The Higher Self

Many cultures and religions have conceptions of the higher self. It has been called our essence, our core, and our soul or spirit. Many believe this core self is simply and essentially, love. Carl Jung, the famous psychiatrist, just called it the Self. Because Jung believed like many of us that our true self is really this highest and purest essence. Unfortunately many of us deny our higher self because we believe that the existence of our lower self negates its existence. We may put on a mask of love and serenity but secretly we don’t believe our own goodness. The difficult task is to accept our lower self so that we are no longer fooling ourselves or others. From this place of truth we can choose to transcend the lower self. This is no easy endeavor but the alternative is living a lie. We all have selfish and negative impulses but these do not have to define us. Only by shining a light on them can we begin to dissolve them and make room for our higher self, which is love.