Preface

       My intention for writing The Struggle for Authentic Self stems from my strong commitment to help awaken in individuals a sincere desire to seek and attain the greatest source of higher intelligence and power which exists within each single human being in the world.  I call that source of greatness the authentic self.  For the individual person, there is no greater act than the attainment of the true, authentic self. For once realized, you will discover that the authentic self contains all human potentials and possibilities necessary for living in total self-fulfillment.

            Find the authentic self and true happiness and ever-lasting love will move into your life naturally, without you having to will or force them.  Find the authentic self and you will experience the partnering of your mind knowledge with the intuitive knowledge of your inner self or spirituality.  Find the authentic self and all divisions, segmentations and boundaries that separate you from some people, places and things will disappear naturally. In short, find the authentic self and you will live a life of wholeness. 

What this means is that all searches that contain a specific or finite goal other than the attainment of the authentic self, like the search for happiness, the search for love and the search for peace, will always be utterly futile.  These cannot be found until you discover the real you, the true, authentic self.  To chase after a goal prior to the attainment of the authentic self is akin to the popular expression of “putting the cart before the horse.”

            Everyone should have a clear idea of their definitive purpose in life.  Everyone should know that their ultimate, infinite purpose is the attainment of the authentic self, to become that which is in alignment with your inner nature.  But most people do not know.  As a result, the lives of most individuals become filled with a great deal of confusion, frustration and disappointment since what their different pursuits are capable of turning up is never fully satisfying, “it is never it.”  When individuals do not know what is that they are supposed to be pursuing and go on to find things they imagined wanting, sooner or later those things turn empty.

            There is a seemingly inherent paradox in all quests that do not start with the authentic self: these can only produce awareness of what individuals should not want to have in their lives. Instead of bringing satisfaction, joy and happiness, these searches reveal what individuals should avoid.  The more individuals search blindly or incorrectly, the more they recognize what does not fit or work with them.  This is a very interesting dynamic: you set out to search for something you have contemplated wanting to have in your life and you come away informed of what you need to stay away.  You must be looking for the wrong thing or you simply do not know where to look.

Realizing that they just cannot chase after pointless pursuits forever, after several futile attempts even individuals who are seeking to change their lives give up on their dreams, imagination and creativity and surrender their lives to ordinary living.  These individuals choose to become like everyone else although they recognize that they are living against their true nature.  By agreeing to become common, conventional and ordinary, these individuals are aware how they have become exactly what society expects of each person; they are conscious that they became exactly what they were aiming to avoid.  How can people live like this?  How sad! 

            This confusing and tragic situation prompted me to write this book.  I want to spark a fire that will awaken in individuals a very deep and intense craving to examine their self identity closely, to recognize how the self identity they have always known and embraced so tightly does not truly originate from the real inner sources of authenticity that inherently exist in all of us.  Rather than deriving from deep within, from their hearts and souls, from their intuitive feelings, emotions, beliefs, passion and creativity, the self or personality individuals believe to know is an illusion that is heavily shaped by forces and conditions in their social and cultural environment.

            The true authentic self exists in a dormant state inside each one of us yearning to be called upon, impatiently itching to be invited to come forth to serve as our guiding light.  The overall aim of the book is to inspire individuals to recognize the quest for the authentic self as the utmost purpose for which they live in the human world. That it is their birthright to find and become the authentic self.  That it is their responsibility to themselves and to the whole world to become the true, authentic self they were originally born as. For, only the true, authentic self is capable of creating an individual person who is truly self-fulfilled.       

My purpose for writing The Struggle for the Authentic Self is also driven by my great optimism and faith that once individuals summon or bring forth their authentic self and begin to experience the essence and unique splendor of living in and through this level of divine intelligence and consciousness, they will be naturally moved to use their personal experiences as well as the knowledge and understanding they have developed to awaken in others the same desire.

This is of supreme importance and necessity for all of humanity, for it is through the attainment of the individual, personal authentic self that we can achieve our utmost collective goal: a world of individual and social well-being, a world of ever-lasting peace, happiness and love for self and for all. The authentic self is synonymous with the well-being and fulfillment of the personal self.  It is also synonymous with the well-being of the collective self of the world.  The individual self and the collective self of the world are one:  they are naturally and intimately interconnected and inter-dependent.

            I use the term awakening for more than just pointing how individuals the world over lack conscious awareness of who they really are and their purpose in life.  I also use the term awakening to argue that individuals are not aware that the authentic self represents that defining and necessary substance for becoming whole and complete.   In other words, the term awakening suggests that individuals are not aware that they do not know that they are unconscious of their true greatness or the true authentic self.  In reverse, I am referring to how individuals believe to know self, but since the self they know is not the authentic self, the self they believe to know and live with is not really it.  This leads individuals to live in the human world not knowing that they don’t know.  And this is a most fundamental fact to which they must awaken.

The idea of “not knowing that you don’t know” is the most essential recognition necessary for igniting every process of change.  Every adventure and path into a new you, a new self or a new world must begin with this most fundamental admission or acknowledgement:  “I am not aware that I do not know.”  Or, “I do not know that I don’t know that there is greatness lying dormant inside of me.” 

It is only after you awaken to this fundamental fact that you can feel the desire to search for the real you.  Once you make the acknowledgement that you do not know that you do not know, you are ready to act. You have awakened!

            Once awakened to the fact that there exists true greatness within them, it’s up to each individual person to determine whether pursuing and attaining this true greatness or the authentic self is something they want to do.  As critically important and necessary as the attainment of the authentic self is for living in true and total self-fulfillment, as important as the attainment of the authentic self is for the whole human world--its quest is something no one can force or impose on another person.  This is something each individual person must decide to do on his/her own.  If the inspiration for pursuing the authentic self comes from someone else, or if it is something you are doing to please others, then the quest is not authentic; it is inauthentic.  Then the quest is another imposed-upon task, another obligatory charge. 

            This is exactly what I mean when I state that I am writing The Struggle for the Authentic Self for the purpose of helping to awaken individuals.  If during or after reading the book, you are true to yourself and acknowledge that indeed you lack awareness of yourself, that you do not know the real you, that when individuals lack awareness of themselves they are easily manipulated, taken advantage of and controlled, that only as the true, authentic self will you be able to give your inherent, built-in gift to the whole of the world--only then can you decide what the next step is.   Only you can choose and determine what to do after becoming awakened.  Only you can decide whether or not to pursue the path of the authentic self.

            In addition, if you decide to follow the journey of authenticity, you must do it your way.  You cannot build the authentic self by copying or imitating the thoughts, ideas and lives of others.  Your authentic self must be the reflection of your inner nature.  This is what for me makes the quest for the authentic self so special.  If you choose to embark upon it, only you can define it, only you can dress it up according to your intuitive feelings, emotions, passion, creativity and desires.

            But what is really special for me is that although the quest for the authentic self is a true individual pursuit or adventure, every individual, authentic self pursuit or adventure arrives at the same destination:  bringing peace, love and happiness to the whole world.  This vision is another major inspiration for writing this book.

            The Struggle for the Authentic Self came to me as a book idea after I had spent several years prior contemplating two other book projects for which I simply could not develop much excitement.   When I say that The Struggle for the Authentic Self came to me, I do mean “it came to me.” I do not recall ever thinking consciously about it.  I could not have since the “authentic self” is an expression I do not recall using very often before, if at all.  The idea of the authentic self came to me from nowhere and everywhere.  It arrived as a true, divine gift from the Universe with the mission to help with the healing of our planet.

            My passion about The Struggle for the Authentic Self comes from deep within my soul, from the love of my heart.  For me, it is not just another academic subject to pay lip service to, but rather, it is something that I believe in deeply, something that is extremely central to my individual, personal life and experience. 

I have lived the words written in this  book.

            Back in the mid-1990s, my whole world, at least the world as I knew it, turned upside down.  At the time, I was nowhere near the person I am today.  I experienced what for me was a most devastating experience and I was for the first time in my life at a loss.  I didn’t know what to do.  But that moment of unknowing was for me the beginning of my journey towards true, natural authentic living.  I went on to develop an intimate understanding for the purpose behind that pain and suffering in my life.  It was exactly that pain and suffering that subsequently led me on a magnificent journey, where I was able to reclaim my true, authentic self.

            By training, I’m a professor of sociology. For a very long time, sociology was my only world.  This was a world I never imagined would leave my questions about life and my place in it unanswered.  But that’s exactly what happened.

            For many years my career as a professor seemed to be moving along nicely.  I was a tenured professor, actively writing academic books and articles. I had even started a scholarly journal, called the Latino Studies Journal which at that time was one of the few journals Latino and Latina professors could turn to for publication.  I was always one of the best and most liked teachers by students, a recognition I truly valued and cherished.  According to standard expectations, I was living my dream of being a top notch academician.  My life had been defined by both my profession and the university and I was following and doing exactly what these two powerful forces of influence had designed for me, as well as for other professors.  I had become a poster child for the field of sociology and the university. In fact, in one local university newspaper article, I was dubbed as a “rising star.”

Then I moved from my hometown of Chicago to a new university in a new and different city. My dream was about to become a nightmare.  During a short period of five years I ended up changing universities three times.  I just didn’t seem to “fit in.”   I was not a good match. I went from one university to the next hoping things would be different, thinking maybe I just needed a new academic environment, a change of scenery sort of speak.  I was wrong. 

After leaving the third university, I was at a complete and utter loss. At the time, my wife and I had five small children and I was the main provider. I didn’t know how we were going to make it. We ended up losing our home.  We moved to Florida and I started teaching as part-time, temporary professor at different colleges and universities throughout Central Florida.

            I had lost my sense of self.  I was not at all sure what I was supposed to be doing with my life.  It seemed as if my life was crazily spinning out of control.  There were many questions that I could not answer since I did not need to ask them before. These questions revolved mainly around what had happened to my once prominent academic life, which had included a most self-affirming and enjoyable Visiting Professorship at Yale University. From teaching at an Ivy League university to an adjunct professor at community colleges—this was for me at the time the most perplexing and devastating experience.

Through all of the confusion, I learned two very important lessons.  The first one said: “to fully heal yourself, you must go beyond the intellectual, academic walls of sociology.”  What this very distressing message was communicating to me was that my sociological knowledge and understanding could only provide partial or incomplete answers to my personal questions.   In simple terms, I learned that the sociological knowledge that had served as my source of understanding for writing books and journal articles as well as for making me a most outstanding and proficient teacher in the university classroom was not enough to heal my pain.  

Transcend my sociological mind and eye is exactly what I did.  I began a search which took me to a place I never imagined I would ever go.  This one place ignited a flame within me that burns brighter day by day. It is known as the realm of inner self intelligence.   I came to discover that in our inner self exists the most natural and profound sources of intelligence or knowledge and understanding just waiting to be called forth.  These are known as our intuitive feelings, emotions, passion and creativity, or simply the heart.  

What I learned here was quite insightful and powerful.  What we call the mind is only one source of knowledge and understanding.  The knowledge and understanding of the mind, as I will demonstrate throughout the book, stems from information we learn or pick up from forces outside of us, like family, teachers, peers, the media, government, religion and many others.  In this way, the mind represents a social construction that is heavily nurtured by the central ideas of the particular society and culture where we live.  In the inner self of my spirituality, my heart, my soul, is where the most powerful and natural source of intelligence is found.  The inner self is a most powerful source of intelligence or knowledge of which most people are not aware.       

Once I started to tune-in to my inner self, I learned my second major lesson.  This lesson was as basic or fundamental as the first one.  It said very poignantly that as a proponent and activist for helping with the healing of the planet, the healing starts with me.   “In order to help others, you must help yourself first”—this is such a basic law of nature.  Intellectually, I understood this law of nature very well.  I would always teach it to my students.  However, I never imagined needing to have anything in me corrected or fixed—after all, I was a sociologist, a student of human behavior.  I thought I knew myself extremely well and as far as I knew, everything was fine.   Of course, everything was not right.  It needed a great deal of healing.

Once I embarked upon this spiritual path, which calls for making my natural intuitive feelings, emotions, passion and creativity central to  my knowing and understanding, it was not very difficult to recognize how for all my adult years, sociology was providing me with an incomplete, partial picture or image of myself.  And, I had embraced the picture or image tightly, believing that it really represented the real me or all there was to know and understand.  

Little wonder why my life had been spinning around the same vicious circle of confusion, frustration and disappointments for quite some time.  It is remarkable to reflect on my past, if only for a few minutes, and acknowledge that it was within this context of confusion that I was working to be of assistance to other people.   How many times have you witnessed family members and friends giving advice to others about how to correct their problems though their lives are a mess?   

I now understand why I could not had healed myself by simply relying on my sociological insights.  You see, this level of knowledge and understanding is exactly what caused the problem in the first place.  This is what Einstein had in mind when he wrote one of his most famous lines, a line I repeat later in the book and which I constantly share with friends all the time: “Problems cannot be resolved at the same level of consciousness that created them.”  

The message finally became clear to me. To really help individuals change their lives and then sustain their new, transformed lives in a state of enduring inner peace, true happiness and love, I needed to heal myself first by elevating to a higher level of intelligence and consciousness than the one I had followed for so long.

What this required of me was to expand beyond sociology by bringing the intuitive intelligence of my inner self, my heart, soul or spirituality into the center stage of my being.  My response to this call was to bring about a synthesis or fusion of sociology and spirituality, two seemingly disparate realms.  Once this marriage or partnership occurred, I began to find myself living through a most powerful and holistic paradigm or way of knowing. Sociological knowledge by itself was incomplete.  Spirituality by itself is always incomplete. These two realms needed to come together into a most intimate marriage, a very close relationship.  Once working as partners, the ability to see and understand how to best live in the human world was without measures.

The great significance behind the creation of this fusion between sociology and my inner self or my spiritual world cannot be overstated.  In this partnership, I found the most remarkable way to live my life.  As a sociologist I had spent so much of my life studying, writing, lecturing and teaching about how different forces and conditions in society or external to people (like other people, social institutions, organizations, rules, regulations, laws, legislations, programs, social class, race and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age and others) were so crucially responsible for seducing individuals into thinking and behaving in the human world according to society’s standard, traditional expectations.  My newly found inner self intelligence opened up a life wherein individuals could actually shape and change the course society would follow.  And the power to critically shape the historical course society would follow stems from individuals having found their inherent greatness, the true, authentic self, as in, “change yourself, become the true, authentic self and the world around you changes as well.”    

In addition, I found that the marriage I created between sociology and spirituality made my teaching that much better and powerful.  If I was a good teacher before, now my teaching was extraordinary, for it was now built and delivered through compassion, caring and love.  And its purpose became that of inspiring students to awaken to the greatness that exists within them but of which they are not informed.  My enduring message for all those who decide to study with me was going to be quite simple:  “Your purpose for living in the human world is to re-claim the greatness of your true, authentic self for the purpose of contributing to the healing of the planet.  To gain access to this greatness requires knowledge about the intricate workings of our external social environment or society (sociology) and knowledge and understanding of the workings of our inner self (spirituality).  Bring together the positive and self-affirming elements of whatever academic discipline you are studying with the intuitive intelligence or knowledge of your inner self and you will experience true freedom in your life as well as self fulfillment.”      

Nearly 30 years after receiving my Ph.D., at a time when I should be contemplating retirement, I find myself involved in the greatest project of my life.   I feel like I had just completed my Ph.D. dissertation and starting at my very first teaching position.  And I could not feel more blessed, more fortunate, more invigorated to begin. 

I will be for the rest of my days a teacher for the authenticity of the world, for how authentic living is the only remedy that can cure the pain that is found in every land, in every person of the world.  I am passionately dedicating my remaining days of this incarnation to helping to awaken in people an intense desire and commitment to be the true shapers of not only their own personal, individual lives but of this beautiful planet which interconnects us all.  Through my years as professor of sociology, I have been able to develop a sound understanding of how society works night and day, relentlessly to condition people away from authenticity and towards a state of blindness, a state of false consciousness that prevents them from ever getting to know the true authentic self and truly contributing to the well-being of the human world.  Through my years of living from within my inner self, I have experienced that it is only through this sphere that individuals can unearth the real and natural self, the authentic self and live a life of true self-love and ever-lasting happiness. 

Our authentic self is the greatest gift we can give to the world, for it is only with the true self-love and ever-lasting happiness that only the authentic self can nurture that we can contribute to the creation of a loving, caring and peaceful world.  It is my mission, my authentic purpose to help other people awaken to this truth.

            To my readers:  like me, may you too have an experience of awakening after reading the book.  May you then pass your book on to family and friends.  If you do not want to part with your book copy, simply recommend it to them.  But keep in mind that you found this book for two reasons. The first is to help awaken in you a desire to learn about the greatness that exists within you and hopefully bring it forth.  The second is to help family, friends and others do the same.  Be aware that you attracted The Struggle for the Authentic Self into your life because you, too, are a seeker of the truth and a great proponent of peace, love and happiness for the entire world. You are not reading and learning from the book just for your personal enlightenment and intellectual enrichment only, you are reading and learning for the purpose of the world. Thank you for making The Struggle for the Authentic Self a part of your living experience and that of others.