Engaging the superego; superego as god

Dear Friends, Take heart! We are ploughing deeply into a major obstacle to Oneness. I know this work with the superego can feel impossible, frightening, maddening, hopeless... But it does get easier.

I was struck on Monday by the amount of pain caused  by  churches, ministers, the theology of sin, damnation. As children we can't help but take in these abuses of  religious power and internalize them into self hatred, resulting into an utter sense of disconnection and betrayal.

No wonder so many of us fled. It is a testament to some mysterious courage that you venture back into a church sanctuary. It also speaks to the unquenchable hunger of the human spirit to recover the freedom and goodness of living presence-- or to use religious language of our living, loving God.

It occurred to me that it might be useful to continue the exploration about how we project the superego on God and the church.

I did this exercise years ago and I found it very liberating. 

On a sheet of paper  write a letter to God, and let it rip. God can handle your rage, your disgust, your fears, your pain....all of your feelings. Tell him exactly what you think of his Church, his ministers... all of it. I use the "he" pronoun deliberately because we are mostly conditioned to ascribe the masculine to the face of God.

Then on second sheet of blank let yourself be drawn into by the image of God as   the God of love, the God of freedom, of compassion, glory, beauty, truth, ..... Spend some time sensing your arms and legs, breathing into the belly. After a few minutes  words may come, images will come... write them down, drawn them.. scribbles, doodles...this is not an art project!

On a third page let it remain empty. Meditate for a few minutes. What ever images emerge, feelings, words, let them arise and let them go. Then let yourself gaze gently at the  blank page-- or if it works better gaze out into the space in front of you-- allowing the possibility of being drawn into the divine that is beyond all names, all images, all ideas. Let yourself be drawn by the God of mystery. And remember you cannot think your way into this. Its about relaxing and waking up. Don't judge yourself. 

After a few minutes journal your experience with the three pages. Please bring these pages to our next session.

Here are the questions from our last session:

Tell me a way your inner child engages the superego

Tell me how this engagement with superego impacts your capacity to relax and stay awake.

Explore how you project the superego onto your images of god. How does this block the nowness of living presence, how does this block your openness.