life. It is putting into practice the words: "He, the heavenly Other One, must increase, and I must decrease, so that the heavenly Other One will live in me."
From Glossary - The Egyptian Arch-Gnosis, Vol III - Jan van Rijckenborgh
The "I" is who we are. It is built from the substances of this nature-order and is thus in complete harmony with this nature-order.
The "I" believes in the illusion that it is a separate entity, that it has no true connection with other "I"s.
The "I" will defend and protect its illusive separate existence to the bitter end. It considers all other "I"s to be a threat to its illusive separate existence unless those other "I"s are in complete agreement with it.
The "I" will never willingly consent to being eradicated, as the Universal Gnosis informs us must be done in order to move towards Transfiguration and Liberation. It will resist all attempts to eliminate its influence over the personality.
The Path of Return demands that the candidate who has awakened the Rose of the Heart must proceed to undergo the endura. The main purpose for this process of I-demolition is to make way for the New Man that is being born within the microcosm. But how does one effect this erasure of the "I" when the "I" is well aware of what is going on? The "I" is very cunning and will pretend to help one to walk the Path. If the candidate is not attentive, he or she will be deceived into thinking that they have accomplished the endura when in fact they have done nothing but subjected themselves ever more securely to the control of their "I".
Here is the best way to decrease the influence of the "I":
Focus on doing things for others, and not for yourself.
When you are unselfishly serving and helping others, you don't have time to think about your own worries, concerns or fears. Focus away from the self and inexorably, slowly, the influence of the "I" will wane. This is what lies behind the call to live a life of service-to-others.
To neutralize the self, focus away from the self.
~ g
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3 comments:
In truth, I read this at early break today and go great this is what i need to be doing and living....then later that day after 5 days of manual labour in a slave job I am put to the test and the tiredness and weariness takes its toll and my living in the Eternal Tao crumbles into living in the mire of a hateful I. Oh well putting this into reality is an ongoing struggle. Now I feel guilty of being hateful and angry, and not being the example that my I tries to tell me I can be.
Anonymous,
Don't be hard on yourself. Walking the Path in self-surrender is not easy, you're right. But be comforted by the fact that ALL who have walked this Path and ultimately succeeded have gone through the very same struggles. There will be stumbles along the way, no question about it. We are trying to effect a fundamental reversal within our microcosm. This pits us against habits of behavior that have been imprinted upon our microcosm for millions of years. So, yes, there will be challenges.
What's important is that we keep our shoulder to the wheel and continue in our attempt to live in non-attachment and neutrality.
Remember, we cannot control the actions of others, but we can control how we react to others. When we practice non-attachment, nothing that anyone says or does to us should be able to influence our emotional and mental states.
The other key to remember is that our "I" will not help us in this quest. That is why you blew your gasket today. When we let our "I" do the work the result is that tensions are developed and then suppressed. We may succeed in controlling one aspect of our behavior but it will only surface somewhere else, exploding with twice the ferocity.
We must resolve to allow The Other One that is growing within us to fight these battles for us. We must remain mindful of the Transformation that is taking place within our microcosm and, with longing and aspiration, always live with the fact that it is The Other One who must lead, not the "I". Our job is to stay out of the way, and to not get in the way.
Again, failure is part of this whole thing. You will continue to fail occasionally, but with less and less frequency, until you will look up one day and realize that the things that used to drive you (your "I") up a wall, no longer matter to you.
Stick to it, and do not berate yourself when you stumble. This happens to all of us who are on the Path, until we reach a point where the Other One exerts more influence over the personality than the nature-born "I".
As candidates on the Path, we are linked to the Living Body of the Gnosis. As such, we are provided at the start with everything that we will need to succeed in the Great Work. When we fail, it is our duty to examine what has taken place, understand why, learn the lesson, then place both feet firmly back on the Path and move forward with renewed confidence, certain of our ultimate success.
~ g
Driving home after blowing a gasket, a jeep with Christian messages/Bible quotes plastered all over it pulled up along side me at the lights. It would be rare to see such a thing where i live. I sat there reading them, thinking about them and the truth in the words and that there was no need to worry! Ride through the bumps. Thanks again.
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