Yeah, I think I hear I understand what you’re saying, bro
The true self/false self way of explaining things makes a lot of sense, and explains a lot of things, or at least on the human side of things (stuff in nature, like all the violence and death in the animal kingdom, and stuff like natural disasters, that’s another thing… what’s your take on all of that? And I’m pretty sure you don’t think it’s Satan ).
I think a large part of what God is doing with us is seeking, in various ways, to awake us to our true selves, or to put it in biblical terms, ‘conform us to the image of Christ’, so yeah, what Merton has to say about things, as challenging and convicting as it may be, makes a lot of sense.
Thanks for expanding on that, bro