1.16 Facilitator's Commentary

Earlier in this unit, you had the opportunity to ponder this question in the online forum discussion:

Why do individuals who have the strongest egos sometimes make the best devotees of the ascended masters? What challenges on the path does someone with a strong ego face? What challenges does someone with a weak identity face?

Following are responses to this question for your reference. They are taken from the lecture excerpts.

1. The greater strength you have in an identity, no matter what it is, the greater your ability to get rid of it…. Sometimes the strongest egos make the best chelas because when the pendulum swings from unreality to reality, all that was unreal in the ego obsessed with itself becomes in exchange the Divine Ego.
   
   
2. Of course, those with a strong identity have the most difficult time releasing it because they find that they can make their way quite self-sufficiently in the world and sometimes don’t feel the need to exchange that identity that appears to be serving them well.
   
   
3. Those with weak identities, the poor in spirit, sense their poverty and their impoverished consciousness and they are happy to give it up…the problem is, God can only give you back proportionately that which you give to him. God cannot give you the full God-awareness, for instance, of a cosmic being like Mighty Victory, if your sense of self is the size of a pea.