In the state of realized spiritual awareness there is no separation. There is only bliss, light and love. If you are not experiencing bliss, light or love at this moment, then you are separate from spirit and are not in the realized state. If you are wondering, it is possible to be both in the realized spiritual Self and in the temporal, personal self simultaneously.
When we are caught up in the story of the temporal, personal self, we forget who we really are. We become separate and apart from that which created us, sustains us and to whom (or which, if you prefer) we will return when this personal journey/journal has come to an end.
There is such a thing as healthy self-love and self-worth. Freud called it “primary narcissism”. It means that we have an ego and a self-preservation instinct. That is a very good thing. As a Waldorf teacher, my main job was assisting children to fully “incarnate” so that they could, of themselves, freely seek out their spiritual selves in adulthood.
I deeply respect and appreciate my temporal self and have enormous gratitude for the opportunity to live in a body and to have a developed personality.
To some extent, though, when, as adults, we get so caught up in the everyday events of our lives that we forget our source, we become like Narcissus who, according to Greek myth, was punished for rejecting the advances of the nymph, Echo. He was doomed to perpetually stare into a pool, enraptured by his own reflection. The catch here, is, unlike Narcissus, when we ‘stare’ into our lives, we generally aren’t so much in love with what we see, as we are embroiled in day to day events, emotions going hither and yon, thoughts cycling, sometimes racing—keeping us awake—or bothered, responsibilities tugging, desires compelling. We live in the day to day state on a roller coaster, seeking pleasure, avoiding pain.
Please do not confuse my reference with the psychological diagnosis of a narcissistic personality disorder. These deeply wounded people have little or no empathy and cannot have satisfying emotional relationships.
It is possible to be a highly evolved human being and still not realize the spiritual state. The former is a temporary truth; the latter is a higher, permanent truth. When we go from separation to unity with our truest selves, the stories become merely interesting regardless of the details (i.e. not judged good or bad, desirable or undesirable—simply , life is what it is) from the viewpoint of bliss, light and love.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXOgn8-aEaA
