During this weeks classes we discussed how we can move beyond our egos. Some students, however, felt strongly that we need our egos. The most common concerns were, ego is necessary for human consciousness to evolve on this planet, without ego we would be too passive to create anything, ego is helpful in creating strong personal (and national) boundaries, and ego is what makes us unique individuals.
An argument can be made that without ego human consciousness would not have evolved as it is now. However, the question is, is the ego useful to the continued evolvement of consciousness on this planet, and if not, can we let it go?
All of the hurt and dysfunction in our lives and the lives of others are the result of unchecked ego.
Your true nature is whole, perfect, and complete. Ego is simply a condition that arises when humans are separate from their true, perfectly good, natures.
Ego is sustained by a wanting that can never be satiated. The ego wants love, power, and immortality. The more divided we are from our true nature the more prevalent ego is in our lives.
We chase after love hoping to feed our emptiness. We deny love to those whom we feel aren’t worthy of it. Egoic love is conditional and conditional love is ephemeral and painful.
Poverty and hunger are the manifestations of the ego’s insatiable need for power.
Arguments and violent conflict in the home and between nations arise from our personal and collective need to be right, an extension of the need for power.
In the west we have an unhealthy denial of death, and as a result we are obsessed with youth and vitality and eschew the wisdom that comes with age.
The ego keeps us blind to the truth that we are an interdependent species; we thrive as individuals when we are harmonious in our communities.
Ego only serves me if I wish to continue to create suffering for myself and others. Inner peace and ego are mutually exclusive. They cannot occupy the same space.
More next week 🙂
Shanti, Shalom, Salaam, Peace
—Read, “The New Earth,” by Eckhart Tolle
Photo Credit: Julia Caesar