Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self

by Richard Rohr

Overview

In Falling Upward (and in many of his other teachings), Richard Rohr talked at length about ego (or the False Self) and how it gets in the way of spiritual maturity, especially if its preoccupations continue into the second half of life. But if there's a False Self, is there also a True Self? What is it? How is it found? Why does it matter? And what does it have to do with the spiritual journey? In this new book, he likens True Self to a diamond, buried deep within us, formed under the intense pressure of our lives, that must be searched for, uncovered, separated from all the debris of ego that surrounds it. In a sense True Self must, like Jesus, be resurrected, and that process is not resuscitation but transformation. Immortal Diamond (whose title is taken from a line in a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem) explores the deepest questions of identity, spirituality, and meaning in Richard Rohr's inimitable style.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118421543
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	01/02/2012
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	141,816
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Fr. Richard Rohr is a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico Province. He founded the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1986, where he presently serves as founding director. Richard is the author of more than twenty books, an internationally known speaker, and a regular contributing writer for Sojourners and Tikkun magazines and the CAC's quarterly journal, Radical Grace. He is the author of Falling Upward and Falling Upward: A Companion Journal.

Read an Excerpt

Click to read or download

Table of Contents

Invitation: The Immortal Diamond of the True Self vii

Preface xvii

1 What Is ‘‘The True Self’’? 1

2 What Is ‘‘The False Self’’? 27

3 What Dies and Who Lives? 59

4 The Knife Edge of Experience 67

5 Thou Art That 95

6 If It Is True, It Is True Everywhere 127

7 Enlightenment at Gunpoint 139

8 Intimate with Everything 159

9 Love Is Stronger Than Death 175

Epilogue 187

Appendix A The True Self and the False Self 189

Appendix B A Mosaic of Metaphors 193

Appendix C Watching at the Tomb: Attitudes for Prayer 199

Appendix D Head into Heart: ‘‘The Sacred Heart’’ 203

Appendix E Adam’s Breathing: Praying from the Clay 207

Appendix F Twelve Ways to Practice Resurrection Now 211

Notes 213

Bibliography 231

The Author 237

Index 239

Editorial Reviews

How well do we know ourselves? So many roles and identities shape individual lives that it's easy to be confused about what is authentically "us." Rohr, a Franciscan priest and founding director of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, N.Mex., leads a narrative excursion to the "True Self," the core of character that lies like a diamond buried within. Writing for secular seekers, the author claims that individuals need to allow the false self to fall away in order to get in touch with the true self, allowing it to breathe and flourish. Grasping onto the superficial identities of the false self, such as job, class, race, or accomplishments, can keep people from being the loving and generous conduits of the Divine that they are meant to be. God is always communicating with humans, but those who cling to ego and social position can’t hear these divine messages. The author makes clear that it is not easy to shed this falseness for truth in the inner life, but it is a spiritual path well worth the effort. (Jan.) (Publishers Weekly, February 2013)

From the Publisher

How well do we know ourselves? So many roles and identities shape individual lives that it’s easy to be confused about what is authentically “us.” Rohr, a Franciscan priest and founding director of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, N.Mex., leads a narrative excursion to the “True Self,” the core of character that lies like a diamond buried within. Writing for secular seekers, the author claims that individuals need to allow the false self to fall away in order to get in touch with the true self, allowing it to breathe and flourish. Grasping onto the superficial identities of the false self, such as job, class, race, or accomplishments, can keep people from being the loving and generous conduits of the Divine that they are meant to be. God is always communicating with humans, but those who cling to ego and social position can’t hear these divine messages. The author makes clear that it is not easy to shed this falseness for truth in the inner life, but it is a spiritual path well worth the effort. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly