Spiritual Vanity: What It Is, What It Does.

A Saint-Germain Channel
By Alexandra Mahlimay & Dan Bennack
April 4, 2010
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
www.joyandclarity.com

The following question answered by Saint-Germain comes from our monthly
channeling broadcast.

Viewer (paraphrased): I feel that true freedom comes when I can
choose anything that I might want to create or experience in life. When I
can do whatever I want. But doesn’t too much freedom lead to
difficulties, too? What about vanity, for one? What are your thoughts
about freedom, choice, and vanity?

Saint-Germain: An interesting question. You are asking about
freedom of choice here, and here is my short reply, "With freedom
comes choice, and in choice you will find your freedom." Yes, there
is something very wonderful about freedom of choice. But there is also
something very seductive about it, especially if you are unprepared for
the experience of being able to do whatever you want. And you have
rightly named one of these difficulties. It is called, vanity.

What Is Spiritual Vanity?

Let’s talk about a particular kind of vanity now. Let’s talk about
spiritual vanity. Have you ever met anyone who is spiritually vain? I’m
willing to bet that you know one or two of them.

A person is spiritually vain when they take excessive pride in their
spiritual accomplishments, and then use this to impress or manipulate
others around them. It has “tarnished the halo” of many human angels who
would lead others on the Earth today.

Spiritual vanity has consequences, too. Just consider how difficult it
is for the spiritually vain person to disentangle himself or herself
from this folly. It is a monumental task. It is a stumbling block for
many who are on the spiritual path, as they journey back toward
remembering their Divinity.

The Folly of Spiritual Vanity

Vanity is a trap, indeed, and here’s the reason why:

People on a spiritual path often find themselves moving into higher
states of awareness, as they progress along the way. The problem of
spiritual vanity arises, however, whenever there is a fascination or
fixation on these experiences. It is tempting for some people to believe
that just because they had this marvelous experience, that they are
somehow better or more enlightened than others. This, of course, is
absurd.

What is really happening here is that their egos, which are not yet
fully reintegrated into the experience of Divine Remembrance, are
playing tricks on them.

Let me give you a silly example to illustrate this point.

Let’s pretend that the ego is your local school teacher, and that you
are a naive student who is willing to believe just about anything that
you are told. Your teacher encourages you to write the following
incomplete sentence on the blackboard: “My spiritual experience
is…,” and then complete it with the following statement: “…better
than your experience, any day of the week, so why not let me tell you
about it?”

Then your teacher sends you home to repeat this ridiculous statement to
your family, friends, and neighbors, until they are either convinced
that you know exactly what you are talking about and should lead them to
the Holy Land, or that you are certifiably insane. And so, the false
prophet is born.

Know this, my friend: The ego will take hold of anything that is yours,
and twist it to its own purposes. It loves to make sure that you, and
those around you, stay in ignorance of your Divinity.

Why does the ego believe that it deserves to be recognized by, or to be
better than everyone else around it? Because it is secretly uncertain of
its place and importance in the world. This makes the ego particularly
vulnerable to the experience of inflated pride. And the spiritual
variety of this is particularly troublesome.

The ego can never take legitimate pride in anything that is really
important about you, – such as the Truth of your Divinity, because the
ego was born out of your ignorance of this fact.

And This Brings Us Back to Vanity.

Spiritual vanity is nothing more than an ego-sanctioned “recognition” of
your Divinity. But it is a false recognition. It’s just another way to
keep you from truly remembering your Divinity by telling you, and those
around you, that you’ve already done it, when you really haven’t. The
ego encourages you to accept this fiction, by telling you that if you
can just persuade enough people to believe that it is so, then it must
certainly be true. And this is the trap of spiritual vanity. It is as
much a problem for those who would lead others on a spiritual path, as
it is for those who would allow themselves to be lead.

So, to make things perfectly clear, I will repeat myself: “With
freedom comes choice, and in choice you will find your freedom.”

Know this, dear friend, that when you are truly free, you will choose
your experiences wisely, just as your Soul does, and that spiritual
vanity will not enter into the picture at all.

Instead, your decisions about what to do with your life, your
relationships, and anything else of importance to you, – will be in
harmony with your Soul’s Choices about how best to embody its Divinity
as the human you on Earth.

And in this harmonious alignment between what is human about you, and
what is Divine, you are going to realize the true meaning of freedom.
The true meaning of freedom for you as a human being, is liberating
yourself from forgetfulness about Who You Really Are… liberating
yourself from ego-driven acts of self-sabotage that keep you in the dark
about your Divinity.

Know that as you re-integrate the ego’s distorted perceptions about who
you are, into a conscious appreciation of your Divinity, that you will
find freedom and purpose in everything that you do.

And, more importantly, you will understand that your growing spiritual
awareness has nothing to do with being better than others, or more
highly-evolved. Instead, it places you on equal footing with all humans,
and asks you to practice humility daily.

This kind of humility asks you to lead and teach by example, and not by
showiness or showmanship; demonstrating to others that living a human
life, and acting with Divine Awareness, is possible for them, too.

Remember that humility doesn’t ask you to deny the grandeur of your
Divinity, or to live timidly. Your Divinity IS grand; and so are you,
when you feel inspired by it. Humility simply asks you to live your life
without false pride. Without ego.

A Need for Discernment

When you can free yourself from the ego’s vanity, then you will no
longer feel that you are spiritually superior to others, or more
enlightened; or that you need to force your higher perspective on them,
for their own good. Nor will you be seduced by the competing messages of
those who try to tell, or sell you this kind of packaged vanity. There
is much need for discernment about this today.

Instead you will be aware of everyone’s need to find their way back to
remembering their Divinity, and you will be eager to help them in
respectful and appropriate ways, whenever they call upon you.

Thank you, my friend, for asking this question on behalf of all those
who are present now, and who may be reading this later.

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