March 27, 2022 Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton, focus on ”Self-Effacement,” live on Zoom

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But twice a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for spontaneous chat, more readings, songs, quotes, you never know what treasures will be uncovered!

Meher Baba has said, "The way of My Work is the way of effacement, which is the way of strength, not of weakness and through it you become mature in My love."

What does Baba mean by self-effacement? Is it having a negative view of oneself? Does it mean having low self-esteem, feeling ourselves as being small? Do such attitudes lead to self-forgetfulness and effacement?

Is it possible to have high self-esteem without egoism? Baba has said we have to efface our lower self. What is the lower self? He defined it as...

"That which makes you think you are small, that which makes you feel that you are not satisfied, not happy, that which makes others see you as small. So, the meaning of going against the lower self is to transform this in quite the opposite direction. Be that which makes you look big and makes others see you as big. Remain pleased and contented, happy and satisfied. When you are displeased, unhappy or upset and moody, it is your lower self asserting itself.” Therefore, according to Baba, thinking of ourselves as small is not self-effacement, but it would seem that a high self-esteem is what He is encouraging.

What are some of the ways that lead to self-effacement?

Baba has said that by expressing a self-giving love rather than venting our ego with all its negative emotions of pride, lust, greed and anger, the negative emotions gradually begin to be effaced by the divinely human qualities within us.For example, Baba has said that lust is gradually replaced by purity; greed is replaced by generosity; anger by tolerance and patience.

Baba also gave supreme importance to saying His name as a means to self-effacement: Meherwan Jessawala, Eruch’s brother, has said that taking Baba’s name is like introducing termites into our interior: the inner space is eaten away until it is hollowed out, making more and more room for Baba to live in us! Remember the game of Pac Man?

Does self-effacement mean giving up even our spiritual experiences? Rick Chapman, in his meeting with Baba at Meherazad in 1966, was told by Him, "In fact, pay no attention whatsoever to the spiritual path, the planes of consciousness, or to any spiritual experiences—they are all nothing but toys for children, because they are nothing but illusion.” Is Baba implying, therefore, to even renounce our "spiritual potential" in favor of self-effacement? How many spiritual teachers would recommend this?

Darwin Shaw used to say with an enigmatic smile on his face, “Sooner or later we discover we are nobody, and that is not an unhappy discovery!”

Let’s hopefully lose ourselves in this topic, in His love, Jeff

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