This world is a world of impermanence. Every phenomenon, everything it contains is undergoing a process of constant, inevitable change, ending in complete, inevitable disappearance. The non-self is an intrinsic part of this world and is therefore something that has at some point appeared, and that will one day disappear: birth and death.
Such is the case with every form. A body is a form, an personality (or ego) is a form, a thought, an emotion, a desire are subtle forms; a culture, a religion or philosophy, a society, a country, a civilization are also forms or collections of forms, in their own way. This is an important fact to realize, in order to help us see and realize within ourselves the activity of what is called the psyche.
The psyche is simply the combined activity of our so-called astral + mental bodies – the desire-emotional + conceptual mind aspects of the psyche. The psyche is, therefore, a form, and all it contains, creates, perpetuates and perceives are forms, all of them 100% impermanent, temporary and temporal.
So, in our endeavor to become increasingly conscious of the nature of our consciousness, our higher, true Self (or Soul), we must get to know very well what is psychical within us. This is a tricky thing to do because we must function with a psyche to exist in this world. There is no other way.
The ultimate and right role of the psyche is to be a field, or vehicle, or means of expression for the Soul, our higher intelligence. This process is gradual and becomes something increasingly awesome to witness and to experience when the energies of consciousness, the Soul in cyclic incarnation, become stronger than that of the psyche itself. This is Spiritual Victory (over matter).
However, before that has been accomplished, the reverse is true: (temporary) victory of matter over the spiritual. This isn't a problem in itself, for it is normal. Spiritual evolution has to start somewhere and, for a very long time, matter will dominate spirit; the non-self will be in expression way more than the true Self. The natural dynamism of the energies of the psyche is to veil, distort and dominate the energies of the Soul. After all, we are in incarnation in their (the energies of matter) realm. So, this isn't a problem in itself, as long as it doesn't go too far. There has to be some light in the darkness, even if very little, even if light grows very slowly. Otherwise, various forms of what we usually call “evil” appear, and this can, unfortunately, go to very dark places. I'll touch upon that in a later post.
In the meantime, we must get used to being very vigilant, very attentive, very conscious, at all times, concerning what goes on in our psyche. We must endeavor to not let it run wherever it wants. We must watch for the apparition of negatively polarized, thoughts, desires, and feelings, and not let them overrun our consciousness. We must endeavor to identify with consciousness itself. Again, the nature of the psyche is to produce desires, thoughts, and emotions, all of them 100% impermanent. This cannot be changed. There is no benefit in trying to stop the psyche from doing what its nature compels it to do. What must be done is remaining longer and more often very, very conscious of what goes on within. Then, our own Soul will express itself more and more through our purified psyche, in the forms of our greatest ideas, our most elevated feelings, our most loving and altruistic intentions, our joy in life, our desires to learn and better ourselves. And that's actually just the beginning, just the periphery of Soul realization – more on that later !
The psychical forms may be fully positive, as the just and right expressions of the Soul. They may be so only partially, very little, or not at all and so are undesirable and negative. In all cases, we must remember they all are impermanent and so we must be attached to none of them. Attachment itself is a psychical phenomenon, from which the nature of consciousness remains free. "Positive'' or "negative'', in the sense of psychical forms, is ever relative, like all else in this world. Positive or negative, all forms must follow their natural path from creation to necessary disappearance. Therefore, let's not become attached to (necessarily) temporary and impermanent things like feelings, ideas, opinions, nor beliefs we hold dear and consider positive, for their end is coming whether we like it or not. Therefore, let's not become attached to even the most positive beliefs we can think of, for that remains the activity of the non-self and will go against our goal: the full realization of the nature of the (true) Self : Consciousness.
In other words, the Soul, on its own plane doesn't ''believe'' in anything. It knows. It is fully “conscious of”, while seeking to increase that. The non-self believes in stuff it doesn't know. Whether we call those opinions or beliefs good or bad (or true or false) is almost irrelevant here, because sooner or later, being conceptual forms in the mental aspect of our psyche, they will disappear. They may serve a purpose, but that purpose won't last forever. Conceptual forms will all eventually become dying or dead forms. More about that in my next post.