The Soul, Untangled

When I teach my yoga classes, I often repeat a personal mantra that I know dissipates into the space of the room. “Where the thoughts go, the energy will follow”… It took me years to really connect with this mantra, to feel it, to experience it and to let it manifest in my life. It took me years to understand that our consciousness, the seat of the soul, houses its creative and proactive centers of the Lower Self and the Higher Self. In between these two centers resides the Masked Self - a reactive, less energized container whose main function is to cover and deny the deepest fears and longings of the soul. The masked self drains the soul… Dante’s Divine Comedy is the perfect depiction of the soul, with the inferno representing the lower self, purgatorio representing the masked self, and paradiso leading to the released, higher self.

The deeper we connect to either the lower or the higher self, the grander the transformative manifestations in our lives. The opposing forces of these two selves make contrary claims onto our souls: The deep yearning for union with the divine is opposed by a strong clinging to the ego identity; our desire to manifest unconditional love is marred by a deep-rooted fear of love and loss; a gnawing urge to selflessly serve is negated by an addiction to attach.

The masked self is the purgatorial limbo that quells the charging energy between the proactive, creative selves. It is a thicket of layer upon layer of preconditioned beliefs, impulses, and masked agents, whose main function is to keep the soul in a less charged state, floating with limited purpose. The most empowering chargers to this pergatorial mind are negative affirmations that burry the true essence of the spirit. Many of us reside in purgatory for a big chunk of our lives. We remain in that low-charged self with all its limitations. We are boxed into our beliefs that the world is outside of our being and our control. We are stuck in our masks of fear and shame to venture out into a world that is unfair, undeserving and painful. We cling to defenses that protect us from the throes of the proactive, highly charged forces of life.

The soul ascends when the masked self is depleted of its energy. Only when we plunge into the depths of the lower self can we release the energy that propels us to the heights of the higher self, where the creative manifestations are more enduring. Only when we face our darkest forces, most fearful demons, most limiting consciousness, and the finite depths of our duality will we be able to ascend to a limitless union with the most expansive part of who we truly are.

Life doesn't happen to us…We happen to life…