I AM

I spent a few years in an Ocha house (African). Then five years in a Buddhist temple. Following that, I had a guru who took me to numerous temples and had me participate in a number of Vedic rituals.
Certain elements were universal. They all taught their own cosmology and a protocol in dealing with archetypes. The one element that was also relevant in every spiritual circle or temple was the tempering of the I AM or the ego. From the moment of initiation, the training around our sense of self became extremely important. By nature, the I AM is childlike, self-involved and constantly seeing itself as the most important element in the universe. With discipline, the ego becomes less the dominant factor and we suddenly can see the forces around us more clearly. As we develop over a period of time, we reduce the common sense of self and start feeding and developing a divine sense of self. This divine self, the high self, becomes over a period of time, our most relevant possession.