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1
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Christianity
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Moral repression of instinctal desires, extirpation and removal of nature
in the dualism of the self and that of a separate higher Being. "If
your eye makes you stumble, cut it off." The Gospel of Matthew. The
higher self, the human height of strength in "greatness" is never achieved; directed in externally based
morality, in a quagmire of codes and submission; weak existence pervades. However in mysticism, that is, Christian,
Jewish, Islamic and other forms of theistic based mysticism, the union of the lower and higher self compares with
eastern meditative practices. Theism is transcended in a unity between object and subject.
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2
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Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism,
Taoism
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Through meditation in stillness, of emptying the mind - moments of ceasing
thoughts occur, glimpses of a void (No-Thoughts) to achieve experiential, mystical moments of the higher self.
An emptying of the thinking ego to the naked collective, universal, the "One," and Buddha mind - Jung's
"collective unconscious." In Raja Yoga and Taoism the same ends in meditation are attempted through what
is perceived as the life-force, the energy, in both the preservation or the building up.
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3
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Tibetan Buddhism, Native Faiths
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Moving Meditation of dance, stimuli and sexual union. The re-direction
of thoughts into "mindfulness" and complete absorb-ness in activity that centers the lower mind's - the
ego's - thoughts allowing opening for momentary glimpses of the higher self.
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Eastern and Western Mysticism: Buddhism & etc.
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The idea of detachment, of objectivity is where one reaches a higher self and sees his lower self - his
ego - objectively, as an outside person, as a third party. This produces one of two things: the ability to see
the lower self, the instinctal nature as sensitive and subjective in need of objectivity, of correction from the
calm inward control of the higher self; or it produces nihilism; surface superficial existence without inward convictions
and values, that is, devoid of inner directed values from the center of the (higher) self, apart from the direction
of others. Anotherwards, detachment does not necessarily center one into the depths of his or her higher center.
To remain in the lower self, in total subjectivity is to become a hyper sensitive Dostoyevsky; our own worst enemy.To
become truly detached, brings us to either raised awareness, objectivity and wisdom through our universal mind
or, instead, valueless, existential existence, devoid of depth and value in nihilistic relativity.
"A very popular error: having
the courage of one's convictions: rather it is a matter of having the courage for an attack on one's convictions!"
- Nietzsche
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Monotheistic Beliefs, Hinduism, Sufism, & etc.
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Mindfulness in chanting,
in the concentration of thoughts and concentration of objects, in yogic breathing, or simply watching the breath,
and in the reciting of a mantra, as well as other techniques to render the lower minds absorption into such activity,
ceasing the whirlwind of the snowballing lower minds activity to that of momentary experiential glimpses of the
higher self.
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4
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Plato
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Re-direction of thoughts into contemplation, rational thought, intellectualism
and philosophical thinking, deep analytical theoria on the meanings and essence of the ideas that define love and virtue, which in turn
reveal fleeting mystical appearances of the higher self.
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5
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Nietzsche
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From the One (Monism) basic source, The Will to Power - is the force behind
both instinct and reason, extensions of the same. The Will to Power is used re-directing thoughts. Desires are
not repressed but re-directed - sublimation - to other extensions, the highest instrument - Reason, which overcomes
the self, enabling one in becoming a higher human being, the destroyer and creator of self-positing, in continual
de-valuing and re-valuing in experimental movement. Nature does not produce higher beings in evolutionary thrust,
nor does brute power produce such, rather it is sublimation through the Will to Power that re-values all values.
The Higher Self is the "Overman," the self-mastery, the power to overcome the self in sublimating chaos
with form, passion with reason, yet reason is overflowing with passion.
From the Enlightenment, philosophers such as John Dewey and rational systems such as the United States were built
on rational thinking based on what is considered as absolute truths " holding "We hold these truths as self evident." Max
Weber called this immature, pointing to Nietzsche's description of the "last man," the mediocre, petty,
superfluous man who bases his values on rationalism. Rationalism further led to Hegel and later Marx's attempt
to replace God with "History," that is, historical knowledge acting as an uncontrollable force to what
forms man. Plato had said that it was not the gods that created man but man who created the gods. Thucydides had
described it was purely in politics that what brought the downfall of Greece. The loss of myths to rationalism
was the end to the culture.
Nietzsche saw this danger of rationalism and changed the self-satisfied atheism into an agonizing atheism. We are
the contollable force of our destiny, our value producing and creative selves, one of a tense bow and internal
war of opposites within us, with the idea that all values are created from a nothing - the "id." Freud
tried scientifically analyzing this "id," the unconscious. His paradox was that in his refusal to acknowledge
anything mysterious beyond science, science itself was created from this mysterious nothing, this no-thing, the
unconscious, the "id." And so Nietzsche calls us to this "id," our true and higher selves,
this no-thing, calling it a fatum, as not a thing, yet a subborn ass that does not at all communicate with us, except simply that
it in someway it "is." Only the rarest of individuals find their own fatum, their own stopping point from which
they can move the world. They are literally, profound.
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6
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Existentialism
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Taken by itself, apart from all other concepts, exists the willingness
and ability to let go of conceptual safety of theism, of certainty, of external reliance, exists both the recognition
of true autonomy, a part in a large and greater consciousness of Being, a despair of openness in complete self-reliance
coupled with the ability to fully live, love and walk with the courage to be, despite of the ever hanging threat
of non-being (death) and emptiness of uncertainty.
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Your Mind Is Not Your Real Higher "Self"
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Osho, from The Book of Secrets
- on the Vigyan Bhairav
Tantra,
"Your mind is like a vagabond, a wandering. It is never at
one point. It is always going, moving, reaching, but never at any point. It goes from one thought to another, from
A to B, but it is never at the A; it is never at the B. It is always on the move. Remember this: mind is always
on the move, hoping to reach somewhere but never reaching. It cannot reach! The very structure of the mind is movement.
It can only move; that is the inherent nature of the mind. The very process is movement – from A to B, from B to
C, it goes on and on.
If you stop at A or B or any point, the mind will fight with you. The mind will say, “Move on,” because if you
stop the mind dies immediately it can be alive only in movement. The mind means a process. If you stop and do not
move, mind suddenly becomes dead, it is no more there; only consciousness remains.
Consciousness is your nature; mind is your activity – just like walking. It is difficult because we think mind
is something substantial. We think mind is a substance – it is not, mind is just an activity. So it is really better
to call it “minding” than mind. It is a process just like walking. Walking is a process; if you stop, there is
no walking. You have legs, but no walking. Legs can walk, but if you stop, then legs will be there but there will
be no walking.
Consciousness is like legs – your nature. Mind is like walking – just a process. When consciousness moves from
one place to another, this process is mind. When consciousness moves from A to B, from B to C, this movement is
mind. If you stop the movement, there is no mind. You are conscious, but there is no mind. You have legs, but no
walking. Walking is a function, an activity; mind is also a function, an activity.
If you stop at any point, the mind will struggle. The mind will say, “Go on!” The mind will try in every way to
push you forward or backward or anywhere – but, “Go on!” Anywhere will do, but do not stay at one point.
If you insist and if you do not obey the mind. . It is difficult because you have always obeyed. You have never
ordered the mind; you have never been masters. You cannot be because, really, you have never disidentified yourself
from the mind. You think you are the mind. This fallacy that you are the mind gives the mind total freedom, because
then there is no one to master it, to control it. There is no one! Mind itself becomes the master. It may become
the master, but that mastery is just seemingly so. Try once and you can break that mastery – it is false. Mind
is just a slave pretending to be the mst4er, but it has pretended so long, for lives and lives, that even the master
believes that the slave is the master. That is just a belief. Try the contrary and you will know that the belief
was totally unfounded."
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