The topic of accepting the self is central to Confederation teachings, and this passage is the best I’ve seen so far in terms of describing the meaning of this at length. Perhaps some will find it useful?
Let us gaze know at what it is to accept the self. Accepting the self recapitulates the journey from head to heart, from manifestation to essence, which knowing the self offers. It is easy to accept the self intellectually. There are hundreds of clichés about the business of accepting the self:
“One person can only do so much.”
“I’m doing the best that I can.”
“I gave it my best shot.”
“Anybody would have done the same thing.”
With such commonplaces, the mind rationalizes the self to the self. And yet there is no satisfaction in such exercise. An entity may see the imperfection of the self and invoke an outer presence that comes from above to forgive. And there is an appropriateness to this construct, for the developing seeker has need for ways to ameliorate the effects of his awareness of falling short of his ideals and of making errors which he would take back if he could, but which he cannot take back.
In the song before this meditation began, the one known as Arlo was musing that “footsteps on the water take him back to who he is.” 5 So it is for this instrument, for in the figure of the one known as Jesus the Christ, walking upon the water and calming the storm, lies that outstretched hand which the seeker may take to bring him up out of the depths of his shame, his guilt, and his confusion.
Yet accepting the self goes beyond describing oneself as a wretch, as does the old hymn Amazing Grace. 6 It is almost, in this song, as if grace were the Lone Ranger that comes riding into town and saves the wretch from whatever peccadilloes or villains the Western desert has brought forth to threaten or to condemn. There is, in accepting the self, the necessity to move beyond the need for others’ acceptance of you and, likewise, to move beyond the need to beg acceptance of a higher power. For if one depends forever upon a higher power to be acceptable or to achieve acceptance or goodness as a spirit, then one can never become the Creator, but shall always remain a beggar at the Lord’s table.
And many are content so to be. Yet the intent of the instruction to accept the self has to do with allowing the redemptive power such as a figure as Jesus the Christ to become internalized. It is to acknowledge the oneness between the imperfect self and the perfected self. It is to accept the power of one’s ability to judge. It is to accept one’s essence as magical and creative.
If all the world accepts you, yet you reject yourself as unworthy, you shall be unworthy; you shall not be acceptable. So the work of accepting the self is the work of gathering these awarenesses of self into full awareness and consciousness and then finding within that self the upwelling creatorship which is able to forgive the self for being its imperfect self.
Accepting the self is a matter of becoming a judge that is not condemnatory but compassionate. We do not argue in any way that each entity has many self-perceived imperfections. However, the nature of acceptance of the self is such that to accept the self is to forgive and to redeem the self.
And how shall that be done? It begins with the bare idea of the possibility of forgiveness. With an upwelling of faith that forgiveness is possible, a seeker may begin to have compassion upon himself. His interest is not in making excuses for himself or rationalizing things done amiss or things not done which ought to have been done, in the seeker’s opinion. Rather, it is in the growing willingness to go after the lost sheep of imperfection and imperfect actions and to carry them back into the heart to be loved, respected, honored and forgiven.
It is the work of considerable spiritual maturity to accept the self. Even if every external action in a seeker’s life is perfect in the seeker’s own opinion, yet still the seeker knows his secret thoughts. He is aware of the mean and petty emotions that churn, unspoken and unrevealed to the world, within his heart. To accept the self, then, the seeker faces these very imperfections and, with willingness to flow into them, he moves into the energy body to the point where those energies dwell: in the shadows of red ray or orange ray or yellow ray; in lust or greed or the desire to persuade, manipulate or control. And he goes after that part of himself that covets; that part of himself that wishes to do murder; that part of himself that wishes to take that which he wants, even though it is not his.
He brings it back as the lost sheep, carrying it tenderly, returning it to the whole system of his being, bringing it into the compassionate heart of hearts wherein lies his part of the creative principle, his spark of the One. For never mistake that the fire of oneness burns within all, known or unknown.
Accepting the self, just as knowing the self, is an unending exploration, for there is always that which is new. New circumstances spring forth and create new situations in which the self has previously been untried. And each interaction in each situation brings its fruit of self-knowledge and its opportunity for further integration into self-acceptance.
The end result of these two processes together is to become the Creator, compassionate, loving and understanding. This is gained by working upon the self. And once one has forgiven and become compassionate towards the self, then that entity becomes that magical person who is able to love, forgive and have compassion on others.
This also facilitates the process of seeing the balance of things, both sides of an action or a feeling, and becoming more able to choose with complete freedom the action one chooses to take in the very short time we have here to learn in this format about the depth of our selves, of the Creator.