ENEMIES OF THE SOUL
So what takes us away from presence and remembrance? This is what we must observe in ourselves, for different types of people have different ways of abandoning their souls.
A big ego is not the same as a strong soul. The ego self is more of a reaction to circumstances and conditions than an agent with independent will. The ego has little viability because it is more of an effect than a cause. It may have the strength of self-interest, but that same self-interest makes it vulnerable to a million disappointments and threats.
What are the signs of a weak soul? If we are dominated by the attractions of the world, bouncing among likes and dislikes, shifting from one sub-personality to another, from one intention to another, changing our mind constantly, living without a center, these are signs that our soul needs more substance.
In simple terms care of the soul is disengaging from the matrix—the false reality we are hypnotized to believe and conform to—and connecting to the true source of our Being.
Human beings are extraordinarily suggestible. We tend to believe in a childlike way what we are told, what is repeated, and what those around us believe. In small, traditional communities and tribes this suggestibility may have been an advantage. More often than not, the wisdom of experience was passed from generation to generation. But as society became more complex and diversified into large, institutional religions, political parties, and empires, the sources of indoctrination became more sophisticated. In today’s fractured societies people can be manipulated and controlled by beliefs, opinions, symbols, and dogma manufactured by psychopathological individuals and secret societies that seek control and power.
What does it mean to “sell your soul”?
The preferred means of seduction are porneia (whatever distances us from our true nature) and anaesthesia (a defense against the imagined pain of waking up).
These rigid constructs then usurp presence and imagination, building a false reality. The feeling of being alone and vulnerable in an impersonal universe, or of being an imperfect soul striving to please a judgmental God, results in a persistent existential alienation. Through this day-to-day loneliness and fear we are manipulated into false security by those who seek to control us. They play upon the ego’s need to be with the tribe, the party, the “true” religion.
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Source
Living presence,
Kaber Helminski
Chapter Ten,
Care of the Soul
