Vessel of the Soul

My current six-week series of Sunday lessons is entitled “Life as Art.” I am basing this series on the idea that each of us is the artist of his or her life. An artist is one who makes the invisible visible. All art begins with an idea, a concept. The idea begins in the invisible realm and is impressed upon the mind of the artist. The artist then becomes the vessel through which the image becomes visible. Artists create works of art through the skillful, focused and visionary use of their tools in the application of their media.

Likewise, each of us is here as the artist of our life to bring into visibility the aspect of us – our soul – that exists in the invisible realm. The soul is the very essence of who and what we are. The soul exists eternally as a concept in the Mind of the Master Artist – God – ready for us to manifest it. Each of us has the opportunity, through the skillful, focused and visionary use of our tools - our thoughts, words and actions - to bring into visibility a physical representation of who we are in the Mind of God. We are here to be the vessel through which the soul, through the media of our creations, becomes visible.

As I stated in last week’s post, you are the image-likeness of God (Creative Intelligence, Life Force Energy, Source) endowed with all of the attributes and qualities that you assign to God. Poet, peacemaker and scholar, Rev. Dr. John Philip Newell said, “to say that we are made in the image of the Divine is to say that what is deepest in us is of God.” And as Unity cofounder Charles Fillmore said, “It is your mission to express all that you can imagine God to be.”

In order to be the true artists of our lives, in order to bring the invisible nature of our soul into visibility, we must be willing to open our minds and our hearts, in order that the awareness of God, thus the vision of our souls, may be impressed upon them.

We do that by first becoming consciously aware that we have allowed a misperception of ourselves to become fixed in our hearts and minds. We have given power to the illusory image of a false self which was created, not in the image-likeness of God, but in the image-likeness of the myths, messages and beliefs of those who impressed their images upon us. We have broken the first two of the Ten Commandments¹. In the vernacular of the Hebrew Scriptures, we have created an idol of the false self and worshiped it as our God.

We have believed, falsely, that this image is who we are, and in our ignorance have allowed it to block us from bringing the invisible nature of our souls into visibility.

I fully realize that the false self was mostly created for us without our permission. I also realize that for the majority of us, those of us who are adult with full mental capacities, have the ability and power to stop worshipping at the altar of the false self and begin to focus on the true self, the soul, through our practice of prayer, meditation, contemplation and mindfulness.

Once we become aware of this false self, we must continually invite and welcome conscious awareness of it so as not to allow it and its fear to control our thoughts, words, and actions. When the false self is in control, we are not bringing the invisibility of our souls into clear vision. We are not creating our lives as works of art. We are, instead, creating our lives as imitations of what others have believed and taught us as truth.

Recent experience has shown me that it can be powerfully painful and scary to come face-to-face with the image of the false self. After 55 years of continuing to feed it, my false self is pretty strong. Even though I was aware that it was in my face, and was keenly aware that it is not my truth, during a recent incident I still found it daunting to return to the conscious awareness of my soul and stay grounded there. While I believe I was able to do it to the best of my ability, it required a great deal of energy and focus. 

I prefer not to go into detail here, but I will share that just before beginning the service on a recent Sunday morning, someone told me something in a way that triggered a powerful aspect of my false self. I walked into the sanctuary fully engaged in my fear and pain, knowing that in a few minutes I would be in front of the congregation welcoming everyone and then presenting a lesson. During the entire service, I felt the inner struggle. I wanted to be grounded and bring through the lesson from a deep connection with my soul and with the souls of all in the sanctuary. Yet, the deepest fear of my inadequacy had been stirred up and was effectively overshadowing my true soul.

I did my best to shift my focus from the thoughts that were racing through my mind telling me that I was not loved, accepted or competent. In spite of my internal struggle, I believe I was able to walk the line, leaning more toward the soul, at least during most of the service. My guess is that some people sensed the shift in my energy, but not everyone.

I am reluctant to admit this, but I was not able to reclaim a deep connection with my soul until about 24-hours later. We all need help from time-to-time holding ourselves and others in our Highest truth. I was finally able to reclaim my truth after being guided through a process of self-awareness and self-discovery.

I share this for three reasons. First, even though it was not a pleasant experience and one I hope not to repeat any time soon, I am grateful that I was aware of what was happening in the moment. Awareness is the first step in being able to make a different choice. The second reason I share it is to offer encouragement. The false self, the ego, the personality, all names for the same amalgamation of limiting beliefs, can and will be stimulated. It happens for all of us, at least for all of us who have not yet achieved a permanent state of enlightenment. Finally, this episode was a clear reminder that attempting to do battle with the false self is not the way to gain freedom from it. I remembered later, with the help of another, that the best way to move through a powerful ego-activating situation is to breathe into the heart and connect with the true self – the soul – and allow its light to shine through. We must reclaim the soul energy and allow it to be the light that illumines our truth.

The purpose of my series, “Life as Art,” is to help us all become aware, not only of our souls, the image-likeness of God that we are, but also to remind us of the tools we have to bring the invisible nature of our souls into visibility.

As the artists of our lives, we are the vessels through which our image-likeness becomes visible. Just as any artist does, we make our life a work of art through skillful, focused and visionary use of our tools – our thoughts, words and actions – to create life experiences, our media, which are imbued with our soul’s qualities.

I will take a one-week break from this series as we welcome Jan Garret and JD Martin this Sunday, May 8. They will present the message and music at our 10:00 service.

I will continue with “Life as Art” on Sunday, May 15. The title of my lesson will be “The Art of Releasing.” I hope you will join us then. If you have missed the first two installments, you may listen to them here. Please join us as we come together to co-create a world that reflect the nature of our divine souls.

¹ Exodus 20