Certain spiritual traditions teach the practitioner to find the "center" and eventually to always live "in the center." Buddhism talks about the "middle way," and modern psychology teaches us to find "balance." This is a very simple concept and so its full profundity is rarely discovered. I often talk about the ego or the egoic self, but what I'm really doing is conflating multiple selves for the sake of simplicity. These "selves" are really perspectives that are developed enough to have voice. That is, we operate from certain combinations of states, assumptions and attitudes frequently enough that we consider those to be our own. But whose are they really?
Don't we all have incompatible perspectives? The classic, "What was I thinking?" where you really don't understand why you did or said something; it becomes alien, like you're watching another person. We all have multiple opposed perspectives, which is why we experience internal conflict, indecision and hesitation. As we begin to observe ourselves as we shift from perspective to perspective, we realize that none of these is really our true self. Each one might have a few aspects that are authentic, but none of these expresses the whole truth and nothing else.
It's like a pendulum. Not the kind in a grandfather clock, but the rotational pendulum conceived by Léon Foucault -- the eponymous Foucalt Pendulum. It is constantly in motion, swinging between extremes. Its movement slows as it approaches the extremes, and it accelerates as it passes quickly through the point of origin: the center. Likewise, our perspective is constantly oscillating between extremes that we often can't even differentiate. We seem to spend most of our time at points far from the origin, of which we catch only occasional glimpses. Most of the time we don't even realize we're moving or that our perspective is skewed.
There's a lot of disagreement about what ego is and what we should do about it, if anything at all. I think that's the wrong approach. The ego simply doesn't matter, nor do any of its impulses. The sincere spiritual practitioner seeks to discover, express and live entirely as the complete authentic being; to dwell "in the center," as it were. Only in the center is our perspective true. Only there can we discriminate the authentic from the perimeter selves that we collectively call ego. But acting in response to the ego will only strengthen ego. It's like a muscle that gets stronger equally by flexion or extension. Only the authentic need be acted upon.
That is why esoteric practices like meditation and centering prayer are fundamental to spiritual development. Only by abiding in that center can we begin to discern the authentic. And when we do, we find that the authentic impulse is what reveals to us -- -- often against our own feelings and desires -- our true potential and how we must live in order to realize that potential. Once awakened, it places demands upon the individual, speaks continually, becomes the voice of intuition, the true heart.
That is why the first and most fundamental commitment that the spiritual practitioner must take on is to discover the authentic voice and to live by its every word. In reality, this is the only commitment we can make that sets on the spiritual path; until we do we will not learn to discern the authentic and our spiritual practice will strengthen the egoic and cause more confusion between the authentic and the peripheral. We must detach our identification and perspective from the outer selves and shift them to the authentic, claiming and embodying the highest impulse and potential within us, living up to the highest demands of our authentic voice. That is the spiritual call. Anything less will not lead to the true discovery and meaningful change that is the object of spiritual practice.
