Episode 6: On the True Self and the False Self
Riley and Shiloh open up a conversation about what Thomas Merton calls the True Self and the False Self. The LDS Bible Dictionary defines repentance as “a change of mind, i.e., a fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world.” Merton observed that so much depends on our idea of God, and what we initially believe about and how we view God says more about our own projection and less about how God really is. This is the same message that we get in the Doctrine and Covenants where Jesus Christ says that “every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his god” (D&C 1:16). Initially, we build a God in our image and project our own emotions and beliefs onto God’s nature, but it is through repentance where we sacrifice and leave behind our false identities (i.e., our False Self) and through seeing God fresh and anew that we begin to see the True Self that has always already been and that we have just failed to recognize. Shiloh and Riley discuss their own experiences in recognizing their own False Selves and in how they’re learning to let go of these false identities and to just sit with God and let Him awaken their True Selves.
