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I am a pastor and a clinical psychotherapist. My life's passion is defining healthiness from a human perspective and paralleling it to the holiness of God, divine perspective. Shifting perspectives creates a paradigm that is alongside of rather than over and against. The parakalein of God and the paradoxes of humanity are redefined. Humanity is all about winning and yet we are losing ground everywhere. Divinity is all about letting go of the desire to win and the fear of loss. The Divine embraces the world with loving care regardless of anything.

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I AM is what is, was, and ever shall be

Posted by Don Paine

When God described self-identity as "I AM" it was proscriptive, prescriptive, and descriptive.
I was at a Psychotherapy and Meditation Conference and the panel debate was over the construct of self.
Self Compassion and Lovingkindness were at the core of everyone's agreement or nearly everyone.  So one of the panelists concluded that we, all the presenters (10) had agreed on one thing that Self is not a noun as it is constructed to define what the self needs to do, or what frustrations create the self as in self-compassion or self-indulgent.  When self as a thing is spoken of it is the label of frustration.  When we think of Self as developing energy than it is more like a verb, flowing energy and beyond being a thing but stimulating things, bringing them into being.

Internal Family Systems a model of therapy in which I practice creates in my mind a different idea as in that system, Self is itself energy, a thing, bigger than all humanity but present in every human person and beyond.  It is a thing.

The last presenters had presented a model of I am, we are, me is as a way of working with couples.  I am had been referred to during the conference in various ways.  Dr Willoughby Britton had responded to a questioner who quoted Hegel in "I am, therefore I am" (as a question for her comment) with the comment, "Why cannot we say just :"I AM."

I went to the microphone.  There was a part of me that wanted to talk about IFS and defend that model but felt that would be agenda driven so provoking.  Another part of me wanted to go "spiritual preacher" part, not so helpful.  Another part wanted to challenge the thought process of the moment in a thought invoking way.  Another part of me knows it is not about how much you say but about what you say and how it is received.

I said, "My comment that can invite each panel to comment is 'I AM' is a noun and a verb not either a noun or a verb".


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