As human beings, we are made in such a way that who we are on the inside can express itself on the outside. Of course, it doesn’t always happen. Often, it is hard to find the authentic person in the people around us. Or who a person is on the outside reveals some kind of woundedness on the inside. But think of it this way: Our lifetime mission is to express and embody on the outside the heart and soul of who we are on the inside—to show the world who we are.
I remember first realizing this for myself. I had so many feelings and experiences inside me that I didn’t know how to express. I felt great love. I saw life in a way that was so different from the way many people talked about it. How could I ever take all those things that I knew deep inside myself and share them with others? It seemed like such a daunting task. But I’ve learned it is possible.
This comes down to the matter of selfhood. There are many dimensions to selfhood—many parts that compose the totality of who we are. If a person is filled with shame about who they are—if they believe they are a sinner or an intrinsically flawed person—they may be busy trying to hide who they are from the world. If you have any of those feelings about yourself, I invite you to entertain this thought: At my inmost core, I am a Being of pure Love.
There are many names that have been given to this reality of the highest dimensions of selfhood through the ages: the Higher Self, the One Who Dwells, the Angel, and the Atman to name a few. Whatever a person calls it, this reality at the pinnacle of selfhood for the individual is behind all the other dimensions of the human psyche. It is the Self that can integrate all the facets of selfhood into the human experience. When it does, the wonder, the glory, and the beauty of who a person is on the inside shows itself on the outside. The creative power of Love moves through that person and into their world.
What do we see when we witness a person? We see their physical body, mostly veiled by the clothes they wear. We hear their voice and the words they speak. We witness what is on the outside. And so, for anyone, what they present to the world they are in the middle of is the outer dimension of themselves. For that rare person who has learned to allow what is on the inside to express itself through the outer dimensions of who they are, there is oneness between the inner and the outer. So the outer facets of themselves are radiating and expressing their inner reality in a way that can be witnessed and experienced by others. People feel the love within that person. They touch the wisdom and vision that person is sharing.
For this to really happen, outer dimensions of the self have to devote themselves to the innermost dimension of self—to the One Who Dwells. They have to attune to the vibration of that One. They have to know fidelity with the Higher Self. They have to conform in expression to what is emanating from within.
The 23rd Psalm describes these things in poetic terms. The author didn’t have the benefit of modern psychology or science to bring understanding to the most elemental facets of human experience. Nonetheless, they had a profound knowledge that is hidden in plain sight for all the world to see if only a person will open themselves to what the poetry is saying.
The Psalm contains this verse:
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.
Psalm 23:5
Do you have any enemies in your life?
Sometimes the worst enemies seem to be within us—those voices in our head, or perhaps a self-sabotaging tendency. And sometimes we see the people around us as our enemies. A person might have the belief that they have no enemies, but still see other people as antagonistic.
In the presence of all that might seem like it is opposing us, there’s a table that’s prepared. There is spiritual nourishment. There’s power and blessing and inspiration available for us.
There is a table prepared. But you have to come to the table to be nourished. And even though the enemies are present, you have to turn your back on your enemies to face the table and enjoy the spiritual sustenance.
This spiritual sustenance is available from the core of our Being. The outer dimension of us has to turn to what is inside us to enjoy the meal.
To put it another way, you don’t ascend the hill of the Higher Self if you are constantly looking down into the ravine. You ascend the hill because you’re looking up to what’s there and allowing the attractive power of what’s higher than our immediate human experience to be a tractor beam for our soul, lifting us up, taking us there.
And what do we have to do to let that happen? Simply turn to what nourishes us from within. And stop fighting the enemies. Because the more you’re fighting them, the less you’re looking up and allowing yourself to be drawn to a higher place so that you can transcend those things.
Transcending your enemies—or what you might have thought of as enemies, whether they are internal or external—doesn’t mean those factors go away. It just means that now you are seeing them from a higher place. Now your soul is nourished and you are fortified. Now you know yourself as the One Who Dwells, and you bring the natural creative authority of who you are. You speak with the voice of the One Who Dwells. All the facets of your human persona recognize that voice.
I have been pondering how we come fully into a knowledge of ourselves as the Higher Self. It is because our conscious awareness of who we are ascends and we transcend the limitations of our former sense of self and the limitations the world attempts to impose upon us. There is another factor though. And as I ponder it, I realize that it is a secret, one I have come to know and which I live my life by. It is a secret because few people know it and still fewer people truly understand how it works. It is, all at the same time, simple and powerful.
Simply put, the secret is this. The outer is in service to the inner. This is true at every level of experience. The outer dimension of ourselves is in service to the inner dimension—who we are at our core. The outer dimension of us is then the inner dimension of the world we create. It is at the center of that world, just as the inner dimension of Self is the center of our persona.
But it doesn’t end there because there is more to this picture. The inner dimension of Self for any individual is in service to a realm that is within or behind itself. While the One Who Dwells is sovereign for the person, the One Who Dwells is in service to a reality that is higher still. The One Who Dwells is the inner dimension of a human being, but the outer dimension of a vast inner reality.
The One Who Dwells is an individualized aspect of God and part of the Family of God. The One Who Dwells is in service to the Family of God, and to the innermost dimension of that Family. And it is this pattern of absolute Attunement with the Family of God, and the central essence of that family, known by the One Who Dwells, that empowers the One Who Dwells.
This is the pattern that Jesus outlined in his Prayer of Intercession.
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.
John 17:23
Geometrically, it is a pattern of circles, with the center of each circle a spoke of a larger circle, relating to the center of that circle.
Our inner nature is sovereign—the king or the queen for our own psyche and for the world around us. But it is a servant to what is larger than itself. As an individualized aspect of Being, we are minute compared to the vastness of Being we are a part of. We are in service to that larger reality, especially the part of it that is near to us.
The more that we know and embrace that and the more that we embody and express it, the greater is our authority within ourselves and in the world around us. That authority comes into us when we acknowledge that our inner reality is a servant to what’s beyond it. This realization is the most ennobling thing that could happen for a person. When we know that the highest truth of us is in service to something vast, beautiful, noble, and true and that larger reality comes into us, we transcend any limitations we might have experienced.
Learning how this works within our own experience of ourselves—how the outer dimensions of us are made to express and embody the innermost dimension of ourselves—sets us up to know how this pattern works beyond ourselves as an individuals. Right within the four walls of the human experience, we can devote ourselves to allowing the outer dimensions—our thinking, feeling, and actions—to express the inner reality of who we are. And then, utilizing the very same principles, we can open to an awareness of how who we are at our core is in service to the magnificence of Deity that is so much vaster than who we are as an individual. This realization, experienced and actualized in life, imbues us with the powers of Creation and transformation for the world around us.