The Soul has an Instinct

Feb. 25 

Perhaps I haven’t considered it before in this way, but my parts are egoistic.

The reason my centers overwhelm one another and do one another’s work is because their function is self-centered. They aren’t awakened entities and they don’t have a sense of cooperation with one another. In the absence of a functional conversation between the parts, each one believes it and it alone is the master. They actually end up competing with one another.

This egoism of the individual centers needs to be surrendered if anything unified is to come about. They have to first see one another (here is where self observation can make a difference) and then come to see the benefits of cooperation. 

In the meantime, perhaps each ought to be treasured for its individual value. In an awakened state, the ego of the centers becomes subservient to a greater good: this is a delicate matter which one cannot put too fine a point on. It needs to be intuited, not defined, because it’s an action, not a thing.

In the midst of this intuition I begin to understand that it’s an intuition of life itself that’s at stake here. One can inhabit life instinctively, with parts that function naturally. When this takes place I begin to understand that my “ordinary” state is an artificial construct with no natural temperament or understanding. 

No “work” (if there actually is such a thing) can take place without this intuition, this instinct...

The soul has an instinct.

May your heart be close to God, 

and God close to your heart.

Lee

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.