Why are you unhappy?
Because 99.9 percent
Of everything you think
And of everything you do,
Is for yourself—
And there isn’t one.
--Wei Wu Wei
A friend of mine sent me this Taoist diddy. He sincerely believes that if I would accept the wisdom of W3 all would be well with M3.
No Self, eh? There may be many false Selves, or pretend Selves, much that is not your Self, but there is a one-of-a-kind Self that was created by God and one day will stand before Him, where, as St John writes, this Self will be given a new name, written on a "white stone." (Revelation 2.17) If there is no Self (no ‘I’) then there can be no new name, just an absorption into the Spirit, so that the I that I think I am is actually…God?
That’s the ticket! I AM GOD!
Isn’t that the goal of all man-made religions, to exalt oneself or the corporate self (depending on your religion of choice) to the Throne of Heaven? Wasn’t this the intent of Lucifer: “I shall ascend to the heavens”?
Anyway, if there is no Self, then what of Jesus’ Self: is He now merely absorbed into the great chain of being? How do we pray in His name, and how is it that He is praying for us, as the writer of Hebrews tell us that He is, if He had/has no Self? And, speaking of Hebrews, what of “the great cloud of witnesses”? How are they “witnessing”, if there is no they-ness?
If I kill the Self—to Buddhism, the source of all dissatisfaction and suffering—then I also kill the Self that is to love God and others, don’t I? And what of Christ’s admonition to love others as we love ourselves? If there is no Self, why would Jesus tell me that I needed to love myself? Certainly we need to kill selfishness, but not the Self.
This is entirely anecdotal, but most people I know who are always harping on losing the Self, seeing that there is no Self (who is it, then, that is doing the seeing?), killing the Self, whatever, are usually turned inward on their Self, so that their Self-Denial is actually a Self-Focus, and, so, a form of Self-Pride: what Cardinal Ratzinger referred to as an “auto-erotic spirituality.” (Man is that a long sentence.) By the way, many Christians fall into this category.
You can see this Self-Focus in comparing Christian art with the art of Buddhism and other such Self-Denying religions. (Yes, I know there are differences between Taoism and Buddhism.) In the art of Buddhism, Buddha and those who follow his philosophy most always have their eyes closed, looking inward, while Christian saints are most often depicted as looking upward at Someone Else.
While my friend thought that my struggles and challenges were due to my thinking I had a Self, Christianity teaches that God sent Jesus Christ to redeem and restore the Self of any person who would believe in Him. So, whatever it is my soul needs, it will be found in giving my Self to Him, not in denying that I have one to give.
Or so I believe.
Copyright, Monte E Wilson, 2008
