Response to Finley’s The True Self in Religious Searching (Finley on Merton)

There is a relationship between religion and truth. They dance an erratic and controversial dance. Unfortunately, the focus on dogma within religion blinds participants to the core message from God which is love. Our mandate is clear – kindness and compassion. Yet religion, (all religions) combined with fear, distracts us from responding to atrocities. The false self is defined by a construct that protects and nourishes the ego. Ironically, religion is, to me, simply a respite from following God. Following God is difficult. Following religion is easy. It is formulaic. Plug it in. The answers are all there.

But not really. Religion is about the head and God is about the heart. I have known far too many people who are so wrapped up in the intellectual pursuit of Holy Scripture as a path to God that they never can simply Be with God. They would rather be with representations of God. Besides, words are merely metaphors that poorly represent the truth. And ultimately our brains have the amazing capacity to warp words into meeting our ego’s needs. On page 36 you say, ‘The false self can have but false gods, all of which in the end turn out to be but reflections of the false self as it worships itself and sets itself up as the reason for its own existence.’

On page 39 you quote Merton, ‘a man cannot enter into the deepest center of himself and pass through that center into God, unless he is able to pass entirely out of himself and empty himself and give himself to other people in the purity of a selfless love.’ What really resonates with me in this statement is …give himself to other people… which demonstrates action from the heart and not the head. The reason we take action is out of love not out of a dictate from a religious passage.

In distinguishing the false self from the real self, I think it is more complicated than looking at two separate nebulous entities. I have come to believe in the Trinity of Self. The physical, mental and spiritual selves essentially create the illusion of one ‘self’ but they separately meld together and influence each other to create a sense of a single self. In reality, they each stand alone. The physical self is on auto pilot and is made up of the brain, hormones, neurons, proteins, endorphins and other psychoactive chemicals. The mental self is the ego and thinks it is in charge. It has self-awareness but is heavily influenced by the physical self. Think of puberty, menopause, testosterone, estrogen, ad infinitum. Importantly, the ego is also formed as a part of the experiences that it undergoes and the reflections that it makes on those experiences. The spiritual self is the soul. To me this represents the undying piece of God residing in us and influencing our egos. The older your soul, the more impact it has on the course of your life.