Letting go of who you think you are and making contact with the Secret Self are actually one and the same. But what is the Secret Self? We don't have to look upon this invisible part of ourselves as anything mysterious, for it is not. In fact, this sacred nature within wants only to reveal itself and to show those with eyes to see the wonders of their own hidden heavens. This is what our self-studies over the past eight chapters have been leading us to: Making contact with the Secret Self.
Learning to let go of our own constant mental chattering prepares us for the entrance of the Secret Self. And when, at last, we would rather listen for its coming than to our own internal talking, this Sovereign Self makes its appearance. In that instant, all is changed. All is new. Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher of ancient Ephesus who rejected his own city-kingship in favor of contacting this force of true higher self-command, grasped the importance of willingly suspending the common in favor of the promise of the celestial:
"If one does not expect the unexpected, one will not find it; for it is not reached by search or by trail."
What would our contact with this exalted secret "unexpectedness" reveal? What does this higher nature of ours know that we don't? Seekers of the Secret Self, the wise and illuminated men and women who have kept what is good and true aflame through the ages, have left us accounts of their findings. These royal records are meant to encourage and strengthen us in our own search for higher self-meaning. A brief glance at a few of these inspired instructions shows that the Secret Self not only knows all about our present unhappiness, but it is also trying to reach us and teach us that no heartache is necessary.
The Secret Self knows the folly of our wisdom and invites us to go beyond our present limited thinking into the fullness of its Knowing: "Happy is the man that findeth True Wisdom, and the man that getteth Understanding... she is more precious than rubies: And all things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her." (Old Testament)
The Secret Self knows the fear in our hopes and promised that true fearlessness will come to anyone who dares to seek it first. "He who has found the bliss of the Eternal has no fear from any corner." (Upanishads)
The Secret Self knows the frustration in our demands and wisely instructs us to accept the relief and release that comes with wanting what it wants. "Resign yourself to the sequence of things, forgetting the changes of life, and you shall enter into the Pure, the Divine, the One." (Taoism)
The Secret Self knows the anguish of our attachments and assures us that letting go of what we think we must have to be happy is the same as letting go of our unhappiness. "If we liberate our souls from our petty selves, wish no ills to others, and become clear as a crystal diamond reflecting the light of Truth, what a radiant picture will appear in us, mirroring things as they are, without the admixture of our burning desires, without the distortion of erroneous illusion, without the agitation of clinging and unrest." (Buddhism)
The Secret Self knows the hollow in our hearts and decrees that if we will place it above all other loves that it will place us above all of our emptiness. "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." (New Testament)