T. 31. V. 1 – 5. Jesus: “The learning of the world is built upon a concept of the self, adjusted to the world’s idea of reality. It fits it well! For this an image is that is well suited to a world of shadows and illusions.
Here in the world, the image of you walks at home, where what it sees as its ‘reality’ is one with it! The development of a ‘concept of the self’ is what all the learning of the world is for. This is its purpose; that you come without a self, and build one up as you go along. And by the time you reach ‘maturity,’ you have perfected it to meet the world on equal terms, at one with its demands of you!
Any ‘concept’ of the self is made by you! It bears no likeness to your true self at all. It is but an idol, made to take the place of your reality as Son of God. The concept of the self the world would teach is therefore not the thing that it appears to be. For it is made to serve two purposes, but one of which the mind can plainly recognize.
The first of these presents the ‘face of innocence,’ the aspect seemingly acted on within the world. It is this face that smiles and charms and even seems to love, as it searches for companions for support. At times it looks with pity on the suffering in the world, and sometimes even offers solace. This concept of yourself believes, that in an evil world, only it is what is ‘good.’ This aspect can grow angry, though, for the world is wicked and unable to provide the love and shelter that such innocence deserves. And so this face is often wet with tears, subject to injustices the world accords to those who would be only ‘generous and good.’
This aspect of the self-concept never makes the first attack. But every day a hundred little things make small assaults upon its innocence, provoking it to irritation, and at last to open insult and abuse! The face of innocence, which the concept of the self so proudly wears, can tolerate its own attack on others as its ‘self-defense.’ For is it not a well-known fact that the world deals harshly with ‘defenseless’ innocence? No one who makes a picture of himself omits this face, for he thinks he has need of it.
The other aspect of his self-concept he does not really want to look upon! Yet it is here the learning of the world has actually set its sights, for it is here the world’s ‘reality’ is laid for you, to see to it the idol lasts. Beneath the face of innocence is the more enduring lesson, the one that the concept of the self was actually made to teach.
It is a lesson in a terrible displacement of guilt, concealing beneath it a self-condemnation so devastating that the face that smiles above it must forever look away, lest you come face-to-face with the treachery it hides! The lesson teaches this to all who will listen: ‘I am the thing you have made of me, and as you look on me, you stand condemned because of what I am.’
On this conception of the self the world smiles with approval, for it guarantees the pathways of the world are safely kept, and those who walk on them will not escape!”
>>> A concept of myself is not my reality. Today I will be watchful, and at the slightest sign of pretense or of blamefulness in my mind, I will but pause, choose once again, and let the Holy Spirit lead me from ‘self-concept’ back to Self!