This has much theology in it, which Phil can nuance. But for me it is both painful to realize, and a relief, especially as I work with hospice patients who so blatantly show the truth of it.<br /><br />And, I'll start off with an expected bias toward developmental issues:<br /><br />If we don't experience not owning the mother (which means first having infantile narcissism satisfied, then disappointed within the parental container of empathy), we'll be more liable, even though Fallen from the start, to cling desperately to images and experiences for false self identification and need to control others toward that end. <br /><br />So couldn't we say that the pre-Fallen condition of human beings was to be owned by God? Jesus as the second Adam didn't belong to Himself, even unto death, but as the Son to His Father's will. <br /><br />Where I've seen children maturing through their attachment process with parents who are emotionally mature enough to facilitate it, they still must come to this realization as adults of not owning their own life, although their existential struggle isn't complicated with primary deficits in the wiring of the nervous system that kundalini can inflame and exacerbate. Living as a true self, they can more easily see, and accept, that their life is a gift, but without having to get hypervigilant about it (a false self attribute). <br /><br />Much suffering in life seems to arise from living, or having to live, otherwise.

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