Authenticity

Gloria in Excelsis Deo!

Authenticity to be who we really are can be both frightening and liberating. It’s frightening because it only emerges as we remove that which we are not. That which we are not–in the form of attitudes, habits, character traits, etc.–is something that we’ve been carrying for a long long time. It is so difficult to remove because it is familiar. It’s who we thought we were. The desire to hang onto the familiar is one of the strongest forces in the human personality, and at the level of the soul (individuation of consciousness) as well. We must be willing to let go of the known (i.e., familiar) and step into the unknown. The unknown can be scary indeed! Precisely because it is unknown. That’s why authenticity is so darn challenging! It’s not for the faint of heart.

However, it also liberates us. It liberates us from who we are not and allows us to relax in who we really are. Only when we embody who we really are can we be at peace–can we be spontaneous, can we be free. In truth, freedom is not freedom from people, places, or the world. True freedom is freedom from the mind, that aspect of our existence that really doesn’t belong to us but was a merely a product of the world. A product of our story. A product of a series of events over a series of lifetimes that constructs the false idea of “me.” Only letting go of this “me” as a separate sense of self allows us to be Authenticity Itself. After letting go of that which we are not, the Truth of Our Existence reveals Itself with an utter sweetness and embrace.