Opposed to this fluidity and aliveness are the dense ego structures, where the fluidity of our soul gets caught in frozen, rigidified, paralyzing rituals of suffering and tedium. They are entirely predictable, hold us spellbound by their dramas of pain and blame, yet are ultimately boring and deadening, compared to the aliveness and delicacy of the soul’s potential. Drug-like, they stimulate but also put us to sleep. They are the soul’s sleep.

Through the channels of the ego structures, the substance of the soul moves, but only in predictable, circumscribed patterns, repetitiously, over and over; like a tiger imprisoned in a cage, endlessly circling, instead of having the spontaneous powerful freedom it was born for.

It is the same life force, the same essential substance of self, but imprisoned by structures built of impressions, memories, woundings, images, thoughts, feelings, concepts, fears, beliefs, expectations, and attempts at protection. And yet, within is always the potential to flow freely, without restriction, and to release into the world that true elixir which is uniquely yours to express and give.

The work of development, of liberating our potential, must follow a double path.

One path leads within, to connect to, invite, and encourage the energies of our soul; to become more present to them, allowing them to become magnified and to manifest more fully in our consciousness and our life.

The other path allows us to step back from our ego patterns, to separate, so we can observe, understand, and through skillful means, start to dissolve them. We need to cultivate enough witness awareness and knowledge to do this.

Gradually, following this double path, we will notice the structured,  habitual self, the one we have come to call “I,” loosening its grip, until finally it no longer holds captive the true, luminous, infinite I whose life we have been waiting to live.