To become a god requires complete, unconditional surrender to the all, sacrificing your self (ego) to your Self (nature, Atman). In Norse Mythology, Woton hung himself upon a tree for 9 days, sacrificing himself to himself (Since he was already a god). The sense you get out of that is the need, in order for the ‘god’ energy to come through, of sacrificing, of lancing, the individual self, the separate, narrowly contained self (Which sounds a whole lot like the ‘Ego’) in order to let the ‘All’ (The infinite, the eternal) come through.
Now this doesn’t mean you literally go out and ‘crucify’ yourself or hurt yourself physically in any way. This is a psychological thing. These metaphors, these allegories, point to psychological, spiritual ‘quests.’ It’s tricky because what is Ego exactly in your day to day life? It may be something relatively benign like this: Am I do this activity (job, hobby, social, sport) because I, myself, my ‘inner’ self (That’s the one closer to the ‘Atman’) want to do it, or am I doing it for something or someone else (attention, money, to please someone else)?
That’s one idea. That first paragraph was a big, mythopoetic phrase. It’s great. It feels good to sing! But then the second paragraph explores how to take that ‘Poetic’ language and actually apply it to your life right here and now. I hate to use the word ‘practical,’ but it seems one has to find a way to translate these ideas, written thousands of years ago, and also in big, broad, philosophical language, into a ‘real world’ application. I think that’s a good way to continue the exercise, quest, adventure, in a way that honors both sides of the equation: The Mythic, on one hand, which inspires but feels ‘out there’ + the “So, what do I actually do!?!?!?!” which is of the here and now, feels more mundane, but at the same time feels real.
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