TALKING TO YOURSELF

Talking to Yourself

How many times do we find that we are talking to ourselves? We catch us, others catch us, and we're having some sort of inner dialogue. The word "dialogue" vs. monologue are based in Greek. Dia meaning two, mono means singular. So obviously, there's more than just one in there having this little chit chat.

Sometimes we argue with ourself. Sometimes we try and convince ourself of something. Sometimes we remind ourself over and over again how stupid that thing was that we did, or about to do. Well, it's important to know who's doing the talking. Sometimes it's a conversation between little self (ego), and our Higher Self (Divine). The main noticeable difference is that the ego will shout at us ... and the Spirit will whisper in a still small voice. Most times though, we end up paying more attention to the ego than to the Spirit.

It's like that old cartoon image of the devil dressed in red with his trident on one shoulder, and the angel in white with a harp on the other shoulder. Battling it out with your head caught in the middle. How many times do you have that feeling? How nice it would be to step back and let them have at it ... but the problem is ... they're BOTH us.

People will say things like "he's dealing with his own demons." And this just reaffirms the battle is not flesh and blood ... but within us as the unseen forces of good and evil as extremes, with equally unlimited polarities between the two. Interestingly enough, the word demon comes to us from the Latin daemon "spirit," and from Greek daimon "deity, divine power; guiding spirit, tutelary deity." The meaning in the modern day is an evil spirit, a messenger from hell, etc. So given the ancient meaning, the battle is Spirit ... unobservable and taking place within us.

Good (God/Source), is Divine, and will always have the edge over bad. Simply because "bad" is the destroying force, and "good" is the creative force. Good is the Truth. Bad is the illusion. But we need BOTH in order to compare and discern. Once we get it, the bad dissipates. If we don't get it, we repeat it until we do. It's the difference between knowingness, and ignorance. Ignorance, is essentially sin. Sin in the Greek is "hamartia" and means "missing the mark." The mark of Truth. It's what we aim for, and when we miss, we sin. So what do we do? We keep practicing until we can hit the bullseye every time. When we eventually learn to do the thing that's right, the things that are wrong dissolve away into the illusion that they are. They are only here to help us learn to raise our consciousness.

Say you're walking down the street and you catch a reflection of yourself in a storefront window. You can see yourself, see what you look like, see what you're wearing, but you now know that it is not really you. This is the awareness of yourself that you learned as a child. The real you - is the one who is looking. This is also true spiritually. As St. Frances once said ... "What you are looking for, is what is looking." Once you come to the realization that the reflection is an illusion, you no longer have a need for it and you have learned the Truth. This is the same for your lower-self, and your Higher-Self. Pay closer attention when you're talking to yourself. There are messages from within that are meant to be heard BY YOU.

Just a thought ...

~Justin Taylor, ORDM., OCP., DM.