YOUR DIVINE IDENTITY: WHAT IT MEANS
by David Truman
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Human beings are part of God's body. We are God's hand, extended to all. Nowhere is God more present than here, and in you. And if we would let our true selves be, that would be obvious.
But there is a terrible misunderstanding in the world: that humanity and Divinity are separate and different. And that conviction stands directly in the way of the realization and manifestation of who we are.
Friends, if we would correct that error, this world would be heavenly. And you, with your Divine qualities, would help to create heaven on earth. So join me in recognizing and uprooting this confusion -- in yourself, and in this world.
False humility
There are two different ways in which people disown, deny, and renounce their Divine human nature. The first way is false humility: the conviction that human beings are inherently bad and, in and of ourselves, incapable of goodness.
Traditional Christianity strongly promotes false humility, teaching that man is born a sinful wretch, and is redeemable only by grace, or the birth of the Holy Spirit in him. This same notion echoes throughout various popular religions, in frequent reminders that we must "let go and let God" in order for anything good to be done. Eastern spirituality recognizes the Divinity of the Higher Self, but considers our humanity an obstruction to the Life Divine. Most eastern seekers believe they must transcend their humanness altogether -- even their heart qualities, and their genuine feeling sensitivity -- in order to get in touch with God, or be enlightened.
All over the world, people tend to assume that a human being can do nothing more than step aside, and let God act through him or her. So, if we ever see or hear of a person being/acting Divine, people tend to believe it's only because they are channeling God. The idea is: boys will be boys, girls will be girls, and Divinity may be channeled, perhaps, but never sourced.
In an obvious way, false humility is epitomized in the practice of classic channeling, in which the channel "checks out," and God "checks in." In that case, the channel may be the model of tininess and insecurity, while the Divine Entity represents infinite, awesome, Divine power. The difference between the two is huge.
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But friends, humanity and Divinity are not different, not separate. Our beautiful human qualities -- our feelingness, passion, sensitivity, love of rightness, etc. -- are God's qualities in us. Therefore, who we are doesn't need to be renounced for God to express through us. The exact opposite is true: for God to be fully expressed in us, who we are needs to be discovered, accepted, and expressed by us.
Vainglorious "ego god"
The second way we deny the truth of our Divine nature is vainglory. Vainglory seems opposite to false humility -- but it really isn't.
Vainglory takes the truth, "I am God," and lets the ego have its sick way with it. The result: the ego-identified person likes to think he or she -- AS an ego persona -- is God. "Ego god," we can call it. Nowadays, you see signs of this delusional approach everywhere.
Of course, the notion that ego is God is absolutely ridiculous. It denies our true Divinity by making a delusional joke out of it: "I am the coolest thing in the Universe: God!"
Ego (and/or egomania) is the furthest thing from Divinity. Just as false bravado and machismo are the opposite of true strength, ego god is opposite to our true Divinity. To say ego equals God is so obviously insane.
You can clearly see the difference between an "ego god" and a person who has realized their Divinity in these two video clips:
An ego goddess, a self-proclaimed "Goddess of Divinity"
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A truly God/Self-realized person
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The wrong way to surrender
The idea of false humility seems to protect us from falling prey to ego-based claims of Divinity. But false humility is merely another ego strategy. It just trades ego delusions of grandeur for ego delusions of smallness and incapacity. Either way, we're still identified with ego.
With ego-identification, ideas like "Thy Will, not mine, be done" become dangerously misleading. Sadly, when people say, "My will should not be done," what they tend to believe is this: "My will is dangerously deviant or different from God's Will. Therefore, my will always needs to be discounted, ignored, and left behind -- so that God's will can operate."
Here's where we get off track: if we assume that our will is inherently opposite to the Will of God, we're denying that we're God's children, of Divine nature -- and, consequently, in our hearts we actually want what God wants.
Granted, we all go through a phase in spiritual life in which we come to see that our ego-mentality and ego-driven habits are persistently deviant from the truth, and that they tend to twist and ruin practically everything -- especially the most beautiful things, like love, relationship with God, happiness, passion, even our own beautiful qualities. Clearly, in that phase, we must "let go and let God."
But there's a right way and a wrong way to hold surrender -- and friends, the denial of our own Divinity is precisely the wrong way.
True surrender
The surrender of egotism is important to spiritual life, even crucial to it. But in real ego-surrender, it is not ourselves that we let go of. We let go of bad habits and patterns of thinking/doing. Think of it this way: surely, if we're trying to change our eating habits, we must let go of our old patterns and desires -- but it would be insane to think that our eating patterns are who we are, and that in letting go of them we are letting go of ourselves.
In the same way, it is insane to think that all our negative emotional/mental/behavioral tendencies are who we are. Honestly, they are the opposite of who we are! That's why we despise them. That's why we want to change them. Our own Divine heart calls us to a higher life, a higher standard.
There is a true form of surrender to God, a true form of transcendence, and a true way of being an instrument of Divinity. And that true way does not deny that we ourselves are God.
Real transcendence is to transcend everything our Godly hearts dislike -- like selfishness, cowardice, cruelty, etc. Real transcendence is to transcend our wrong ideas about who we are (like that we are small, mediocre, helpless, separate -- and not God).
The dirty secret behind false humility
But what if we're attached to living in ways our Divine nature feels bad about? Ah, in that case, the notion of having a limited, flawed nature -- or rather, believing that about oneself -- seems like a good excuse. If you're going to do wrong, it's less guilt-producing if you had "no choice." A bad person -- a weak person, a tragically flawed person -- can do a lot of wrong, but not very much right.
So you see, to the extent that a person identifies with lowly nature, that dim self-view excuses them from taking responsibility for living the Life Divine. The theory goes something like this:
"Since I am not God, but a mere mortal, and since it is dangerous for me to presume otherwise, how COULD I live Divinely? To even try would be heresy! I must be careful not to set my sights too high."
How convenient it is for ego to believe that we are not good, that we cannot be good, and that it would be both arrogant and deluded to even try. What a cop out! What a denial of the beauty God created in us! And what a mess that leaves us in!
So false humility opens wide the door to live an errant, deviant lifestyle -- the lifestyle of ego. If we are fatally flawed, no one can expect any better of us. That's the dirty secret behind false humility.
Ego wins big when man chronically thinks of himself
as hopelessly, irremediably flawed. So don't do it!
And no man or woman should think they're unable to participate effectively, beneficially, in Divine work. God, the One and All, hungers for a time in which that fundamental and tragic delusion is transcended. God would love nothing more than to hear His or Her children say, "Ah! I am Divine. I can co-operate with God and even operate as Divinity. In neither case is there any danger, because it's only Me!"
The inheritance-identification connection
Don't sell your Self short! No one can sit there, day in and day out, repeating over and over, "I am tragically flawed," without developing the conviction that they're a jerk. You see? As human beings, we cannot claim our true Divine inheritance until and unless we accept our true identity. And our true identity is that of a Divine Being, no less.
So throw off the twin chains: vainglory and false humility. To know our Divinity, and live accordingly, is God's will. And God's will is our will, because we are God.
It is time for us to accept our reality, our Divine Nature, and our true -- good -- will. And it is time to bless all by living in a manner that is consistent with who we are. You, friend, were born for this!
If you want help with this, please feel free to contact us. We're here to support you.
