|
c. Turn away from smug satisfaction of ego
"Man has no power of his own to command Grace but he does have the power to turn away from smug satisfaction with his own ego and throw himself at the feet of the Overself - the source of Grace."
(Notebooks of Paul Brunton, vol.18, chapter 5, number 144)
This little statement has hung around in the back of my mind. It doesn't say turn away from one's conscious smug-ness, but rather from the smug-ness of the ego. It strikes me that only in the moment(s) of throwing ourselves at the feet of the Overself is this latent smugness overcome. Since we're not often so inclined without dire (or rarely blissful) motivation, the conclusion is that we're smug - or that the ego dominance latent in our unconscious attitude is smug - smug that it (and hence I) don't really NEED the Overself. Therefore our quotidian emotional state may not be consciously characterized as 'smug' or satisfied, but perhaps we would fare better in our inner work were we to do so.
|
