“The path of awakening is not about becoming who you are.
Rather it is about unbecoming who you are not.”

Albert Schweitzer

It’s become popular in our society to talk about spiritual journeys as a process of living into your full or true self, of letting the authentic seed inside you unfold. We UU’s agree. We even enshrined it in our principles that celebrate each of our unique seeds (inherent worth) and unique journeys (a free and responsible search).

At the same time, there’s something deep within UUism that pushes in the opposite direction. Historically, we’ve been “leavers” – people who struggled not so much to find ourselves but to untangle ourselves from the religious identities we were given. Our spiritual journeys did not begin with a blank slate; they began with the hunger to wipe that slate clean and begin anew. So, we have this important awareness that spiritual journeys are not simply about unfolding your true self, but also about untangling from your old self.