The “imperious self” truly deserves its name: it is insistent, invasive, and tyrannical. The harmful psychological energy produced by the activity of our character weak points is so powerful that it can become irresistible. It drives us to act contrary to correct divine and ethical principles. As we will see here, this “anti-self” is as cunning as it is imperious. Its scheming plots are often insidious, going as far as faking the voice of our reason and even diverting some of our spiritual impulses to its own advantage, all without our even realizing it.

In the series of portraits of the imperious self, forms of deception hold a prominent position. This characteristic of the imperious self has already been touched upon: not only is the imperious self tireless, but it is also an expert in deception. Let’s take a closer look at some of its most common tricks.
Once we have gained some ground in our battle against the imperious self, and made some progress in our self-knowledge, the raw and imperious pressure of the imperious self is no longer enough to make us cave to its demands. The same goes if we have received a solid moral education that enables us to quickly detect clearly anti-ethical actions and emotions. In such a situation, the imperious self resorts to deception by taking over the voice of our reason in order to override or outmaneuver the objections of the superego. This results in all sorts of fallacious reasonings that are tailored to justify our anti-ethical thoughts and behaviors. Here are some among many examples of the way in which the imperious self succeeds at fooling us.

In its new lab “Humility and Gratitude – Developing Sincere Love for The One” OstadElahi inPractice once again draws from the Fundamentals of the Process of Spiritual Perfection: A Practical Guide. The lab focuses on the panel “Humility and Gratitude” that appears in chapter 12 “The Exercise of Attention-Dialogue”. The core of the lab rests on this passage, in which Bahram Elahi describes the necessary conditions for sincere love for the One to emerge.

This article is another episode in the monographic series dedicated to the imperious self—that relentless adversary that is paradoxically indispensable for our spiritual progress. It is indeed imperious, but it is also ingenious in its own ways, and at times cunning to the point of taking our reason hostage and having us forget its very existence—this is what the following examples and analyses are about to illustrate.

In this new portrait of the imperious self, we analyse three common problems that we are usually reluctant to consider from an ethical perspective: depression, shyness, and weakness of character. Meet some of the passive manifestations of the imperious self.

The imperious self can be anywhere: in our negative actions but also in our seemingly most noble behaviour. Often, the “good deed” we accomplish actually results from an impulse of our imperious self. In such cases, it is not the action itself that will help us identify the mark of the imperious self, but the manner in which the action is accomplished, the underlying intention and emotions. This is an important issue. The imperious self knows very well that once our inner evolution has reached a certain level, it can no longer present itself in the guise of basic anti-ethical impulses such as theft, aggression, verbal violence and so on, that are easily detected and immediately rejected by our soul’s immune system. Consequently, it will often present itself in the guise of actions that are not intrinsically illicit or that may even be considered very positive, but that one will carry out with negative intentions or in an exaggerated and harmful manner.

After “Exploring our real self”, OstadElahi inPractice now carries on with its series dedicated to the study and in-depth practical approach of the Fundamentals of the Process of Spiritual Perfection: A Practical Guide in a new lab tackling “The exercise of attention-dialogue”. Bahram Elahi already referred to this exercise in La Voie de la Perfection as “one of the pillars of the process of spiritual perfection”. In the Practical Guide it is the subject of a special chapter that can be considered a reference for both theory and practice. This chapter presents numerous “recommendations for a good practice”, providing students of the “new medicine of the soul” with many guidelines resulting from years of research and in-depth experimentation.

The latest in the activities organized these past years around the exhibition of Ostad Elahi’s instruments at the New York Metropolitan Museum now include the full-length version of the film The Art of Ostad Elahi, featured on ostadelahi.com, Ostad Elahi’s official website.

After “One character weak point after another – delving within our unconscious psyche”, elaborated from an extract of The Path of Perfection, OstadElahi inPractice, filled with enthusiasm for the recent publication in English of the Fundamentals of Spiritual Perfection: A Practical Guide, is now launching a series of labs dedicated to the study and in-depth practical approach of this book by Bahram Elahi.

The first lab of this series opens with the words that introduce the book and that perfectly illustrate, in both form and substance, the scientific approach of a manual of medicine.

Not settling for the mere condition of a human-animal and developing the qualities that will make us truly human, such is the ultimate task facing us. The pressing challenge, though, is to prevent Bob, our “inner bonobo”, to end up taking control. So much of our behaviour already bears its mark! Practically speaking, we need to imagine the worst and take the initiative, in other words strive to take control of our self. Only on this basis can we work toward cultivating our humanity.