Building cases—it’s something we all do. What makes me say this? Because having a Lower Self, which we’ll talk more about in a minute, is part of the human condition. And the Lower Self is famous for building cases.
The basic premise for building cases is that we believe this is a “me versus the other” world, and not the “me and the other” world it actually is. So the Lower Self thinks building cases is a smart thing to do to keep us safe and separate.
In reality, separation is at the root of all our suffering. So what our cases really do is create unnecessary conflict. For they are always built upon misunderstandings.
Who do we build cases against?
The cases we build are always against someone or something—some person, group, organization or entity. One of our favorite places to build a case is against our own selves. In our mind, we might highlight all our failures and missteps. Here, the goal of the Lower Self is to make us feel so bad about ourselves that we turn against ourselves.
Certainly, we all make mistakes. But our mistakes are not all of who we are.
Another favorite place to build cases is against our relationship partner or boss. Both of these people tuck nicely into the slot of our parents. So whatever unresolved issues we have with our parents—whatever childhood hurts we have not yet healed—we blindly transfer onto these people. The result? We will see a very slanted view of them and the situations we face with them.
A third crowd-pleaser for building cases—sometimes very elaborate ones—is against an aspect of the government or a part of the medical establishment. Typically, these are actually prebuilt cases that other people offer us which we then buy and claim as our own.
What do all cases have in common?
The Lower Self is our storehouse of once-fine qualities that have gotten twisted, or distorted, into their negative counterpart. And what does the Lower Self twist the most? The truth. Half-truths are the Lower Self’s playground. By using half-truths to create confusion, the Lower Self spreads evil all around.
So the thing that all our cases have in common is that they are built on a grain of truth. This is what makes them so tricky to unravel. We must tease apart the genuine “wrongs” of ourselves and others, and stop piling on.
And let’s face it, there is plenty of wrong to go around. After all, we’re all human, and that adds up. Honestly, it is not hard work to see the error in others. It’s much harder to see their humanity.
The Lower Self has a partner
The Lower Self cannot get very far without the able-bodied assistance of the ego. Unlike the Lower Self—which is filled with fractures, fragments and splits—the ego is itself a fragment. So by definition, the ego is limited.
The ego’s biggest limitation is that it is forever bound by the black-and-white world of duality. To the ego then, everything in life is either:
- Life or death
- Right or wrong
- Good or bad
- Win or lose
From its limited perspective, the ego is intent on living. This means it must always be right—in order to always win—and to therefore survive. This is the reason the ego digs in its heels.
In this way, the ego also plays into one the three main faults of the Lower Self: pride. Believing we know more than others and have all the answers is basically a big, prideful headrush for the ego/Lower Self team. Note, pride can also flip around and make us feel less than everyone.
Behind our cases, we also feel a fear—the second main fault—that “the other is out to get me”. It may even be more like a paranoia. This fuels our drive to maintain a fighting stance to keep ourselves safe. But all fear is built on illusion, so acting against it only makes things worse.
The third main fault is self-will. With the building blocks of pride and fear in place, we will use our self-will to either do certain things—think: insurrection at the U.S. Capitol—or not do certain things, by resisting and withholding.
What’s the way out?
Once we are underway in building a case, it can be very hard to let it go. Because the Lower Self is highly charged. It’s our own life force working against our own best interest.
How well do you think it will work to try to convince the ego/Lower Self partnership to give up its case? Well, for the ego, this will mean it is wrong…which is bad…and means we lose…which is death.
Not. Going. To. Happen.
So the only way out is for the ego to start waking up to what it is doing. We must start noticing what is bobbing in our awareness and then not bite the hook. Then, the part of us observing ourselves is not caught in the case. Now we have a toehold on firmer ground and can begin to work our way out.
This would be a good time to pray to be shown the truth.
And then we ourselves must take the necessary steps to start unwinding the cases we have built. We’ll need to knock back our pride and walk through our fear to sort out our misunderstandings. And we are the only ones who can do this.
Why bother?
What the ego may not realize is that there is another part of the self, called the Higher Self, that has no limitations. It lives in unity and has the unfathomable ability—according to the ego—to hold opposites.
The Higher Self is the part of us that loves. It also holds courage and wisdom. By taking steps to get these three into balance, we can live in an ever-increasing state of inner peace.
Beyond this, unlike the well-worn grooves of the ego, the Higher Self is flowing and fluid. It is the source of our intuition and inspiration. It’s also the home of our creativity and the source of divine guidance.
To flow with these worthy streams, the ego must learn to let go of its tight grip on itself and stop aligning with Lower Self. If we do this—if we learn to start listening to what arises from our Higher Self, within—everything can change.
Literally everything.
The search for fulfillment
The ego is not all bad in wanting to understand. Asking probing questions is not the problem. After all, developing good discernment is an important part of walking a spiritual path. The problem is, the ego doesn’t have a limiter.
Meaning, the ego doesn’t know satisfaction or fulfillment. Its nature is to always want more, and it always wants to win. It won’t be happy until the other is dead, figuratively speaking of course. And this will never change for the ego.
What can change is our over-alignment with our ego. The ego can learn to surrender to a greater part of ourselves. We may not realize that this has always been the plan for the ego. First it holds our fragmented parts together, then it lets go of itself and learns to trust and serve the divine.
Eventually it dissolves, not dies.
Until then, when we stay stuck within the confines of our limited ego—demanding we are right and insisting on always winning—we become lost in a prison of our own making.
Open the cage and discover the truth of who you really are.
– Jill Loree
Jill Loree
Building cases—it’s something we all do. What makes me say this? Because having a Lower Self, which we’ll talk more about in a minute, is part of the human condition. And the Lower Self is famous for building cases.
The basic premise for building cases is that we believe this is a “me versus the other” world, and not the “me and the other” world it actually is. So the Lower Self thinks building cases is a smart thing to do to keep us safe and separate.
In reality, separation is at the root of all our suffering. So what our cases really do is create unnecessary conflict. For they are always built upon misunderstandings.
Who do we build cases against?
The cases we build are always against someone or something—some person, group, organization or entity. One of our favorite places to build a case is against our own selves. In our mind, we might highlight all our failures and missteps. Here, the goal of the Lower Self is to make us feel so bad about ourselves that we turn against ourselves.
Certainly, we all make mistakes. But our mistakes are not all of who we are.
Another favorite place to build cases is against our relationship partner or boss. Both of these people tuck nicely into the slot of our parents. So whatever unresolved issues we have with our parents—whatever childhood hurts we have not yet healed—we blindly transfer onto these people. The result? We will see a very slanted view of them and the situations we face with them.
A third crowd-pleaser for building cases—sometimes very elaborate ones—is against an aspect of the government or a part of the medical establishment. Typically, these are actually prebuilt cases that other people offer us which we then buy and claim as our own.
What do all cases have in common?
The Lower Self is our storehouse of once-fine qualities that have gotten twisted, or distorted, into their negative counterpart. And what does the Lower Self twist the most? The truth. Half-truths are the Lower Self’s playground. By using half-truths to create confusion, the Lower Self spreads evil all around.
So the thing that all our cases have in common is that they are built on a grain of truth. This is what makes them so tricky to unravel. We must tease apart the genuine “wrongs” of ourselves and others, and stop piling on.
And let’s face it, there is plenty of wrong to go around. After all, we’re all human, and that adds up. Honestly, it is not hard work to see the error in others. It’s much harder to see their humanity.
The Lower Self has a partner
The Lower Self cannot get very far without the able-bodied assistance of the ego. Unlike the Lower Self—which is filled with fractures, fragments and splits—the ego is itself a fragment. So by definition, the ego is limited.
The ego’s biggest limitation is that it is forever bound by the black-and-white world of duality. To the ego then, everything in life is either:
From its limited perspective, the ego is intent on living. This means it must always be right—in order to always win—and to therefore survive. This is the reason the ego digs in its heels.
In this way, the ego also plays into one the three main faults of the Lower Self: pride. Believing we know more than others and have all the answers is basically a big, prideful headrush for the ego/Lower Self team. Note, pride can also flip around and make us feel less than everyone.
Behind our cases, we also feel a fear—the second main fault—that “the other is out to get me”. It may even be more like a paranoia. This fuels our drive to maintain a fighting stance to keep ourselves safe. But all fear is built on illusion, so acting against it only makes things worse.
The third main fault is self-will. With the building blocks of pride and fear in place, we will use our self-will to either do certain things—think: insurrection at the U.S. Capitol—or not do certain things, by resisting and withholding.
What’s the way out?
Once we are underway in building a case, it can be very hard to let it go. Because the Lower Self is highly charged. It’s our own life force working against our own best interest.
How well do you think it will work to try to convince the ego/Lower Self partnership to give up its case? Well, for the ego, this will mean it is wrong…which is bad…and means we lose…which is death.
Not. Going. To. Happen.
So the only way out is for the ego to start waking up to what it is doing. We must start noticing what is bobbing in our awareness and then not bite the hook. Then, the part of us observing ourselves is not caught in the case. Now we have a toehold on firmer ground and can begin to work our way out.
This would be a good time to pray to be shown the truth.
And then we ourselves must take the necessary steps to start unwinding the cases we have built. We’ll need to knock back our pride and walk through our fear to sort out our misunderstandings. And we are the only ones who can do this.
Why bother?
What the ego may not realize is that there is another part of the self, called the Higher Self, that has no limitations. It lives in unity and has the unfathomable ability—according to the ego—to hold opposites.
The Higher Self is the part of us that loves. It also holds courage and wisdom. By taking steps to get these three into balance, we can live in an ever-increasing state of inner peace.
Beyond this, unlike the well-worn grooves of the ego, the Higher Self is flowing and fluid. It is the source of our intuition and inspiration. It’s also the home of our creativity and the source of divine guidance.
To flow with these worthy streams, the ego must learn to let go of its tight grip on itself and stop aligning with Lower Self. If we do this—if we learn to start listening to what arises from our Higher Self, within—everything can change.
Literally everything.
The search for fulfillment
The ego is not all bad in wanting to understand. Asking probing questions is not the problem. After all, developing good discernment is an important part of walking a spiritual path. The problem is, the ego doesn’t have a limiter.
Meaning, the ego doesn’t know satisfaction or fulfillment. Its nature is to always want more, and it always wants to win. It won’t be happy until the other is dead, figuratively speaking of course. And this will never change for the ego.
What can change is our over-alignment with our ego. The ego can learn to surrender to a greater part of ourselves. We may not realize that this has always been the plan for the ego. First it holds our fragmented parts together, then it lets go of itself and learns to trust and serve the divine.
Eventually it dissolves, not dies.
Until then, when we stay stuck within the confines of our limited ego—demanding we are right and insisting on always winning—we become lost in a prison of our own making.
Open the cage and discover the truth of who you really are.
– Jill Loree
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