{"id":206,"date":"2006-02-24T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-02-24T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/chatteringmind\/2006\/02\/leaving-the-self-behind.html"},"modified":"2006-02-24T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-02-24T12:00:00","slug":"leaving-the-self-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2006\/02\/leaving-the-self-behind.html","title":{"rendered":"Leaving The Self Behind"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“What I now realize, from my study of the different religious traditions, is that a disciplined attempt to go beyond the ego brings about a state of ecstasy. Indeed, it is<\/em> in itself ekstasis<\/em>. Theologians in all the great faiths have devised all kinds of myths to show that this type of kenosis<\/em>, or self-emptying, is found in the life of God itself. They do not do this because it sounds edifying, but because this is the way that human nature seems to work. We are most creative and sense other possibilities that transcend our ordinary experience when we leave ourselves behind.” <\/p>\n

—Karen Armstrong<\/a>, in “The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness.”<\/a><\/p>\n

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“What I now realize, from my study of the different religious traditions, is that a disciplined attempt to go beyond the ego brings about a state of ecstasy. Indeed, it is in itself ekstasis. Theologians in all the great faiths have devised all kinds of myths to show that this type of kenosis, or self-emptying,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":374,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nLeaving The Self Behind - Chattering Mind<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2006\/02\/leaving-the-self-behind.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leaving The Self Behind - Chattering Mind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“What I now realize, from my study of the different religious traditions, is that a disciplined attempt to go beyond the ego brings about a state of ecstasy. 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