Overcoming the Self that is ‘Too Serious’

In this article I will discuss Master Sanat Kumara’s words: « “Am I too serious? Why am I so serious?” Well, it is because you have assigned some epic importance to the spiritual path in general and to your personal progress on that path. You have defined a goal for your spiritual growth that has some epic significance—to you at least.» [1]

The Self That is ‘Too Serious’ about the Path is Still the Ego

Master Jesus told us several times: 'Until you ascend, you will have remnants of the ego'.  There is no other way, since during the incarnation process we all took on a self at the 144th level of consciousness that saw itself as separate.

This was necessary for the purpose of incarnation in a physical world: to experiment with freedom.

At some point on our path, most of us created another layer on top of this first self, connected to the 'soul' — the material body — when, for reasons that vary from person to person, we decided that we didn't want to be 'pure awareness of the I Am Presence' and chose to take on a mortal sense of identity.

As spiritual students, we then made the decision to follow the spiritual path with the Ascended Masters.

We began the process of separating ourselves from the collective consciousness by adopting a set of principles, whether religious or ethical. Essentially, we decided that we wanted to be 'good people' who deserved to be saved.

However, we achieved this by trying to perfect our egos. Most of us found it acceptable to divide the world into 'good' and 'bad' people, and we were proud to be 'on the right side' with our 'good' values.

Unfortunately, this was still our egos trying to make us ‘worthy’ by separating ourselves from the ‘others’: the impure, bad, unspiritual people.

This was inevitable because most of us have been driven by the need to distance ourselves from those who hold different values to ours.

But, as Master Sanat Kumara remarks, this is only our egos taking the spiritual path too seriously and making us prove through our dedication to spiritual practices that we deserve to be rewarded.

The ego cannot turn inwards because it is not self-aware. Therefore, it focuses on external actions, such as giving decrees and being disciplined in all practices deemed 'spiritual', in order to convince itself that it deserves the reward of salvation.

The Ego Cannot be Neutral

Firstly, we need to recognise that, as spiritual people, we do not follow the spiritual path in order to be recognised and rewarded by anyone. We follow it because it is who we are: spiritual beings fulfilling our purpose in a world of form.

We grow in awareness, graduate from this world, and continue to grow on the spiritual path.

However, in the early stages of our growth, the ego that commands our lives needs recognition, admiration and, most of all, justification of its existence. Why?

Because the ego feeds off our divine awareness, which identifies with it. We, as the 'conscious you', know that identifying with the external self is not what we are supposed to do, at least not permanently.

Therefore, the 'conscious you' needs to find a 'good excuse' for allowing the external self to take control of one's life.

This is why the ego and epic dramas were created, to justify why the ‘conscious you’ is not making decisions and is instead letting the outer self take control.

 It needs a great cause: 'I’m doing this great service to the Masters or God', 'I’m fighting in God’s name' to save the Earth or manifest the Golden Age, and so on.

This is the ego's frame of mind, and the ego always takes sides: it is on one side, and the opposite side is to blame and must be excluded.

However, there is no merit in actions ruled by the ego. At a certain point, near the 96th level of consciousness, the self that was perfected by moral principles cannot take us any further.

It cannot be neutral because it has no connection to the Christ mind. The ego will never overcome duality because it is born of duality.

We must grasp that our challenge is not to prove that we are 'good people' who do everything right: it is to let go of the self that needs to prove it is a 'good person', that it needs to perfect itself, or that it needs to do something epic on earth.

Only by letting go can we connect to the Christ mind, becoming 'like innocent children', free from expectations about how we should or shouldn't live, and accepting life as a spontaneous learning experience.

Of course, it's easier said than done, and I'm the first to admit that I've experienced this myself. However, it is worthwhile in itself, as it is the only way to see 'everything new', as the Master said.

[1]  Master Sanat Kumara in Being the Living Christ in Everyday Life, chap. 31, pg., 378-379, dictated through the messenger Kim Michaels, 2025, E- book version.