THE FALSE, SHADOW & TRUE SELF & THE SPIRITUAL PATH

Over the last 20 years I have been involved in setting up 3 new monastic missional communities. For the last, the Blackfriars Community we explored chapters of Thomas Merton’s ‘New Seeds of Contemplation’ which is an incredible book written well ahead of its time and speaks to us directly in 2023! The community had been discussing some of its core themes, and in this book Merton seems very focused on making connections between the brokenness of the world and the false self. We read the chapter focused on the false self next, and it seemed to emphasis this false-self to be a fantasy and egoic form of self, informed by the deadly sins of greed, power, anger and the rest. Interestingly, the shadow self are those parts of ourselves that we find it difficult to accept or face, and the true self, is the self that is really us, that we can only discover through the contemplative path of discovery.

I firmly believe that this path is essential not only to encounter God in the context of our imminent frame, but also find ourselves revealed in God. This is one of the contributions missional new monastic communities can contribute.