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Ramsses II
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(11/3/05 12:11 am)
Reply 		Self-Realization
“At infancy the impressionability can and normally does lead to inflexible and relatively permanent forms and structures in the field of the soul [which he elsewhere describes as narcissistic ego defenses]. The soul is not only impressionable but these impressions can remain as semi-permanent traces, as indelible impressions. The impressionability of maturity, when the soul is not only complete but has realized her true nature, is pure receptivity and malleability without the possibility of lasting traces. The soul is vulnerable in the sense of being open to all possible forms of her potential experience, but is actually invulnerable in terms of conditioning. Her impressions are momentary, transitory, and last only as needed for the moment. This condition of liberated impressionability is likened to the effect of drawing on water. The medium of water is quite flexible and impressionable, and readily takes whatever form we impress on it. But this form dissipates almost as immediately as it appears…

This realized impressionability is given to the soul by her essential nature, which is primordially immaculate and unchangeable. In the liberated state, the essential ground of the soul is now so fully and securely wedded to her that she possesses its incorruptible characteristics. She is still receptive, malleable, and impressionable, but this property is wedded to the immaculate and stainless character of her essence. This transforms the field of the soul into a medium similar to water or space, where it is in some way completely open, receptive, and vulnerable, but at the same time free and spontaneously self-liberating.

Why does the soul not possess this self-liberating quality in her infancy and childhood, when she is also quite impressionable and naturally coemergent with her essential ground? This is a complex question, and not easily answered. One way of addressing it is to relate it to the question of dependence and autonomy. In infancy and childhood the absence of maturity in the soul manifests not in distance from her essential ground, but in her total dependence on others; not only physically, but also emotionally and in all other ways. Because of this dependency she is at the mercy of her environment, her circumstances, and the ministrations of her caregivers. Her real need at the time for their physical support and nourishment, love and caring, mirroring and understanding, and so on, predisposes her toward losing touch with her essential ground. She is not enlightened, in the sense that her cognitive capacities are not developed enough for her to know and comprehend that she is her true nature, and she is not mature enough to consciously and cognitively realize her ontological autonomy. In other words, because of her phase-appropriate need and dependency she can lose connection with her essential ground. This loss tends to happen as part of a more comprehensive process, an important part of which is the retention of impressions…

The self-realization of our essential nature becomes the ground upon which true and unassailable autonomy develops…. Self-realization of true nature and the ontological autonomy it gives the soul in her individuation both contribute to the development of self-liberating impressionability. Both of these attainments require the purification of the soul, a process by which the soul learns to be transparent to true nature, necessitating that she harmonize the various elements of her potential. The most significant and difficult part of this process is the integration and harmonizing of the spiritual and essential ground with the animal potential of the soul, with its instincts, drives, and desires…"

~ A.H. Almaas

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