True Self/False Self: Unmasking the Spirit Within

by M. Basil Pennington

Connecting his own powerful spirituality with the humanism of de Chardin and the contemplative wisdom of Merton, Pennington deftly uncovers the direct route to happiness and peace our age so desperately seeks. M. Basil Pennington is a Trappist monk at St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, and the author of Lectio Divina and Living in the Question . In this brief but illuminating work, Pennington sheds light on the spiritual practice of transformation, which for Christians comes under the auspices of the Holy Spirit. Pennington wants us to love ourselves for God's sake and to take seriously the transformations that the Holy Spirit is working within us.

Genres: Spirituality, Faith, Christian

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2000

About the author

Dom M. Basil Pennington O.C.S.O. (1931–2005) was a Trappist monk and priest. He was a leading Roman Catholic spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, and director.

Pennington was an alumnus of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas Angelicum where he obtained a licentiate in Theology in 1959.[1] He also earned a licentiate in Canon Law at the Pontifical Gregorian University. Pennington became known internationally as one of the major proponents of the Centering Prayer movement begun at St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, during the 1970s.

Reviews

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good introduction to the idea of "true self/false self". He develops the thought of the false self as based on what we do and have, and what people think of us. The true self, that which emerges as we know ourselves loved by Christ, he maintains is found in practices like lectio divina and centering prayer--contemplative practices where we "be" in the presence of God. He also has a helpful chapter on healing of memories and a less helpful one on the evolution of "higher consciousness" which feels to me more gnostic or eastern than Christian. While I appreciate Pennington on contemplative prayer, the things David Benner writes in How to Be Your Own Best Friend more helpful on the matter of true self/false self.

[James Rader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before reading this book, I was already familiar with the ideas about the true self/false self dichotomy that Pennington explores. Although, he does a nice job defining and unpacking these ideas, his most valuable insights come from how he invites the reader into practical ways of engaging with prayer and scripture to discover ones true self in God. Here are my main two takeaways:

1. We are all made in the image of God. There is nothing that can separate or distance us from this truth. However, much of the purpose of our spiritual journey is to uncover this truth, shed the attachments of our false egoic selves, and grow in the likeness of God. Pennington says, “In finding our true self in God, we find everyone else in God” and “There is a union and a communion. We come to love our neighbors in truth as our very selves” (p. 47). Pennington teaches us that transformation is an inside job as we evolve from “me” to “we.”

2. Gandhi wrote the famous lines, “If one percent of the people will meditate, we will have world peace.” When Jesus went into the desert, and was faced with temptation (false self attachments) he uttered these words, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” What Basil Pennington has so beautifully brought back to our Christian tradition is the reminder to engage with practices that are a “daily feeding” as we rediscover the words, messages, symbols, and metaphors that bring us back to who we are as image bearers of the divine.

Pennington is know for bringing more Eastern practices back into the Christian tradition. At the end of the book he unpacks some methods for how to engage with centering prayer and lectio divina when we pray and read holy texts. I am thankful for his life’s work, and feel inspired to take some of his ideas and practices, and apply them to my own spiritual journey.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deceptively simple volume that contains challenging wisdom. Pennington tackles the idea of attachments to false self (“Every time you are unhappy, just ask yourself: Why am I unhappy? Is it not because I cannot do something I want to do; I do not have something I want to have; or I am concerned about what others will think?”) and presents alternatives to these attachments in a gracious, tender manner.

Takeaways:
(1) Each of us in the entirety of our existence is “a listening.” How we receive information is reflective of the kind of listening that we are. Are we open, receptive, reflective, willing to consider things outside of our go-to perspectives? Or are we rigid and tight, unwilling to hear something new or different? We are each a listening, and how we listen (and how we receive other listenings) impacts the people around us and the world as a whole.
(2) The more connected we become to our true self - letting go of false attachments along the way - the more opportunity we have to be connected with everyone else around us. When we see what it’s truest in ourselves, we can more clearly identify what is truest in others.

Pennington has a lovely voice through this slim book (with the exception of one awkward chapter called “Healing of Memories” which felt out of place to me) kindly and unthreateningly inviting readers to consider things in a new way. Well worth the read.

[Joel Wentz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was surprised at how much I loved this little book. Pennington is a mystic, so if you are looking for tight, systematized doctrine or scriptural exegesis, then best look elsewhere. Rather, you will find here a beautiful meditation on the tension between the human psychological reality of putting forward an image that helps us best succeed in the world (false self) and the Christian faith commitment that we are loved truly and deeply by the Father before we can do anything to earn it (true self). It's a moving reflection, and Pennington includes far-ranging data from psychology, to evolutionary thought, to the biography of Thomas Merton. It's a powerful piece, and if you're looking for deep insights from Christian mystical spirituality, then this is an easy recommendation.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased this book at the Thomas Merton International Conference in Rochester NY. Basil Pennington does an excellent job of developing one of my favorite Merton concepts: our challenge to discover our true self.

[Denis Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a little gem, especially re Tom Merton !

[Jared Kassebaum · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great further exploration of true-self/false-self teaching by a Cistercian monk, using practical ideas such as centering prayer. The concept of the true-self and false-self has been a massive paradigm shift within my broader pivot out of evangelical theology. To see sin as a coping mechanism/fear-based life arising out of a constructed false-self, covering and obscuring the reality of the true-self, one of union with God, the inherent of image of Him, has given me much-needed healthier views of self, what self-love is, what personal vocation is, what our natural/default state before God is, and what it means to fight sin/put off the "old self" (to use the Apostle Paul's language). I found this book through a different Basil Pennington book I read (about Thomas Merton-- one of my favorite about-Merton books I've read).

The monastic tradition has a rich history of this teaching, and seeing Pennington and Keating (both Cistercians in the ~90s, but also James Finley doing this in the present day) fuse these ideas along with newer psychological science and thought has given me much hope for the healing journey of many within and without evangelicalism, along with non-Christians looking for meaning and purpose while aware of something interfering with this spiritual desire for peace and identity-- the false-self. Reading the Bible with this understanding of self (of course, it is not simple nor complete but a helpful framework to replace one of total, or, rather, extreme, depravity of self) has been helpful along my own healing journey. To know and believe that beneath the false-self we all surround ourselves with, exists a true-self, beautiful, shining like gold, waiting to be uncovered and enjoyed in awareness of God's deep abiding love for it, gives me hope.