Original Self

I haven't posted this writing since 2009. It feels like it is time to share it again, today, on Good Friday. 

At this point in my life I don't practice any one religion. I do my best to practice the tradition of love and peace that is found in all the worlds religions. I come from a Catholic upbringing. One of the things that never made sense to me in the Christian tradition was the idea of original sin. If we are made in the likeness of God, if we are children of God, how then is it possible that we are somehow born unclean? That didn't make sense to me and still doesn't. I certainly can see that as we grow we learn all sorts of behaviors and ways of treating each other that stray from the Divine. However, for me, those are things we learn not things we are born with. These are things I ponder.

Then one day when I was sitting by the river, the following writing flowed through me. Original self is an idea that made much more sense to me than original sin. I share it here with love and respect and gratitude for the powerful teachings and example of love that Jesus provided. 


Jesus did not die for original sin, Jesus died for original self. He did not die to cleanse us of some imagined sin that we are born into, but died for the original self that we are born into and quickly forget. He died for a remembering. He died to show us what the original self looks like. It is risen, and glorious and eternal. It is faith and light and truth. We are not born into darkness but into light. Not into sin but into self. Our divine God self. That was Jesus’ greatest lesson. He taught of our original God self, our inherent connection to the divine. We are made of the same thing that God is made of, we are divine, we are divinity, just as Jesus was. He hung there on the cross in demonstration of self not in cleansing of sin. Hate and fear could have no power over him in his original form; they could not touch his divine heart. He revealed to us the divine heart. One that is of light and love, one that guides to truth and is eternal. There is no other lesson. The divine lies within each heart. That divinity is who you are, your true original self. That is who you were born to be. That is who can emerge from the human self if you allow it. Then the Divine Heart brings the human heart with it on the journey. They work in unison for joy. Joy is the celebration of the Divine and the Divine within. Let the Divine Heart lead you as it led Jesus, with joy always in his eye and the eternal Divine always in his heart. Live your original self.