TO BE AND NOT TO SEEM

TO BE AND NOT TO SEEM

The lower self, all lower selves, they think they are important. They really overrate themselves enormously. It is divorced from reality. The lower self is totally unimportant and imagines it is the centre of the universe. – Robert Burton

A young man ran into an acquaintance after many years. No sooner had they exchanged polite greetings than the man launched into a long diatribe. He spoke of how his privileged position was very fortunate and how his friends in high places came forward to help him when he was hospitalised during the pandemic.

Lewis Carroll said, “I will not talk about myself. It is not a healthy topic.” The young man spoke at length about himself and created his identity around how big he was in the world. The lower self in all of us is a very inflated creature and its existence is built on imagination.

Walt Whitman: ‘The best of me, when no longer visible.’

When one joins the School, one’s station in life is simply not important. Robert Burton in the book, ‘Self-Remembering’ said, ‘The greatest requirement of school is for each person to be true to himself. To do this, one must sacrifice the irrelevant.’

It takes years of effort for the steward to recognise and peel away the superfluous. The lower self believes its lies and is convinced it is real.