John Dunn

Love and the true self

Everyone lives a deluded life until at some point he is awakened to the divine intention for his being.*

This leads us to the possibility of communion with others, as understood from my readings of St Maximus.

Whether of not man acts out the potential given by God, his true self is nevertheless kept in God and contemplated by Him.

The divine intention is constant, and could be said to be the true self of any individual, regardless of the deluded persona under which he might exist.

The point at which the deluded individual recognises that he is divinely interconnected with another being’s true self is Love.

Love transcends the deluded state in which one or both or more true selves are enshrouded, and establishes a relationship of true selves, a communion, however fleeting, during which they more closely track the divine intention laid out for them.

*See 'Blog' for The self from which the pertinent point is this:

To be a self is not our achievement, but rather a gift from God

There is something to be achieved from our own effort, namely, how we give form to the modes of activity.

However, something is given before any activity occurs. The mystery of an individual’s selfhood is kept in the mystery of the divine being.

Whenever we act out the potential that we are given by God, we give form to the mode of action in accordance (or discordance) with the divine intention for our being, as a self.

It is possible to live as divinely intended, but one may also lead a life of delusions separated from one’s true purpose.

© John Dunn.