The idea of the shadow is basically that there are dynamically repressed, disowned aspects of our won self. And this understanding is largely a contribution of the modern and postmodern West. It's one of the great, great discoveries about human nature, certainly alongside the discovery of the enlightened states and so on. And of course we associate it with names like Sigmund Freud, but it really has a long history that goes back several hundred years in the West, and some true giants worked on it. They saw that human beings have psychological anguish and suffering and neuroses and obsessions and fears, and they asked: "So where do these things come from?"

The objective of overcoming suffering is certainly as old as Buddhism; overcoming the false self with the rising of the true self is the esoteric teaching of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. So this is a very old objective in spiritual work.

Our biggest obstacle in life is our narrow self-concept. We suffer from our psychological anguish and limitations, but we suffer also, and perhaps more, from our spiritual separation. It is difficult for a person to comprehend just how great the human being is: what powers, freedoms and responsibilities one has. The reality of it scares us, so we hide in fear of our divine nature and its cosmic purpose, covering our light.

Basically, the shadow is what we call the disowned self.

Certainly we have selfish aspects that we don't like to see or admit to. But the greater problem is that we have a cosmic aspect that we don't understand and can't integrate into our personality.

The shadow has a developmental story. When the young infant self starts out, it's identified basically with material realities - the oral stage of development. Its entire self, its sense of "I", is identified with the first chakra.

We see the first chakra as the root, the connection of a being to this world. It gives the enormous strength of connectedness, which gives confidence in life. Initially, the infant sees itself as part of the mother. This is not a period of selfishness; the self has no boundry yet - the self is part of all. As the infant separates from its mother, it is impressed with the delusion of separateness, which is reinforced by the senses that look outward.

Then we have the beginning of what is called the "false self." This distortion comes from the discovery of personal power, which a two-year old knows well, without the memory of the purpose for which it was given.

Starting around the second year, its identity starts to move toward the second chakra. Its I-ness disidentifies with the first chakra, disidentifies with merely the material realm, and it starts to identify with the emotional/sexual impulses. And so now its sense of "I" is at the second chakra.

It would be better to say that the self-identity expands to include the second chakra, as the child begins to move toward their integration of all energies, an objective of spiritual maturity.

If the child is threatened in their safety as an individual, as for example in sexual abuse, this expansion does not occur fully in their childhood. Also, some spiritually-sensitive people have an incomplete integration of this chakra, skipping on to higher chakras and having to come back to this step later.

If at the second chakra you have certain impulses, for example sexual impulses or anger, that become threatening - because your parents don't like it or society doesn't like it or you yourself just find it overwhelming - what you do is take that angry impulse and push it to the other side of the self-boundry. So now it appears to be not self; it appears to not belong to you. The anger is still arising, but now it's not your anger, so it must be someone else's. So you project that anger, and you see it in others and in the environment: "Somebody's angry; I know it's not me, so it's got to be you." So what happens is that now instead of feeling angry, you feel that everybody is angry at you, and you might start to feel depressed because of that, to feel like the entire world is looking down on you. Now instead of being mad, you're sad. What you have now is a psychological neurosis which is a sign of some repressed aspect of yourself that is now in your unconscious.

The "false self", or shadow, operates with disregard of love, harmony, and beauty, It is concerned with itself and unconcerned with all others.

Anger is not a good example of a second chakra energy. We see the second chakra as the power behind one's exploration of this world, the "yes" energy that pushes us to try things out and express ourselves.

Second chakra energy is initially used by the false self for stimulation and personal expression, but as one learns to connect to the stream of love, the real self uses this energy to produce the beauty of art.

The cure is to somehow befriend that anger, lower the repression barrier, and take it back and make it part of your "I".

Absolutely, we must accept that the false self, like the animal nature, is a part of us, but so is the angelic nature and the noble master. We are each a miniature kingdom, and this kingdom needs many kinds of workers.

Only when it consciously becomes part of your "I" can you truly let go of it. And then you can move to the third chakra.

The point is that if the self splits off a part of itself and represses it, that part doesn't develop anymore. It stays at the level at which you split it off because it's now not part of your I. Consciousness is continuing its developmental march, but if you push something out, then it's no longer part of the conscious self and it's not going to develop within you. So you end up with a whole series of subpersonalities or shadow impulses. And all your little subpersonalities won't develop - they will stay at the level of development at which you repressed them.

All that is experienced by humanity is within each of us. Our objective is not to disidentify with any part of the self, but to embrace it all. We need the power of all the chakras to become complete.

The objective of "raising" consciousness to transcend the lower chakras gives the impression there is something "wrong" about matter, desire and self. This encourages repression or dissociation. The heart-centered approach avoids this problem because the heart values all, accepts all.

The people we work with are generally acutely aware of their psychological limitations, and we make no attempt to transcend these limitations. Instead of denying the shadow of the self, we are affirming the divinity of the self.

Now if we could just get rid of these impulses like that and they stayed out there, there would be no problem. But the trouble is that they are actually parts of our own self, and every time we push something to the other side of the self-boundary, we diminish our own consciousness; we make ourselves smaller.

In order to free up our consciousness, we have to won these repressed parts of ourselves _ we have to embrace all of them, we have to bring light into all the dark and hidden corners of our self, we have to claim ownership of the entirety or our "I" - before we can authentically transcend our ego in the spiritual sense.

There are push-pull forces in human transformation. The pushing force is our disgust with the little creature we've become - afraid, mundane, selfish and cold. This force is activated by confronting these disfunctional aspects and resolving to become better. The repulsion from the false self doesn't work if we deny our problems. The pushing force softens the ego that expresses the false self.

The pulling force is our aspiration to fulfill the purpose of our lives. This force is activated by remembrance of why we were sent from the angelic realm to this world, the many resources and blessings we are given, and how important it is for us to make the full contribution we can make. It is inspired by exposure to masters and saints who demonstrate the ideals one ascribes to God. For this work, one builds a strong ego that expresses the full reality of one's being.

What you can overcome is finite; what you can become is infinite. Therefore the pulling force is much more powerful than the pushing force.

When we repress these impulses, we're not really transcending them and we're not even really disidentifying with them; we're dissociating from them. And this can become a very big problem. So understanding this distinction enables us to tell the difference between two very conflicting instructions we're generally given by people who are trying to help us - therapists and meditation teachers - about how we should relate to different components of our own experience, for example, anger. Gestalt therapy will tell you to identify with it; Zen will tell you to disidentify with it. So what should you do?

Accept your anger, frustration and jealousy as indications, though distorted, of your power, idealism and love. The false self, or shadow, is like a child; your real self is like an adult. Children have their charm and they can be helpful, as long as the adult is in charge, not a child.

You are both the children and the adult. You are both the mind and the heart. You have a false ego and a real ego. All parts of yourself can be used, as long as the heart is in charge.

The meditative context is all about letting go, but we can only do so if we deal with our dissociated impulses first. What we want to do is take the very best from both worlds without diluting either. But if I have dissociated anger and come into a vipassana retreat, and if anger arises and all I'm supposed to say, "There is anger arising, there is anger arising.....," I'm doing nothing to undercut the repression. I'm doing nothing to reown it. I'm just seeing that there's anger in the world arising at me, and so I feel fear, "There is fear arising, there is fear arising........" But fear is a false emotion because it is a reaction to my own projected anger.

Meditating on the heart is not about letting go; it's about expanding. It does not result in freedom; it results in responsibility. It does not produce an empty mind; it produces a full heart. Its sensation is pain, ecstasy, grief, joy, and peace.

We do not observe fear rising; we dive into it and find its source. At the depth of any emotion is a pool of all emotion. If you notice your fear, it's because you're unaware of your power and joy, which are just as real as the fear. When you feel it all, then you are in touch with your real self.

There's a big difference between transcendental disidentification and pathological dissociation. And once again, if there's something that you haven't owned - it can be power, sex, arrogance, emotivity, any of that - and then you try to let go of it, you make it worse.

Yes, there is a difference, but in aiming for transcendental disidentification it is easy to create pathological dissociation.

Let's take an example of somebody who has dissociated their fear and they start doing Vipassana on it or doing Vedanta. "Who am I? Who am I?" Letting go of the fear, letting go, letting go. "I'm not that, I'm not that," even though that is an inauthentic emotion. And then he or she says, "I feel better when I do that, so I know it's working. Of course they feel better - temporarily!

Transcendence is based on an invalid principle: that there is something you are not. Actually, each of us contains the whole consciousness and emotion of humanity and all the forces of the universe. This is the principle of "microcosm"; the teaching of unity. Transcendence leads to duality, and duality is false.

Spirit is infused in matter; matter is inseparable from spirit.

The analogy is, let's say you get run over by a bus and you are sitting in the street looking at your broken leg. You can say, "I'm not that, I'm not that, I'm not that," and you will feel better. You can actually get in a higher state of consciousness with a broken leg and you will feel better, and that's fine. But I'm saying that you need to fix the broken leg first and then also do "I'm not that, I'm not that," and you've got the best of both worlds. The shadow is the broken leg, so we'll tell you how to fix that. We're not saying you can't do the other, but fix the broken leg first and then also do vipassana or Vedanta. The leg is your vehicle of bodhisattvahood; it's your vehicle of transmitting truth. If you are enlightened and you are sitting there with a broken leg and can't walk anywhere, what good is it? You can't teach if you've got a broken leg! But a lot of people do. They have awakened to these higher states of consciousness, but they have broken legs. So what we want to do is basically heal the vehicles through which we will manifest our enlightened awareness.

But everyone has broken parts. If we had to wait to teach until we are completely healed, there would be no teachers. The teacher is not perfect, but the teacher knows where her imperfections are. If she has to walk on her broken leg, she moves slowly. But maybe that disability is not too severe; maybe the teacher knows how to fly. My teacher had bad knees, from sitting in the lotus posture too much. But when he was in ecstasy he could dance!

To all teachers: have compassion for the limitations of your internal children. Then you can have compassion for the brokenness of others, who are not so different from you. The difference is not that they are childish and you are not; the difference is that you are also an adult.

The whole point is that unless the individual is willing to own their own shadow, they are going to continue acting out of all those repressed impulses and continue creating karma, which means acting out of ignorance and unconsciousness in ways that cause suffering to others. And the whole definition of enlightenment is that, at least ideally, we are supposed to become so conscious, so awake, that we don't create karma anymore.

You can own your shadow and still be very ignorant of your whole being. Remember, your shadow is the part of the sunlight that is absorbed by your true being. If you stand in the light, you're going to have a shadow. If you're operating at your growing edge, you're going to be improvising and you're going to make mistakes.

We do not take the objective of creating no karma. We were not sent here to become innocent; we came from a world of innocence to accomplish something that angels cannot do. Our mission at IAM is to develop the the heart of humanity by helping people to experience the heart of All in themseves. This is an intervention for which we accept responsibililty.

Honestly, when you look at the kind of spiritual energy and passion that an individual would need to won all these different parts of the self, to truly endeavor to take responsibility for them and then to transcend them - this is a rare soul.

It's not so rare - it is the destiny of all of us and it can be done by love, the same power that sent us into this world and the power by which we accepted the assignment.

In terms of the real love for God necessary to truly become whole, it has to be said that it's a special individual who cares that much, who would be willing to do that. In the end I really believe that it is only those who awaken to a larger purpose, a purpose bigger than their own wholeness, salvation, or even enlightenment, who will actually find the energy and the resources to begin to own these darker and more unconscious parts of themselves and really change in ways that make the difference in the world.

I completely agree that the motivation required for the spiritual path is that of fulfilling one's grand purpose in life, and that purpose is some kind of service to others.