Page 175 - Mystic Pathways through the Bible

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that leaves you feeling helpless. You may wait to nd an opportunity to offend the person equally or even with added interest. You might feel quite full of yourself at such a time; however, that feeling obstructs the perception of unity. It opposes your movement in expansion. And that type of movement intensi es ego, because for you to feel joyous about having hurt others, you must identify with your ego. The moment you understand the illusion of ego, there arises within you a sense of humiliation before your own eyes. You will realize, “I should not have stooped to that level.”
In acts of true kindness and mercy, there is a transcendence of ego. However, such an amazing and transformative process is not easy. It is dif cult to separate yourself even from ordinary physical things to which you are accustomed. It is far more challenging to be separated from the ego that you have been clinging to all your life.
If your mind begins to deeply appreciate qualities like compassion and begins to express them, you will spontaneously detach yourself from your ego. In the beginning, patience and endurance is required, often without any immediate reward. In fact, if you seek an external reward, then you have not understood virtue in the real sense. But gradually, as you persist with a deeper meditative process, you will realize that you have an eternal reward in the form