Living The Way of Mastery with Jason Amoroso
Each day I will read a passage from The Way of Mastery and share my commentary on it. The intention is to provide an opportunity to develop a consistent, simple spiritual study practice and grow together.
Living The Way of Mastery with Jason Amoroso
Lesson 16: The body is the representation of the ego
Lesson 16: The Birth of Egoic Consciousness
Section 6: Fear Has Taken Its Final Form
Paragraphs: 7-11
We explore the Way of Mastery Lesson 16, examining how our bodies symbolize ego as we experience the illusion of separation from God despite being inseparable expressions of the divine.
• The body represents the ego's belief that we are separate from God and the universe
• Egoic consciousness creates a delusion that we are just small fragments, not expressions of the divine
• The power to even think "I am not God" must come from the power of God itself
• We create our experiences and challenges through our soul-self for growth and awakening
• Jeshua shares that he "allowed" the crucifixion as a demonstration of trust
• The question "Can I find my Father even more deeply here?" transforms our approach to challenges
• Even Jeshua had to develop trust throughout his life—it wasn't automatic
• Our spiritual journey never ends—the depths of love and trust continue expanding infinitely
• Start from where you are without judging yourself against Jeshua or anyone else
Join us next time as we continue our journey through the Way of Mastery teachings.
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Hello and welcome back to Living the Way of Mastery. I'm Jason Amoroso, your guide and friend, and today we continue with Lesson 16, the Birth of Egoic Consciousness. Section 6, fear has Taken Its Final Form and we are picking up with Paragraph 7, at least in my version which begins the body is the representation of the ego. The body is the representation of the ego. For notice that as you sit in your chair, you are quite certain you are not the wall across from you. As you sit where you are in your chair, your consciousness, your awareness, tells you that you are the reader and not the author, and you think, no, not me. I couldn't do that if I wanted to. Certainly it makes Jeshua very special, for I am just this blob of dust, this separate mind-body sitting in my chair, reading words which vibrate with a certain meaning and create certain pictures and understandings. Not that one. That is egoic consciousness that says I am not that one, I am not God, I am not pure spirit, I am not pure soul. I am this thing that sits in this chair now. And do you know something? You're absolutely right. You are that, that and so much more. So I just read three paragraphs here and just a beautiful little section here it brings me back to my first studies in A Course in Miracles that the body is the representation, it is the symbol of the ego, this tiny, mad idea that somehow I did the impossible, which is be separate from God, from source, from the all that is. If there's a source to all that is, then everything comes from that source and is a part of that source. But there's a part of me that believes well, what if I'm separate? What if I'm outside? Somehow? Outside there's all God, and then there's me on the outside and the body. If you think about it, this 3D world, the body is the representation of that thought in form, because we're so convinced that, look, I'm here, you're listening there, you're somewhere far away. I'm here in my office, I'm sitting in a chair. I'm not the chair, but we're so convinced that I am this body, that it's me, that I'm in here, kind of looking out at this world. And that's what Jeshua is just laying it out like, describing how we experience ourselves and the world and this idea of well, no, this makes Jeshua special, like I'm this blob of dust, I'm this separate mind, body sitting in a chair reading the words, but these are being placed within me. I'm not that one. I'm not God.
Speaker 1:And what Jeshua has been saying since the beginning is you are God. Hijack that statement. Well, I'm God, I'm not almighty, or it'll take it the other way and be, instead of putting itself down being cool. I'm not God, clearly. I'm less than. I don't feel powerful. The ego can take it either way the less than or the greater than. Be like well, look, I am God. But the part of us calls on that because it's like well, well, I don't feel like God, I don't feel almighty, I don't feel all powerful, I don't feel all loving, I don't forgive all the time. So it's not true. Right, the ego is going to use it for either way.
Speaker 1:But that's an incorrect idea about what God is, incorrect idea about what God is. Instead of personalizing God, see, the ego likes to make God in its image, and that's so much of what I think. Again, I'm not an expert on the Bible, but the Old Testament is like it's like we've made God in our image. He's vengeful, he's got to get his revenge. He's judging. If you're bad, he'll punish you, like. That's what we do. We've made God in our image instead of the other way around. So you are God in the sense that God is. This is all that is that. God is pure consciousness, pure love, and its nature is to create. You are made in the image and likeness of God. You are a wave of the ocean. Again, wave and ocean are just words. You are this thing that is risen out of this other thing, the bigger thing, the allness thing, and that's what you are. And this is important to have this idea, because we get so attached to our identity and our ego is going to fight tooth and nail and argue till the cows come home of what we are. No, look, I'm a victim. No, look, I'm separate. Here's all the evidence that we have right. A part of us is going to argue so hard for that when the truth is so much simpler.
Speaker 1:And Jeshua says that is egoic consciousness that says I am not that one. It's like it's blasphemy. I don't know blasphemy, maybe I'm misusing the definition, but it's like blast me to say that you're not of God, that you're not God. You are made of the same stuff. You are it in form. So so the egoic consciousness. It's egoic consciousness to say I'm not that, I'm not what I am, I'm not god, I am not pure spirit, I am not pure soul. Meanwhile, that is all you could be, because that's all that exists. But we're like no, I'm this thing sitting in this chair right now and jesh was like you're right, you're right, you're that and you're so much more, you're all of it. So, yes, you are the seeming fractals or individualized expressions, but you are also the whole.
Speaker 1:And he continues the egoic mind is that which creates the separated perception that it is only one tiny, thin slice of the pie. It creates a delusion, a distortion in consciousness itself, like a little blip on a radar screen that tells the one watching the screen that there is something there. The egoic mind says I'm separate, I'm alone, I cannot think with the mind of God, I cannot experience unity, consciousness, I cannot be as Yeshua is. No, not me, I'm too small and too weak. Oh, I just don't have it together yet, maybe someday. And that's what we do to ourselves all day long. We beat ourselves up, we lie to ourselves about what we are. We have this, as Jeshua says, this distortion in consciousness itself, a delusion, this we've created, this separated perception that we're just one tiny slice of the pie.
Speaker 1:From the famous TED Talk by I can't remember her name, but it's called the Stroke of Insight by the stroke researcher, doctor, researcher who would research strokes, who had a stroke herself and shares her experience of that. It is profound, it is amazing into consciousness and what we are. If you have not heard of it or seen it or listened to it, do yourself a favor this week, sometime, maybe even today, and watch it or listen to it. A stroke of insight, ted Talk to it. A stroke of insight, ted talk.
Speaker 1:But we've convinced ourselves and we're so bought into our own narratives, our own thinking. We think the voice that we hear inside is us, like we could be snuffed out. When we die, the voice will be gone and we'll be gone, just erased from existence. But as we're being shown a different perspective in the way of mastery, we realize how silly that is. So, real world application we get caught up in the daily the bills, the schedules, the demands, the deadlines, the kids, the laundry, the chores, the to-dos, the work, the money, the taxes. We, the work, the money, the taxes, like. We get caught up. The politics, the world events. We get caught up in all the things. The screens, the news, everything is demanding our attention and it's all wanting us to focus out there and we believe that we've this societal paradigm. It's just not true that there's a world out there that we're separate from each other, that there's wins and losses and gains and we got to survive and we have to fight and compete with each other to survive, and that these things are important and that, how critical they are and that they matter.
Speaker 1:Meanwhile, the truth is in your next breath. The truth is closer than your breathing. What the heck does that mean? Closer than your breathing? Nearer than your hands and feet? It's so obvious. It's so easy to miss, as Jeshua says, in the way of mastery To the ego wants to complicate things. The truth is so simple and so obvious. Lots of complicated things. The truth is so simple and so obvious and we have this beautiful reminder of this in nature. Nature is a beautiful reminder.
Speaker 1:You can return at any time to the awareness that you're part of it all and it's all one life expressing itself. And you will not cease to exist when you quote unquote die when you leave your body, because there is only awareness. You know, I've been thinking about this question. This might seem like a really silly question and I'm sure there's a lot of philosophers and people who have thought about this that I don't know about and haven't studied, but it's like can you remember a time when you didn't exist?
Speaker 1:Now, you might not have a memory past a certain age. Well, now you might not have a memory past a certain age. Well, I can't remember. My earliest memory is when I was three. But do you ever have an experience of not existing and are you your memories? Clearly you're not, because if you can't remember let's say, three or four years old is your earliest memory just because you can't remember things that happened before then doesn't mean that they didn't exist, doesn't mean that you didn't exist. Clearly you did. So. Do you have any experience of you not existing? And when I ask that question to me, the obvious answer is no. The simple answer is no. I have no experience of me not existing. So why am I so afraid of death and not existing?
Speaker 1:And Jeshur says yet, all the while, while you're believing in this tiny mad idea, while you are having this experience of being separate, all the while you are that one. You couldn't have the experience if you weren't that one. By the power of that one, you have the potential to think the thought I could never be like Jesus is. It's like, only through the power of consciousness, through the power of free will, through the power of open thought could you even have entertained the tiny mad idea that you couldn't be like Jesus is, jeshua is. You are like Jeshua. You are Jeshua in a way. And he says in the Bible which, again, I'm not a Bible expert, there's certain lines that pop out to me. These things and more ye shall do.
Speaker 1:His message in the Bible was not that he was special, even though so many religions have accosted is that the right word? Accosted that and taken it on. He was special. Let's worship him. He's like what are you doing? Worshiping me? No, no, no, no, no. Don't worship me. Worship the consciousness, the way that I'm living, Live the way that I'm living, see the things that I'm seeing, be open to this idea. You are as I am, because that's all that there is. You couldn't be anything other and you're creating your whole experience from the very power that allows you to create it. By the power of that one of God, you have the potential to even think. The thought that I could never be like Jeshua is. I'm really too small, too fragile, too weak and too stupid. Oh, but you're even allowed to have that through the consciousness of God. Christ consciousness may be there for someone else, but not for me.
Speaker 1:Again, this podcast is kind of designed for you to read along and then study and contemplate. So I kind of go back and forth between commentary and reading the lines, and he says the whole, while that very thought that you are not the one must use the power reading the lines, and he says the whole, while that very thought that you are not the one must use the power of the one, for that power is life, that power is pure being. That's what you are, pure being. That power is the real world, that power is the only thing that exists. Period, that's it. Wow, that power is the only thing that exists. And then, in italics, with an exclamation point period.
Speaker 1:The power of consciousness, the power of mind, the power to create, not your little small personal mind that doubts and fears Capital M, the mind of God, little small personal mind that doubts and fears capital M, the mind of God. And he says by the power of that one and that one are capitalized, by the way, to emphasize God, universe, source, by the power of that one. You have dreamt the thought of the separate self. It's a dream, it's not real, but you are allowed to have that dream for as long as you choose, because you are the creator of your experience. God is not giving you the experience to have, saying I'm going to put you on this ride, no, you're at the amusement park and you're choosing the rides. The rides are there and you can create as many rides as you want. But God's not saying I'm going to put you here, then I'm going to put you here, then we're going to go on the spinning cups, then the roller coaster, then the water luge. But to our ego self, it feels like this bigger force is putting us on these rides.
Speaker 1:And we talk about how God's doing these things to us or even for us, but in truth, it is your soul self, your God self, that is choosing these things. You are the one doing this in a way too, but really for yourself. Imagine that Now you're not a victim. Now it's not. Well, god, why have you forsaken me? It's oh, I am all of it. I am free. I am choosing these things. Now, a part of me doesn't see why, and maybe that's by design too. Maybe I've chosen that If you knew everything, wouldn't things be so boring all the time.
Speaker 1:You knew everything. Throw in a little unknown, throw in a little I'm going to forget who I am, because it's the joy of waking up. Imagine if you're God and you are everything. There's nothing that can threaten your existence. You don't have to survive, you don't have to compete, there's no evil you're fighting against. You're the allness that everything comes from and you're like hey, I want to play Because, above all, god thinks playfully. I want to play, I want to have some fun. Imagine, imagine if I couldn't create anything at will by just a thought. What would that be like? Imagine if I had to actually survive and I actually thought I had to survive and I had to struggle. Imagine what would that even feel like. Boom experience, boom experience. It doesn't threaten you, but you create the experience for the curiosity of it, for the playfulness of it.
Speaker 1:Can you see your daily life more from this lens? Why would my soul self have chosen the challenges that I've moved through in my life, the challenging childhood, the challenging partnership, the challenge with money or relationship or abuse, whatever it is? Why would my soul self choose this? If it was choosing playfully, that can be a really hard question. I totally get it, and let's play that game. What, if? Why would they choose that? For the joy of waking up, for the deep love of forgiveness? Wow, I chose these people.
Speaker 1:I chose to have this experience of being betrayed or abandoned or abused so that I could open up to an even deeper experience of love, a deeper level of forgiveness that, like the phrase, a peace that passeth all understanding, a love, a forgiveness that passes all justification. I have every right to stay in judgment. I have every right to use my childhood experiences as evidence that I'm not enough, that something's wrong with me or why would I be punished like this? And yet I'm going to forgive anyway. I'm I'm gonna love anyway. I have every right to be mad and fight against my oppressors, and yet I'm gonna love them anyway. I'm gonna love thine enemy as myself, like.
Speaker 1:This is the way, the truth, the life, not the man. Jesus his. He's showing us who we are and, in the way of mastery, he's giving us practices so that we can slowly, I would say, unravel from the grip of the ego mind that we so have identified with, but a part of you is ready and wanting to de-identify from it. How do I know You're listening and reading the way of mastery? Like it's happening. It might not happen as fast as you want it to, but it is happening. And this is I'm going back to lesson 26. When I read lesson 26, which I've read several times but for some reason it hit me recently, a couple months ago, and I created an image using ChatGPT and then I put the words of this image over the image and I printed it out and framed it and I keep it where I see it every day as a reminder. And it is this beautiful line from Lesson 26,.
Speaker 1:Jeshua is talking about the crucifixion and love, and this is an invitation into you and your life. So even though we're on Lesson 16, it doesn't matter, this applies. Jeshua says when I decided to allow the crucifixion, I jumped. Can I find my Father even more deeply here? Can I find my father even more deeply here? For me, it was the culmination of a life in which I developed trust that my father would always catch me. That journey has never ended, man. We could break that down for an hour. How beautiful is that? When I decided to allow, I allowed the crucifixion. Talk about ownership, talk about ownership, talk about ownership and this is a theme that comes back over and over. I mean, lesson 21 is allowing all things. When I allowed the crucifixion, I jumped. I jumped into God Can. And then quote can I find my father even more deeply here? End quote, in this, in the crucifixion, in this, what is so to my ego, so justified and righteous that I'm being victimized? When I decided to allow the crucifixion not resist it, not fight it, not deny it, when I allowed it and I jumped into it and I asked the question can I find my father even more deeply here, in this?
Speaker 1:Now look at your own life. Where do you feel like you are being, quote-unquote crucified? Where are you being unjustly punished? Where are you feeling? You're suffering, you're in pain, a really difficult challenge of your life, whatever that may be. A really difficult challenge of your life, whatever that may be, can you jump and say can I find my father even more deeply here, in the crippling debt, in the student loans, in the overdue taxes? That's money stuff. In the overdue bills, in the partner? That's cheating? Maybe I'm cheating on my partner and I feel guilty. Maybe a death of a loved one, a health diagnosis, maybe fear of some kind fear of not living up to your potential, the state of the world and why the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Whatever, your big challenge is right now. And we're all going through something because that is a part of earth school. You came here for the play and the challenge and the growth of it. So we're all going through something.
Speaker 1:Don't make the mistake of thinking other people are just riding the gravy train. We're all moving through something. Can I find God, my father, even more deeply here, in this situation? And you live in the question because your brain's gonna say, well, no, because this sucks, I'm suffering. Why would God let me suffer? Why would God let someone else suffer? Can I find love even more deeply here? Love for myself, love for God, love for my seeming oppressors, love for the situation, because love embraces all things, love allows all things, love accepts all things, even our own insanity, even our own craziness, even our own self-judgments. Love allows even that.
Speaker 1:And Jeshua says the crucifixion it was a culmination, it was the final test, if you will, and not in a punishing like, well, you're going to pass or fail. No, it was the final joyful opportunity to demonstrate my life in which I developed trust. So even Yeshua, when he was a man, needed to develop trust. He didn't just wasn't born with it. I think that's a lot of what religious in the Bible wants to teach us. Well, he was born perfect. He didn't have any kind of bad thoughts or impure thoughts, who knows. According to him, he had to develop trust, meaning he wasn't always trusting, he wasn't always faithful. He developed it through many of the practices that were being taught in the way of mastery.
Speaker 1:By the way, I developed trust that my Father, my Creator, my Source, my God, the only God that is, would always in italics, always catch me. God that is would always in italics, always catch me. I jump, god will catch me. I jump, god will catch me. I take the risk, god will catch me. I take the risk of opening my heart, even when it feels like I can be killed, metaphorically or physically. God will catch me.
Speaker 1:That journey has never ended Meaning. We know Jeshua. We've been taught that Jeshua is this special master, this special different, the son of God. And you're not, but you could be like him. We've been taught that. But what he's been saying the whole time is these things and more you shall do, because we are the same. You are that one, you are that one. I am that one. Meaning Jeshua is saying I am that one, but you are also that one. I am that one, meaning Jeshua is saying I am that one, but you are also that one. There is only one. And that journey has never ended for me. So, even in time where I have been crucified, but I still am very much alive, communicating clearly to you through some book, through some podcast, that journey has never ended, even for me.
Speaker 1:I'm still jumping into God. I'm still developing even more trust that my Father will catch me. So give yourself a break. Start from where you are. Don't judge yourself to Jesus, jeshua or anyone else. Right where I am, I'm developing that trust still, and it never ends. And how amazing is that it never ends, meaning love's depths, and the depths of love that we can know and experience and reside in, never ends. They just keep expanding. That's the nature of God to continue to expand. This is awesome. I'm glad to be back. Love you guys. Have an amazing day. We'll see you next time.