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Distinction between Ego and Unique Self #21: Special Relationship or Open as Love

June 18, 2013 By 1 Comment
Exclusive Rubber Stamp by Stuart Miles

©Stuart Miles, www.freedigitalphotos.net

by Dr. Marc Gafni from Your Unique Self

Your ego always seeks the “special relationship”—in the egoic sense—to cover the pain of your emptiness, and thinks the “special relationship” is better than all the rest of your relationships. The Unique Self does not limit love to one person, even though the traditional definition of marriage or a committed relationship can limit you to one partner at a time. The Unique Self lives open as love in the world.

 

 

Further discussion:

VIP by Salvatore Vuono

©Salvatore Vuono,
www.freedigitalphotos.net

Our ego, which is our contracted self-sense of being merely a separate self, separate from the All-that-is, feels the pain of that separation and contracts even more. It wants to cover up that pain. It wants to cover up that nagging feeling of emptiness. So, it always looks for that one “special” person who is worthy of being connected to, that “special relationship” that will make “me” special, too. And because no one can ever do that, it will leave a trail of unhappy and often failed relationships. [Read more…]

Filed Under: 25 Distinctions Between Unique Self and Ego, Articles & Essays, Blog, Book Reviews & Quotes, CIW Founders, Conscious Eros & Relationships, free membership, Love, Marc Gafni, Membership, Publishing Division, Spirit's Next Move, Unique Self, Unique Self Ebooks, Unique Self Media, Unique Self Practices, Unique Self, Psychology & Therapy, Unique Self, Unique We, Love & Relationships Tagged With:

Distinction between Ego and Unique Self #19: Paradox or Splitting

June 7, 2013 By 1 Comment
Sunrise Over The Sea With Pier On The Foreground by tratong, www.freedigitalphotos.net

©tratong, www.freedigitalphotos.net

by Dr. Marc Gafni from Your Unique Self

The ego is always splitting. It always sees dualities, and it cannot hold paradox or complexity. For the ego, others are either enemies or friends. Actions are either good or bad. The separate-self ego has a very hard time stably holding perspectives other than its own for extended periods of time. The Unique Self can naturally hold paradox. Contact with the transcendent within the large field of divine reality allows for the holding of opposites. Sacred outrage and equanimity live in paradoxical harmony within the Unique Self.

 

Further discussion:

Here we meet with one of the paradoxes of the Unique Self teachings, which is that we can wake up to realize Unique Self (as a state experience), since it is our very essence, which is always already present, yet, to really live it in a sustainable way, we need to also grow up to higher levels of consciousness and complexity.

How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress. (Niels Bohr)

  [Read more…]

Filed Under: 25 Distinctions Between Unique Self and Ego, Articles & Essays, Blog, Book Reviews & Quotes, CIW Founders, free membership, Marc Gafni, Membership, Publishing Division, Spirit's Next Move, Unique Self, Unique Self & Development, Unique Self Ebooks, Unique Self Media, Unique Self Practices, Unique Self, Perspective & Integral Theory Tagged With:

Wisdom for your week: Thought Leader Dialogue between Richard Barrett and Marc Gafni: The Unique Self and the Organizational Success: The Path of Organizational Transformation

June 5, 2013 By 3 Comments
arztsamui, www.freedigitalphotos.net

©arztsamui, www.freedigitalphotos.net 

In the second dialogue of this 3-part series, our two leaders, Richard Barrett and Marc Gafni, speak about how the teachings on soul and Unique Self can be applied to organizations and lead to more success of the organizations as well as the individuals.

Listen to this wonderful and insightful dialogue and read the summary of their discussion below.

To read more about the extensive work of Richard Barrett and listen to the first dialogue on “The Unique Self and Soul Activation: The Path of Personal Transformation” you can click here.

The third part of the series “Unique Self, Organizational Leadership, and the Destiny of Nations” on “The Unique Self and Societal Development: The Path of Societal Transformation” will be held on June 15th, and you can still register for it here. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Audio & Video, Blog, CIW Founders, Conscious Business, Conscious Entrepreneurship, Conscious Leadership, free membership, Marc Gafni, Marc Gafni & Richard Barrett, Membership, Publishing Division, Purpose & Values, Thought Leader Dialogues, Unique Gifts, Unique Self, Unique Self & Business, Unique Self Application & Research, Unique Self Dialogues & Audios, Unique Self Media, Unique Self, Unique We, Love & Relationships, Wisdom for your Week Series Tagged With:

Distinction between Ego and Unique Self #18: Responsibility or Excuse

June 2, 2013 By 4 Comments
File With Excuses Word by Stuart Miles

©Stuart Miles, www.freedigitalphotos.net

by Dr. Marc Gafni from Your Unique Self

The ego very rarely takes substantive responsibility. When the ego attempts to take responsibility, it creates a painful, virtually unbearable contraction in the self. So the ego becomes the master of the excuse. The Unique Self is able to take responsibility spontaneously, lightly, and with full gravitas. The Unique Self holds with equal measure of gravitas and ease its own responsibility and its rightful anger at injustice. Usually, the ego advises the other person to “take responsibility,” while the ego itself wallows in the real and imagined offenses that it has suffered.

 

 

Further discussion:

Just hearing words like responsibility or obligation often lets our ego contract in pain and sometimes anger. From our separate selves the idea of taking responsibility often seems like pure impertinence. Finding the balance between taking the right measure of personal responsibility and being gentle with ourselves seems to be an important issue for most of us. [Read more…]

Filed Under: 25 Distinctions Between Unique Self and Ego, Articles & Essays, Blog, Book Reviews & Quotes, CIW Founders, free membership, Marc Gafni, Membership, Publishing Division, Spirit's Next Move, Unique Gifts, Unique Obligation, Unique Self, Unique Self & Development, Unique Self Ebooks, Unique Self Media, Unique Self Practices, Unique Self, Unique We, Love & Relationships, Unique Story, Calling & Sacred Autobiography Tagged With:

Distinction between Ego and Unique Self #15: Bigger or Smaller

May 23, 2013 By 1 Comment
Baby's Hand Holding Mother's Finger by gubgib, www.freedigitalphotos.net

©Baby’s Hand Holding Mother’s Finger by gubgib, www.freedigitalphotos.net 

by Dr. Marc Gafni from Your Unique Self

When you are in ego, people feel smaller when you walk into the room. They feel invisible before you. The result is that they feel depleted and in danger. When you are in your Unique Self, people feel bigger when you walk into the room. They feel seen by you. They feel your desire to love and give to them.

 

 

Further discussion:

Don’t we all recognize that? Somebody walks into a room, and we immediately feel smaller? And in somebody else’s company we feel great, empowered, seen, and loved?

But why is this so? Aren’t those feelings of smallness and our dependency on other people’s acknowledgement related to our own bad self-esteem, as much of the New Age popular psychology makes us believe? [Read more…]

Filed Under: 25 Distinctions Between Unique Self and Ego, Articles & Essays, Blog, Book Reviews & Quotes, CIW Founders, free membership, Marc Gafni, Membership, Publishing Division, Unique Self, Unique Self Application & Research, Unique Self Ebooks, Unique Self Media, Unique Self Practices, Unique Self, Psychology & Therapy, Unique Self, Unique We, Love & Relationships, Unique Shadow, Unique Story, Calling & Sacred Autobiography Tagged With:

Betrayal or Loyalty – Distinction between Ego and Unique Self #13

May 15, 2013 By 4 Comments
Heart Rotto by Idea go, www.freedigitalphotos.net

©Heart Rotto by Idea go, www.freedigitalphotos.net

by Dr. Marc Gafni from Your Unique Self

The ego betrays. The Unique Self is loyal. When you are in your ego, and things go bad, you are willing—in your fear—to betray virtually anyone. Your ego is easily identifiable by the shallowness of its integrity. If you live in Unique Self and things go bad, you find your way, through thick or thin, to a deeper center of spirit.

 

 

 

 

Further discussion:

Betrayal: Isn’t this something from the soap operas on TV, but not something that we would ever do to another person? Can’t we all just relax and say: look at how advanced I am in living my Unique Self?

On the other hand: Haven’t we all had experiences where we felt betrayed? How do we react when we feel betrayed? [Read more…]

Filed Under: 25 Distinctions Between Unique Self and Ego, Articles & Essays, Blog, Book Reviews & Quotes, CIW Founders, free membership, Marc Gafni, Membership, Publishing Division, Spirit's Next Move, Unique Self, Unique Self Ebooks, Unique Self Media, Unique Self Practices, Unique Self, Unique We, Love & Relationships, Unique Shadow, Unique Story, Calling & Sacred Autobiography Tagged With:

Distinction between Ego and Unique Self #11 – King or Servant

May 8, 2013 By 1 Comment
Fallen Leader by podpad, www.freedigitalphotos.net

Fallen Leader by podpad, www.freedigitalphotos.net

by Dr. Marc Gafni in Your Unique Self.

Ego is the servant pretending to be a king. You are avoiding stepping into your Unique Self for fear of being a king. Your ego thinks it is God but does not really believe it, so your ego insanely tries to make itself the God it knows it is not. Your Unique Self knows it is God, so it acts in the world with majesty, audacity, and grace.

 

 

Further discussion:

We can take a lot of different perspectives on today’s issue. Let’s try on a couple of them. [Read more…]

Filed Under: 25 Distinctions Between Unique Self and Ego, Articles & Essays, Blog, Book Reviews & Quotes, CIW Founders, free membership, Marc Gafni, Membership, Publishing Division, Spirit's Next Move, Unique Self, Unique Self Ebooks, Unique Self Media, Unique Self Practices, Unique Self, Perspective & Integral Theory Tagged With:

Eros or Grasping: Distinction between Ego and Unique Self #9

May 1, 2013 By 1 Comment
Eros Cupid Statue London by Vichaya Kiatying-Angsulee, www.freedigitalphotos.net

Eros Cupid Statue London by Vichaya Kiatying-Angsulee

 

by Dr. Marc Gafni from Your Unique Self

The ego is not erotic. Unique Self lives in Eros. To live in Eros means to live with fullness of presence and with a felt sense of wholeness. It is to yearn urgently and ecstatically, without grasping and to experience interiority, the feeling of being on the inside. This is the experience of Unique Self. The ego lives with the feeling of always being on the outside. It fragments, grasps, and never shows up fully present to other. Unique Self lives in Eros.

 

For further discussion:

What is Eros? And what does it mean to live an erotic life?

Well, clearly: It is not sex! [Read more…]

Filed Under: 25 Distinctions Between Unique Self and Ego, Articles & Essays, Blog, Book Reviews & Quotes, CIW Founders, Conscious Eros & Relationships, Evolution of Love, free membership, Love, Marc Gafni, Membership, Publishing Division, Qualities of Eros, Spirit's Next Move, The Erotic & The Holy, Unique Self, Unique Self Ebooks, Unique Self Media, Unique Self Practices, Unique Self, Unique We, Love & Relationships, Unique Shadow Tagged With:

Joy or Fear: Distinction between Ego and Unique Self #7

April 24, 2013 By 1 Comment
Multicolored Ink Drop by posterize, www.freedigitalphotos.net

by posterize

by Dr. Marc Gafni in Your Unique Self

The Unique Self is in joy. Joy is the natural by-product of living your Unique Self story. The ego is rarely happy and often plagued by an underlying feeling of fear, deadness, or depression. The happiness that the ego does experience is of a heavier and less richly textured quality than the joy of the Unique Self. The joy of the Unique Self is lighter and freer, often verging on the ecstatic.

 

For further discussion:

“Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies.” ~ Erich Fromm

Joy has become front and center in our everyday psychology. And we often feel that there is something wrong with us when we don’t feel happy all the time. The pursuit of happiness is even one of our constitutional rights.

But what do we mean by that? And why is joy called a by-product here if it is that important? [Read more…]

Filed Under: 25 Distinctions Between Unique Self and Ego, Articles & Essays, Blog, Book Reviews & Quotes, CIW Founders, free membership, Marc Gafni, Membership, Publishing Division, Spirit's Next Move, Unique Self, Unique Self Application & Research, Unique Self Ebooks, Unique Self Media, Unique Self Practices, Unique Self, Psychology & Therapy, Unique Shadow, Unique Story, Calling & Sacred Autobiography Tagged With:

Enough or More: Distinction between Ego and Unique Self #5

April 17, 2013 By 1 Comment
Tree In Blossom by dan, www.freedigitalphotos.net

by dan

by Dr. Marc Gafni in Your Unique Self

Your ego thinks that there is never enough to go around. It always needs more to feel like it exists at all. Your Unique Self knows that it is enough. Your Unique Self knows that there is enough to go around.

Your Unique Self strives for more, not to fill the emptiness but as an expression of the fullness of its being—bursting forth as the evolutionary impulse of the kosmos.

 

For more on distinctions between ego and Unique Self, check out the upcoming Unique Self telecourse starting April 24.  This is a not-to-be missed course on the new spiritual book and teaching that everyone is talking about!

 

 

For further discussion: [Read more…]

Filed Under: 25 Distinctions Between Unique Self and Ego, Articles & Essays, Blog, Book Reviews & Quotes, CIW Founders, free membership, Marc Gafni, Membership, Publishing Division, Spirit's Next Move, Unique Self, Unique Self Ebooks, Unique Self Media, Unique Self Practices, Unique Shadow Tagged With:

Imitation or Originality: Distinction between Unique Self and Ego #3

April 10, 2013 By 2 Comments
Brain Design By Cogs And Gears by MR LIGHTMAN www.freedigitalphotos.net

by MR LIGHTMAN

 

from Dr. Marc Gafni’s Your Unique Self.

Ego imitates. Unique Self is original. Your ego is trapped in imitation. For the ego is, by its very definition, in limitation. Limitation leads to imitation. So the ego is always living the life of limitation based on imitation, which leads to mindless competition. Your ego is in constant competition, which leads to compulsive comparison and dissatisfaction. Originality, which is a quality of Unique Self, freed from the tyranny of comparison, is by its nature both urgently creative and self-satisfied.

Your ego never thinks an original thought. Originality emerges from your Unique Face, which is evoked by contact with your Original Face. “Original Face” is the Buddhist way of describing the experience of sustained contact with the eternal, transcendent Ground of Being. Originality gives birth to action beyond reaction. Your Unique Becoming emerges from your immersion in Being.

We are excited to announce a transformational 10-week Unique Self telecourse that starts April 24th!

 

For further discussion: Here is what some famous people have said about originality.

“The principle mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new frontiers.” ~ Arthur Koestler

“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.” ~ C. S. Lewis

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” ~ Herman Melville

“The merit of originality is not novelty; it is sincerity.” ~ Thomas Carlyle

What is YOUR take on it? Where does originality show in your life?

Where do you already live from your original face? From your Unique Self?

What do you like about it? What seems to be difficult?

 

Let us know your thoughts in the comment section – here or on our Facebook page.

Filed Under: 25 Distinctions Between Unique Self and Ego, Articles & Essays, Beauty & Creativity, Blog, Book Reviews & Quotes, CIW Founders, Conscious Eros & Relationships, Marc Gafni, Membership, open - no membership, Publishing Division, Spirit's Next Move, Unique Self, Unique Self & Creativity, Unique Self Application & Research, Unique Self Ebooks, Unique Self Media, Unique Self Practices Tagged With:

Special or Not Special – Ego and Unique Self Distinction #1

April 2, 2013 By 2 Comments

Hummingbird by Christian Meyn, www.freedigitalphotos.net

by Marc Gafni  from  Your Unique Self

Your ego thinks that you are special because you are better or worse than other people. Your Unique Self knows you are special because you are yourself. For the ego, “special” means “better than.” For your Unique Self, “special” or “different” means distinct and free from any comparison or point of reference. Your specialness is your spontaneous experience of your essence.

 

For more distinctions between Ego and Unique Self listen to and watch the minicourse.

 

For further discussion:

Everybody has his or her own way of feeling special in the sense of ego specialness – every type, every level of consciousness. For some it might even be the belief that everybody else is special except me. Basically all those patterns are based on the insecurity: Does my life count at all? Do I have a right to exist if I am not more or better than…?

Going through the spiral dynamics model we find a couple of those “specialties”:

1. Beige: I am more vital and physically stronger than you.

2. Purple: I am closer to the spirits and the inner circle of the family or tribe than you.

3. Red: I am more powerful.

4. Blue: I am more righteous and closer to the Absolute.

5. Orange: I am more successful.

6. Green: I am more sensitive.

7. Yellow: I am more knowledgeable and developed.

8. Turquoise: I am more connected to the Whole and the Evolutionary Impulse.

 

Consider:

Watch these tendencies in yourself today.

And also recognize when your Unique Self shows up: When firmly anchored in the inherent specialness of our own essence, our Unique Self, we can relax, sink into Being, and allow the other person to BE as well. Then we immediately fall in love and awe when we look into each other’s eyes and faces, really recognizing our shared essence as well as each other’s absolute unique specialness.

Please share your thoughts and experiences on this in the comment section – here or on our Facebook page.

For more information on Spiral Dynamics and Unique Self, see the dialogue between Don Beck and Marc Gafni.

 

Filed Under: 25 Distinctions Between Unique Self and Ego, Articles & Essays, Blog, Book Reviews & Quotes, CIW Founders, Marc Gafni, Membership, open - no membership, Publishing Division, Spirit's Next Move, Unique Self, Unique Self & Development, Unique Self Ebooks, Unique Self Media, Unique Self Practices Tagged With:

Center for World Spirituality Mystery School of Love (aka Summer Festival of Love) Venwoude International Retreat Center, Holland

April 1, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The following video gives you a small taste of the Center for World Spirituality Mystery School of Love (aka Summer Festival of Love) run in partnership with Venwoude International retreat center.

The Mystery School is an annual eight day event which takes place at the end of July and the first week of August. The morning dharma teaching is by Dr. Marc Gafni with an all star team of teachers leading breakout sessions in the afternoon.

The Mystery School is a profound enlightenment teaching intensive where the practices revolve around awakening to what Dr. Marc calls Your Unique Self. This awakening to your true nature and to the sacred activism that is the invitation of your life is rooted in a powerful realization of the unique love beauty and love intelligence of all that is, that lives in you, as you and through you.

Many students report profound enlightenment experiences during mystery schools. Those experiences however are but pointers towards a stable and integrated awakening to your unique self that has the potential to literally change everything even as you deepen and transform from where you are. This is the path of what Dr. Marc calls the evolutionary lover or the outrageous lover. At the core of the dharma is Dr. Marc’s core mantra: We live in a world of outrageous pain. The only response to outrageous pain is outrageous love.

Next Venwoude Festival / Mystery School:  July 27th – August 3rd, 2013
Info here: http://www.venwoude.nl/summerfestival.htm

 

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Our Unique and our Authentic Self (Tom Steininger and Sonja Student in Dialogue; Translated by Kerstin Tuschik)

February 19, 2013 By 1 Comment

WakingUp-225Note: The following article is an English translation by Kerstin Tuschik of an article by Tom Steininger and Sonja Student regarding perspectives of a new spirituality for our times. It was first published in the German magazine EnlightenNext Impulse. 

TOM STEININGER: Of late we have spoken a lot about the Authentic Self and the Unique Self. [The Authentic Self teaching is widely associated with spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen among others and the Unique Self teaching with Marc Gafni and his book Your Unique Self.] This discussion is about how we can find a new understanding of spirituality in the 21 century. Is there also a new self-perception emerging through this new spirituality, a new spiritual self-concept?

SONJA STUDENT: Yes, at first we realize that in a new spirituality the evolutionary perspective plays a very important role. In the spirituality of today it is not only about realizing the timelessness or the primordial ground of being. In our inside we have to attend to other dimensions as well. This exceeds the classical terms of enlightenment. In these matters we cannot rely exclusively on the mystical traditions or the great world religions any longer. This is why the Integral Theory says that it is not only about waking up, but simultaneously about the process of growing up. We have to take care of becoming adult and developed personalities as well.

TS: Yes, we need both. The mystical teachings are about waking up, enlightenment. Many integral or evolutionary interested people forgot how important the dimension of the Absolute is, how important transcendence is. This dimension however takes center stage in all the traditional, mystical paths. In the East one speaks about the experience of Being, in Buddhism about the emptiness, the Christian mystics called it the direct experience of God. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles & Essays, Audio & Video, Blog, CIW Europe, Enlightenment of Fullness, Enlightenment Teachings, Evolutionary Spirituality, free membership, Integral God, Integral Religion, Integral Worldview & Theory, Membership, Publishing Division, Spirit's Next Move, Thought Leader Dialogues, Translineage, Unique Self, Unique Self Dialogues & Audios, Unique Self Media, Unique Self, Authentic Self & Evolutionary Spirituality, Unique Self, Perspective & Integral Theory, World Spirituality Tagged With:

Love in Action: Unique Self – Unique Projects

October 8, 2012 By 1 Comment

Integral Project Development: a way to consciously and actively participate in the Evolution of LOVE

By Kerstin Tuschik

So, alright: Let’s talk about Love!

For me, Love has always been the One force that moves the whole universe: the mysterious drive behind the big bang, the cosmic glue that linked elementary particles to atoms, atoms to molecules, molecules to cells, cells to organisms, up and up the evolutionary spiral until we get to human beings. And of course it doesn’t end here, but continues to expand our consciousness and drives our social and cultural development as a species as well as on a very personal scale.

Love for me is another name for God.

Yet, if all of this is so, why is there so much suffering in the world? Why do people kill each other in wars about their respective worldviews? Why do more than 900 million people suffer from hunger worldwide while we are throwing food away, and we would technically be able to supply everyone with enough food? Why…? (Fill in your favorite Why here!)

The evolution of Love depends on us! God depends on us!

Growing up – responsibility for the creation process

The childhood of humanity is over, collectively we have approached adolescence with all the chaos this brings, and at least some of us are starting to grow into adulthood. Growing up here means to become conscious co-creators, partners of God, of Love, of evolution, and of course this also brings increased responsibility. Our actions and non-actions have an impact on All-That-Is. Let’s not become paralyzed by this, but do our homework to learn to master the creation process…

[Read more…]

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