US

Bill Shakespeare said that “The world is a stage and we are all players.” This is a fitting analogy because many people are acting through their “false self” or primarily through their ego. When we mature to the point where we have decided to be basically honest with our self and other people we reach the ground floor state of integrity. When we reach this state we have the courage to face the world pretty much as it is and not as we were pretending it to be to others. We are beginning to step out of our egocentrism or we are becoming aware of our self among others. We begin to see how our behavior affects others. We begin to live less in a state of duality. We are connecting our minds to our hearts. We begin to really love. We are awakening spiritually. We begin the road of illumination.

When we begin to tell our first lies as children we are beginning the formation of our false self or our selfish self or ego. The false self can develop into a delusional identity where we are playing, acting or pretending to be quite a different person than we really are inside our self. Other people will notice this about us. Many people do not realize that others notice this about them. We all know neurotic or suffering people who never grow out of their false self. Reaching integrity is really back-tracking inside our self with honesty to the point where we realize how we attempt to fool our self and others.

People who have not achieved basic integrity are living in a make-believe world. In their make-believe world they misinterpret the intentions, speech and actions of others as if others are purposely doing bad things to them and then they get revenge on the person in some way for what they made up about the person to begin with. We see this happening around us all of the time. This is what it means to be “out in left field.” This is being alienated from others. Mother Nature has ways of reaching people. We need to take time out for our self to work (purge) these problems out or the suffering will never stop. People who exist in the state of dis-integrity poison the environment for those around them. We all need to be like Snagglepus in the cartoons and “exit stage left” for a while and work on our self. We do this not only for our self but for the love of those around us as well.

When we begin to connect our mind to our heart through honest self analysis we then begin to realize more about our energetic connection with/to others and how our false self negatively affects others. The state of integrity is the beginning of the illumination of our path. This is the beginning of the spiritual journey that all traditions talk about. This is the universal journey. We live less in the state of duality when we begin this journey because our inner world is synchronizing with the outer world of reality or what really is. We begin to really love. The path of illumination is still wrought with false notions about the authentic developing self but the love that develops for the self and others will clear up these false notions with further honesty. We come to realize that we need to be honest about everything and to everyone because we are developing our authentic self for the love of us.

So on this stage of Mr. Shakespeare we wake up and examine our self because we actually are realizing what it means to really love us and not just pretend that we love us. We work and pray for what we want for us. We become walking prayers for everyone we meet and for the universe and the universe is good to us. As the Doris Day song goes:

Que sera, sera

Whatever will be, will be

The future’s not ours to see

Que sera, sera

What will be, will be

Heavens to Mergatroyd! I am going to be like Snagglepus and “exit stage right.”