Sacred
Fire
“You are
wondering how you can feed the sacred fire within: each day, throw
pieces of your lower nature onto it.”
Omraam
Mikhael Aivanhov
I have just discovered
the teachings of Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov. In this one, he says that we could not live in the world without our “lower nature,” so
the idea is not to stomp it out, but to use it as kindling for the
inner spiritual fire. Honestly, I was relieved to read this, since my
lower nature is pretty much in charge of most of my life. And, I
agree that there's no getting rid of it since it comes with the
territory of being homo sapiens—a warm-blooded mammal that has
retained it's reptilian brain. We can attempt to rise above
selfishness, greed, anger, manipulation and so on, but we will never
entirely erase them. It's the lizard in us.
Sorting out within
yourself what belongs to the lizard, and what belongs to the
warm-blooded mammal is the first step. Many people are truly unaware
that they operate from the lower self a good deal of the time—and
that's dangerous. It's dangerous because that lack of consciousness
allows us to feel justified in skewering people, squashing ideas, and
crushing others' hopes and dreams. Visualize, if you will, a small,
innocuous, green gecko snatching a beautiful butterfly out of the air
and gulping it down. There's no remorse on the part of the
gecko—that's just what gecko's do, right? If we're unconscious of
our lower nature, that's what we do too. Snatch and gulp, and walk
away feeling satisfied.
Rather than shame and
guilt, however, we can use that burning piece of coal to stoke our
inner fire. Awareness leads to questions—why did I say that? What
motivates me to want to hurt so-and-so? What did I hope to
accomplish? After a while, you may find that there's a conversation
going on between your lower self, and your higher self. “I really
wanted to put him down; he's so egotistical!” “Is that a
projection—are you egotistical? Or did you just want to make
yourself look better?” It's annoying, but now and then, your higher
self wins one, and you manage to hold your tongue before you snatch
and gulp. Your higher self wants to help you rise above, but first,
you have to own your reptile.
If we were able to get
rid of our lower self, quite honestly, we'd lose our sense of humor,
and our legitimate-danger warning system. We'd be sitting ducks for
the real reptiles of this world. But making him your friend—your
radical, armed and wary friend, who helps you see yourself as you
are, and who, though grumpy, allows others to be who they are—is a
helpful thing. He's someone who will sit with you beside your sacred fire, and have a long, truth-telling chat.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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