“An important law of the mind is that whatever we focus our attention on that we tend to become. Whatever we give our greatest attention to in life is the Divinity we aspire to become. The danger in fixating on the neurotic psychological self is that we may end up reinforcing it, we can get lost in its peculiarities, traumas and idiosyncrasies. We can give more power to the psychological self rather than dissolving it.
We should worship the true Self within us as the Self of all beings, as the Being behind all existence and the light of all the worlds. This vision can take us in an instant beyond our human problems, however insoluble and intractable these may appear. Our problems are inherent in our psychology which focuses on our personal identity as our true reality, dividing us from God, nature and each other. We cannot get beyond these problems without opening up to that in us which inherently transcends them.
We must learn to set the psychological self aside, which is also to see the universal forces, the elements and qualities at work within our bodies and minds, not simply to take our personal history or education as who we really are. All of nature works within us according to a sacred intelligence. Even our psychological self is an aspect of nature’s energy and expression, elements and gunas, not something that belongs uniquely to us.
Our psychological self has its place as a vehicle of expression and action for the soul in the physical world. But focusing on the psychological self as our true nature will no more take us to the eternal truth than will focusing on our physical bodies. We can grant the psychological self its appropriate place in our outer lives as a mechanism of personal existence but should not confuse it with our true reality which is beyond time, space and person.
Discover your greater Self in all of nature, in the plants, rocks and animals, in the clouds, stars, galaxies and beyond. Honor yourself. Respect your being. Acknowledge your integrity as an eternal soul.”
(Excerpt from Inner Tantric Yoga by David Frawley)