Journey to Oneness are wisdom words from Fr. Thomas Keating spoken during the filming of his last DVD series That We May Be One in July 2016. Some are included in the series; others are from footage published here for the first time. A new word will be posed every Monday throughout the year. May they serve to inspire hope and lift your heart.
English Transcript
The self – nobody knows quite what it is – and the science, neuroscience especially, is just as interested as the spiritual seekers are. There is a book by a neuroscientist … his idea and this appealed to me, at least, is that the self is fluid, that it changes with each new level of consciousness, while maintaining its capacity for integrating this new information about itself and its relationships.
The self then, keeps growing and moves from the false self, hopefully, to the true Self.
So, first of all, just a description of self: There are three selves that we know easily. There is the superficial self that you present for the world and your resume: where you live, what you put down for your doctor’s visit. Then there is the personality self, and this is what makes you tick in ordinary relationships, and so it is someone you would like to get to know, I presume, before you get married – see if the selves are congenial. And then there is the third one, which is initially the most crucial, which is, “Who are you?” So, the first one is, ‘WHO are you?’ The second one is, ‘Who ARE you?’ And the third one is, ‘Who are YOU?’ And now you are in the spiritual journey.
¿Quién eres?
El yo… nadie sabe bien qué es, y a la ciencia – especialmente a la neurociencia, el tema le interesa tanto como a los buscadores espirituales . Hay un libro escrito por un neurocientífico. Lo que propone el autor, y al menos a mi me pareció interesante, es que el yo es fluido, y que cambia con cada nivel de conciencia, a la vez que mantiene su capacidad de integrar la nueva información sobre si mismo y sobre sus relaciones. El yo, por lo tanto, sigue desarrollándose y se mueve del falso yo, eso esperamos, al verdadero Yo.
Ante todo demos una descripción del yo: hay tres yoes que conocemos fácilmente. Está el yo superficial que presentamos al mundo y que es como nuestro curriculum: donde vivimos… el tipo de cosas que anotamos cuando visitamos al médico. Luego esta el yo de la personalidad, y ese es el que se involucra en las relaciones usuales. Es la parte del otro que queremos conocer antes de casarnos, supongo – para ver si nuestros yoes congenian. Y luego existe un tercer yo, que es inicialmente el más importante, que contesta a la pregunta “¿Quién eres tu?”. El primero sería “¿QUIÉN eres tú?.” El segundo sería “¿Quién ERES tú?.” Y el tercero sería “¿Quién eres TÚ?” Y ahí estamos en el camino espiritual-
