Being a Soul breaks down the materialistic illusion of being bodies, bundles of emotions, sensations, thoughts, and leads into the realm of Truth.
By Roberto Assagioli, date unknown, from the Assagioli Archive in Florence. Translated by Gordon Symons. Original Title: Essere (To Be).
By making a vital distinction between having a Soul, (in which the first place is given to the personality, and the soul is considered as an “accessory”) and being a soul (which is precisely the opposite, and an affirmation of the truth) we must come to realize that our personal life is only the consequence of incarnation, and all its events are only accidents (more or less serious). And then the Soul – and the life of the Soul, and the Plan of the Soul to be implemented – becomes (is) reality, and personal life is the “accessory”, the transitory, the accidental, the relative one.
BEING, therefore, a soul, and living accordingly. Keeping to the absolute Truth of our being, freeing ourselves from the fetters, the burdens, the bonds, the oppressions of the minor truths. Everything can be true at its level and on its plane, but going to the extreme limit, to the broadest truth, is the continuous urge, the continuous yearning of the Soul.
When climbing a mountain, you can gradually see beautiful panoramas that in themselves could be satisfying and fulfilling, but the desire of those who climb is to reach the top, to the highest peak, and from there to contemplate the widest panorama, above the obstacles that limited it. The panoramas left below were not and are not ugly or valueless because of this (he who cannot go further, stops and is satisfied by them) but they are necessarily more limited, and the brave, vigorous mountaineer always aims to reach the highest peak, which opens the widest and freest horizon. From height to height to the summit, which is like the absolute truth of that particular ascent (which is like the task given by the Soul-Ego for that individual incarnation). No peak reached is actually the highest; it is only so for the moment and relatively, but precisely for that moment it is the maximum height (the maximum realization of oneself as Soul) beyond which it is not possible to go. Reaching that goal is – or should be – our daily work. The Soul cannot stop on the ledges, nor stop at the narrower panoramas, at Truths lesser than His Truth.
The soul must do its job, implement its plan, achieve its purpose. Therefore, in our most acute suffering, in the most opaque and grayest moments, let us remember that we ARE A SOUL, remember that our daily effort is liberation, ascending towards the highest and purest truth that our Soul, which WE, as SOULS, must and want to conquer. BEING a Soul. All of us Being Souls: realizing this breaks down the materialistic illusion of being bodies, bundles of emotions, sensations, thoughts, and leads into the realm of Truth. It reverses the meaning of life, the values of life. It is the true, essential Awakening. It is self-recognition, which does away with separation; it is a real transition from ignorance to knowledge, from illusion, from “dream” and from “lie” to essential “sincerity”, to TRUTH. “To tell the Truth means (esoterically) to express Transcendent Glory through one’s own form (personality)”
