Lessons of the Soul – Courtesy of the Wizard of Oz

One way of knowing that you have found your true purpose in life is that you no longer wish to be in any place other than right where you are.

How Your Higher Nature Prevails

As you come to own yourself, which is the sole purpose of this life, it becomes impossible to ever think or feel that you are owned by anything or anyone else. This is the only true strength.

It is an ironclad guarantee that this understanding, coupled with persistent self-observation, will gradually reveal to you that the false self, your lower nature, is nothing more than a shadow that can throw its voice. Its main job is to see that your troubles always appear to be everything and everywhere except what and where they really are. The only thing special about the false self is its wide range of special effects.

Do you remember The Wizard of Oz and how in their first meetings with the wizard, Dorothy and her lovable friends were so terrified? Each time the wizard spoke, his voice rolled through the grand hall like thunder! And how it appeared to the small band of friends, as they stood there shaking, that this mighty wizard had the power to hurl around spears of flame and smoke? To them, he seemed like a mighty being, maybe even a god–that is until Toto, Dorothy’s little dog, pulled back a certain curtain that exposed a strange little man standing at an elaborate control panel. Whoever this man was, he was very busy pushing buttons and pulling on levers and talking a mile a minute into a microphone. At the same instant that he would push a button or pull a lever, flames or smoke would billow through the hall. And each time he spoke in his tiny voice into the microphone, the hall would be filled with the roar of the wizard’s voice shouting out the exact same words. Suddenly it was obvious to Dorothy that the great “wizard” was in reality just a powerful projection created by the little man hiding behind the curtain.

In fact, this little man was so involved with his act that he didn’t know his hiding place had been discovered until Dorothy sternly told him to stop his performance. But even as Dorothy stood there, shocked at the cruel trick that had been played on her, she realized in the same instant that there was no more reason to be scared and troubled. The show was over! It was in her seeing that there came her freedom.

Self-observation is how we learn to become inwardly vigilant to our own thoughts and feelings, even as they pass through us. When we can observe ourselves in this new way, our higher nature naturally prevails over any troubling thoughts or feelings that want to drag us down into their lower world.

There is no greater power for self-change than self-observation because this new inner vision alone can provide you with true self-knowledge. Don’t be concerned with anything you may see. Remember, light need never fear any shadow, and anything you may discover within you that is frightening comes from the shadow world. Your only task is to bring it into the light of your new understanding, and let it handle the rest. You will be happy to learn that nothing brings the curtain down faster on the false self than this special kind of inner attention.

This article is excerpted from The Secret of Letting Go (pages 57-66).