Connecting To Our True Self

From many of the spiritual books I have read of late, I have come across the concept of our True Self. Of course the idea that we have two selves, our ego based self, and an inner True self are not new. Years back I remember the modern mystic Vernon Howard speaking often about learning to live from our inner or True self. The idea that there is an inner self which can only respond with unconditional love and wisdom strikes a chord of Truth within myself. By practicing the ancient spiritual teaching of self observation, I am able to observe my ego based self in action in a calm, yet detached manner. It is amazing and often shocking to see some of my daily behavior from such a detached impersonal perspective. Hidden motivations for acts I performed became appallingly obvious, and it truly was a shock to discover that many of my altruistic deeds were done for selfish reasons.

It's not that our ego is necessarily evil in and of itself, we obviously have one for a reason. It is when the ego ceases to be the tool it was meant to be, and we identify with it that our problems begin. Our True self on the other hand is who we truly are, our uniquely divine inner spark that remains ever bright behind all the dark clouds of ego consciousness. Sometimes we have such enlightening moments when the ego clouds dissipate long enough for us to catch a glimpse of our True self, and we are able to respond to situations with grace and compassion. We feel connected to our divine wisdom and inner peace ensues.

It would appear that the basis of all the great spiritual traditions is to assist us in reconnecting with our True self. By practicing impartial self-observation we can see ourselves as we actually are, and not as we fancy ourselves to be. This is actually not a negative act at all, for once we shine the divine light of self observation on our dark actions, they dissipate. Of course the subject of our True self is far deeper and has many more facets than I could ever hope to cover here. There are many wonderful authors such as Vernon Howard, Guy Finley, and Sydney Banks who can start you on your path to discovering your True self. The best part of all is that you don't have to look anywhere outside of yourself, you have had it all along!