The Process
Preface:
One resides within the fracture of two selves: the Me and the I. It is one’s responsibility to eventually choose where one will call home. The choice is inescapable, for even if a choice is not made, that is a choice in itself. Therefore, one would be better off making a proactive choice than passively accepting the conditions inherited by birth.
Me:
Me is a construct of the world (the self, the ego) formed through environment, culture, and society through the engagement of comparison, competition, and expectation. It inhabits the shallowest layer of one’s being (Me), where others’ judgment and opinions govern self-perception birthing internal friction. Therefore, inner friction is not by happenstance; it is a consequences of the formation of Me. The Me is necessary but not sufficient.
I:
I, by contrast, resides within the deepest recess of one’s core. It is not a construct of the world, but in direct link to one’s truth. The I is in the world but not of it — flowing from the deepest essence of one’s being onto the world. It is the inner source upon which Me is built, the part that remains constant and true even as the identities of Me go through countless phases.
Relation Between From and To:
From is where the current state of Me is located: it is the starting point of one’s spiritual journey. To is the destination. It is the movement toward the I: a return to what is deeper and innate.
The journey starts outward From the Me, but the sail is set inward To the I.
A Way of Being:
Dissolution does not imply the destruction of the worldly self, but rather the relinquishing of it. This relinquishment is the liberation of one’s soul from the confines of the worldly self, and the restoration of one’s true-self.
This movement requires choice and effort: choices that we are often unaware we can make, and efforts we are unwilling to undertake in order to reach the truth: the “I” within.
Teo Estepani, Ed.D., LPCC 