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October 2009 
Guilt about Ego
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GUILT ABOUT EGO
Rev. O.M. Bastet, Ph.D.
Head Minister
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This article represents my own opinions, my stories, my perspectives. I don't claim they are absolute Truth. I do claim they have been useful for me, and I do hope they could be useful for you. That's why I offer them. In my opinion you don't need to be fixed or rescued, but you might be ready for some new perspectives, so here are some possible new perspectives/stories to consider.
Definition of Ego for the purposes of this paper:
Identifying as your thoughts, especially repetitive and judgmental thoughts. This means being totally immersed in your thoughts and not being aware of anything except your thoughts. It means believing that what you think is reality and truth. It means you have no sense of "self" outside of your mental activity, your thoughts. It means you have limited ability to talk ABOUT your thoughts, or think about your thoughts, or mentally stand outside of your thoughts looking AT them. You are constantly inside the house looking out, rarely in the yard or street looking at the house. And never above the house looking at it from above, seeing the Bigger Picture.
When you are identified as your Ego, you would say "I hate you!" When you are less identified as Ego, you might say "I am angry with you" or "I feel hate toward you" or, as your identity moves further away from Ego, you might say "There is anger and hate within me toward you."
The ideas in this paper are based on and aimed at folks studying and practicing from Eckhart Tolle's books The Power of Now and A New Earth (and other similar spiritual teachings.)
Do you recognize any of the following thoughts?
I can't stop my thoughts. There must be something wrong with me. I must be defective. I gotta try harder.
Very often I get sucked into reacting in everyday life, especially by troublesome situations. There must be something wrong with me because I can't stay Present all the time in every situation, no matter how hard I try.
If ego is wrong or a hindrance to my spiritual growth, why do I have it? Why did I develop it? I must be wrong or bad.
I go in and out of full consciousness, and when I come back into full consciousness, I feel bad and guilty about having gone unconscious again
If my ego is something I need to get rid of, make fade away, then why do I have it in the first place? There must be something wrong or defective or bad about me. I must have made a mistake somehow in my life.
Let's take a close look at these thoughts and the feelings they create, and maybe find some new more helpful perspectives.
The first thing to consider is that Full Awareness, or Presence, is not the only thing in consciousness that can be aware OF, or comment on, the Ego. Presence is not the only possible Witness of normal Ego activity.
In fact, when we first discover Tolle's ideas our first lifting above being totally immersed in our normal mental activity is usually NOT directly into what he calls Presence. It is usually into another ability of our Ego, to observe and comment on Ego activities. This is a Witness portion of the Ego itself. Unfortunately, this Witness is still Ego, and it is still sunk into judgments, blame, guilt, and believing itself completely!
The challenge then becomes to spot this Witness, and move yet beyond it. To stand in a different place and observe its activities, but not identify as it, not say This is all of who I am, these thoughts and feelings represent all of truth and reality.
If you experience yourself as being in compassion for what you are observing, you are in true Presence as your identity. If you are in guilt or blame for your own mental activities, you are in the Ego-Witness identity.
Ultimately, the truth is that identity with Presence is your natural always-true and already-true state. You are not practicing a new skill or new achievement. You are relaxing out of the constant effort of restricting your identity to lesser realms or arenas of conscious activity. You are opening, letting go, not getting to a new place via effort. So when you remind yourself to practice, this is Ego under the illusion it is controlling the process. And there's nothing wrong with that, it's part of the process. But ultimately, it fades away, and you have the sense that Presence itself is in charge of the process, and in charge of your mental activity.
It also helps to have a helpful, not harmful, story about how we got Egos in the first place. Are we broken, defective, powerless, in error, or bad-evil? Is that why we have Egos? Did we do something wrong? That pervasive guilt is what Christianity points to, I think, when it talks about "original sin." The idea that there is something bad or wrong in the very nature of our Being, that causes this bad thing to develop in us, inevitably. If we were good, we would never have something about us as harmful, unpleasant, and useless as an Ego, would we?
So shouldn't we feel guilty about developing and having an Ego? Doesn't that guilt even serve a useful function of motivating us to get rid of our Ego? I say No to both questions.
The most help I can offer on this point is something a spiritual teacher said to me once: The purpose of going unconscious is to generate the experience of the inexpressible ecstasy of becoming conscious again. There is no other way for Spirit to have this experience, as it is always conscious. To know something fully, and appreciate it fully, one has to experience some contrast, something that's NOT that something. So God or Spirit (or whatever you want to call the Ultimate,) as a project, generates a portion of itself that is, for a time, in forgetfulness of the Whole, the One, Presence, the All, Full Awareness. That portion functions in ignorance, in illusion, in pretense, under the veils of forgetfulness. Like an actor forgetting he's not the character.
In other words, Ego is not the opposite of Presence, it is an activity of Presence itself! Or, to put this in other words, the Ego is not a mistake God made in creating you or that you made about yourself. The Ego is not outside of the circle of God's compassion. The Ego is not exempt from the Love that God Is.
So rather than condemn what you are moving out of, it's best, I find, to focus on the relief, the freedom, the liberation, the ecstasy, the joy, the appreciation, the gloriousness, of what you are moving (back) into. That fulfills the purpose of the project and allows it to complete and be done with. Bringing along blame and guilt for the time of pretense just indicates the project isn't completely over yet, and that too is part of the project, not a defect in us.
It's also part of the project and not a defect in us, that while we are waking up, we have a judgment about the project. "Seems like a nutty idea to me. Why would God do that? Create all that pain and suffering? Create the Ego? I can't imagine why. Makes no sense. If I were God, I would not have done that. God is nuts." All I can say right now is, I find it best to accept what is, to bring the compassion and full awareness of Presence to these judgments themselves, and let them be, without believing them but also without rejecting them. They are!
Another thing I find helpful with respect to Ego judging Ego is simply to bring Presence to that judgment. Ah, the judgment exists. I accept it. It is. It is not all of Me, and is not the Truth, but it's here, in me, I see it now.
Instead of condemning ourselves or our Egos that we can't stop thinking, we can stand somewhere else than smack dab within the thoughts and the condemnation. I believe it's not what is going on in your mind that's the issue. The point is where are you, your experienced self of "I," your identity, the observer of what you are observing, standing with respect to what is going on? Are you outside looking at it, or are you in it, looking out?
You can have an Ego going a mile a minute, but if you are simply observing it, you are in Presence, you are not trapped in Ego. The alternative we face is not either thoughts or Presence. That's not the choice Tolle presents. Presence always is our natural state, always available to us the moment we choose to stand outside of our mental activity and observe it fully, with compassion.
Presence is not "instead of" anything; it includes everything. That is profound.
So rather than having only Ego or only Presence, one develops a kind of two-track awareness, and stands in the track of Presence. Mental activity never goes away, as long as we are alive. What goes away is our identification as it.
"Don't believe everything you think." Including your guilt about having an Ego, a persistent Ego!
Hope this is helpful to you, dear Reader. Let me know.
Photo is of Breithorn Peak, Switzerland. The mountain is the ego, the mature liberated ego, in harmony with the rest of everything
Access: Public
Whenever I'm finding myself getting stressed I put on 5 of the A New Earth C.D.'s because Eckhart has the most calming voice I've ever heard! It is good to look at the Ego from the point of view that it has an essencial part to play in our lives as a contrast.
I know of contrast that leaves you sweating and so happy to be walking in a healthy pain free body. I sure don't want to think of my Ego as being this painful for me as a contrast but the stronger the contrast the better the view of the Presence when it is finally sighted.
This blog makes perfect sense to me, OM. You know I'm going to have to read it again to put it all in neat little packages! When Eckhart says, “Can you hear the mountain stream?” I will also hear “Ego is an activity of Presence Itself.”!
Smiles!
amber
I'm like so in resonance with this post.
thank you OM
Just a little link to carry on the flow
Smiles indeed amber!
lars
That's what he looks like! LOL! He's so little! This is what happens when you have no television and don't hook into Oprah… you know only the soothing voice coming from the stereo on a rough day… that's enough for me!
Hugs you two!
amber
I so appreciate your comments, lars and amber. Thank you for honoring my place with them !!
Yeah Amber, that's kinda quotable. If I were to be precise I would add: “…and we can be aware of that, or not.”
Interesting I hear so many people who groove on his voice, how soothing it is. I find Adyashanti's voice soothing and uplifting, but I do not experience Tolle that way at all, in fact, the tonality of his voice I feel neutral about, and his delivery makes me antsy/nervous, as I keep expecting him to stumble over his words any second – though he rarely does. But different strokes for different folks !! It's good to have someone who does that for you !!!!
What is happening, I believe, is that the energy vibration of higher consciousness is being conveyed directly, not through the words or what they mean, but by the vocal sound vibrations themselves, so it gets right to us and we fall into resonant vibration.
And yeah, I think from watching the webcast that Oprah is probably taller than he, and of course outweighs him most of the time…. But his effect on the world is not small, it's huge, and for that, I am infinitely grateful to him for manifesting his “Outer Purpose” so well !!!!!!! It sure has gone a long way to co-creating my Spirit's Ideal World !!!!
Hugs back,
OM
OM,
I had this page open but never got a chance to read it. I promise to come back but Darren was asking me about the Oprah/Eckhart Tolle class work we did in the Living Metaphysics pod (http://pods.gaia.com/living_metaphysics/discussions/board/7916) and I thought while I was giving him links on his own blog about the pod's postings, I would share your blog link with him as well.
You can view that here - http://darrenmeade.gaia.com/blog/2008/3/course_of_miracles_oprah_eckhart_tolle_and_a_new_earth
I'll try to make time to read this tonight. Perhaps, I'll have something more specific to say then.
Deborah
OM I have completely missed this blog post; and as you know, am about to leave soon for the trip, so am I glad I read this first! I was waiting to see when you would write this. and your usual lucidity does not disappoint!
As you have asked, what works for me, is the picture and what it represents; that awesome quote Amber's talked of; and a question, because what does not resonate with me, is : ”how we got Egos in the first place.”:
I see Presence and Ego as two dimensional levels; not as something we have or don't have, but as somewhere we are. Would this resonate with you?
Parts of your writing seem to point to this as well:
“So rather than having only Ego or only Presence, one develops a kind of two-track awareness, and stands in the track of Presence.”
“we can stand somewhere else than smack dab within the thoughts and the condemnation.”
“The point is where are you, your experienced self of “I,” your identity, the observer of what you are observing, standing with respect to what is going on? Are you outside looking at it, or are you in it, looking out?”
“you are in Presence, you are not trapped in Ego”
So perhaps there is another way to look at this scenery: when awareness is on the entire scene, at a glance, and what it means to all who look and have brought it to being–there is Presence.
When awareness is on the mountain, the fields, the flowers, the sky or even the photographer who took this picture or a lake hiding behind..the Witness is in Ego.
I just found this blog, as well, and am really blown away by the succinct and careful and beautiful way you explained this. Thank you so much! I tried to explain this to someone a couple years ago, but couldn't find the words to express it. I am going to re-read this at least one more time, but wanted to comment right away about the importance of this concept. Our ego is not our enemy. It, too, is part of the Presence that Is.
Thank you a huge bunch for thoughtful comments, Meenakshi and Centria. I cannot tell you – or maybe you know – what a huge part of the delight in writing is in discussions about the written.
I know you won't get this right away, Meenakshi, because of your travels, but here are my thoughts about your thoughts, and thanks for giving me food for thought !!!
You said
So perhaps there is another way to look at this scenery: when awareness is on the entire scene, at a glance, and what it means to all who look and have brought it to being-there is Presence.
When awareness is on the mountain, the fields, the flowers, the sky or even the photographer who took this picture or a lake hiding behind..the Witness is in Ego.
I would need to reword that, because it appear to me to blur a distinction I am going to hammer at in my next blog !!
In the first instance you describe I would end by saying “…there is Awareness of Presence.” In the second, I would end by saying “Presence is expressing itself as the Witness in Ego, pretending to be unaware of Itself as Presence.” Presence is fully present in both cases. Just the person's awareness is different, and both of those different awarenesses are equally manifestations and expressions and activities of Presence.
I haven't re-read my own blog entry here, but I suspect it too blurs that distinction between Presence itself and awareness of Presence.
You said also
I see Presence and Ego as two dimensional levels; not as something we have or don't have, but as somewhere we are. Would this resonate with you?
I'm not sure I understand what you mean, so I'll bather on for a bit, and if you come back and clarify, great. We are Presence, and Ego is something Presence as us HAS. As I see it, they are not two dimensional levels (that's not what I meant by “tracks”) because Presence includes Ego, indeed Ego by any definition is an activity of and expression of, Presence, as is everything else that exists!. (Then of course, some dimensions do include others, but in most ways of thinking, they are distinct. )
Deb, looking forward to your share whenever. Thanks for the links !!!
Blessings to all,
OM Bastet
OM,
I think there is some misperception that Tolle is rejecting Ego. I'm not saying that you have that misperception, just that these questions arise from that. He does seem to feel the greatest need is just to get the average person aware that what is going on with the Ego is what is going on with it. So many are totally unconsious and therefore, their activities cause much suffering and no small amount of chaos.
Yes, that is the first aspect I became aware of in doing the Tolle work with the Oprah class - “a Witness portion of the Ego itself” I would think to myself, okay, this is still a “voice” inside my head. The higher Presence should be “faster” than normal, plodding thought and of course, it is - it is instaneous. It was as though my Ego was providing commentary on what it was witnessing or was trying to translate for me what the higher Presence “knew”. Yet, I did know it was not all that I am and it is not that it was all that judgemental, it is just that it seemed to me to still be situated in my brain.
You do a really good job of making the point - “You are not practicing a new skill or new achievement. You are relaxing out of the constant effort of restricting your identity to lesser realms or arenas of conscious activity. You are opening, letting go, not getting to a new place via effort.” I think that may prove very helpful to many who might read what you have written.
What you have posted reminds me of something I put into the Living Metaphysics pod recently - http://pods.gaia.com/living_metaphysics/discussions/view/318894. It is an essay by Ernest Holmes called I Am That Which I Am. He says “ I Am the writer, the inspirer, and the thing written about. I Am the Creator of history, the One who experiences it. I Am its record and its interpretation. Everything which has ever transpired has but symbolized My Divine presence at the center of all.” and “This Divine Visitor, which is your True Self and which is That Which I Am, is both the one who stands at the door and knocks and the one who opens the door.”
He goes on to say “I Am the Christ dwelling at the center of every soul: human, yet Divine; Infinite, yet flowing through that which is apparently finite; unmanifest, yet forever manifesting; birthless and deathless, yet forever being born; timeless, I Am forever creating time. And you, the expression of Myself, appear to be separated from Me merely because you are a unique manifestation of Myself. For I Am that which you are and which all people are. I Am in all and I Am all.” and “I create both saint and sinner, know neither big nor little, good nor bad, and, being ageless, since I create all ages, I Am that which reveals and that which is revealed.” Which is summed up as “This mystery of Unity and multiplicity without division I have proclaimed through the ages…”
I found incredibly helpful what your spiritual teacher said - “The purpose of going unconscious is to generate the experience of the inexpressible ecstasy of becoming conscious again. There is no other way for Spirit to have this experience, as it is always conscious. To know something fully, and appreciate it fully, one has to experience some contrast, something that's NOT that something. So God or Spirit (or whatever you want to call the Ultimate,) as a project, generates a portion of itself that is, for a time in forgetfulness of the Whole, the One, Presence, the All, Full Awareness”.
Now it all makes a new kind of sense for me. Why are we not born fully aware? It is indeed Source playing “what if” with itself. What if I were born in poverty? What if I were an orphan? What if this happened and I reacted this way? Millions and millions of experiments or experiential projects. The Peace this gives to me regarding all people and all circumstances … regarding all of my actions and reactions… the acceptance is so sublime.
From this perspective, is it not good?, to be fully in it? And then to be fully conscious, while fully in it. And then to play ” what if ? ” with it consciously, intentionally. There is the reason for becoming aware of the activity of the Law of Attraction. Okay, so here's the ” what if ? ” I've been given. Now, realizing that I am that Source that is playing that ” what if ? ” game (and not everyone is aware and so, those are like characters behaving on default, in some ways they are like the set and supporting actors in the play - and given this kind of understanding, I can't feel bad about that either, it is what it is), what if I put out this intent, as a response to that ” what if “, now what happens?, how does it happen?, why did it happen the way it did? My own cause and effect lessons, tailor made just for me, the experimenter.
Oh, I'm content with pure magic - it's fun. But understanding that we are that higher Self, individualized as this limited expression, but still that Self. What fun that can be.
Presence and the Ego are all ONE (when the ego is rightly reigned in from repetitive thought, harsh judgements and self sabotage). I think that, those of us who are deep thinkers didn't want to give up thinking and so, if giving up the Ego meant giving up thinking - “well, let me think about that for awhile”. But If we realize there really is no difference - unless totally unconscious - it does become A New Earth for those of us who reach that point of understanding.
Okay, I've gone on and on. I am glad I waited for an opportunity to really contemplate and get into the meat of this blog. I hope you don't feel I took too much space. I am in high spirits this afternoon.
Deb
Deb, there is lots of space in cyberspace!!! :) Let's hear it for high spirits, EVERY afternoon !!! :))
Plus, your thoughts are always welcome in my Gaia place. I too am glad you waited, your contemplations were worth waiting for. Thankyou for offering so much for us all to ponder (which is not exactly the same as thinking, haha.)
I have not made up my mind yet whether Tolle himself is “rejecting Ego,” but I know the (mis) perception that Ego's gotta go, there is no good in it, is rampant among his readers. I interact with a typical bunch each week, and I hear it all the time. That is why I so fiercely address the issue here, and in my next blog, and in the post in Living Metaphysics Group/pod where I began to YELL that we must DEFINE Ego before we can say anything useful about it, and my definition appears to be different from his.
So of course, whether something is regarded as “good” or “bad” often depends on what we think it is, how different people define it !!! I might agree that defined certain ways, Ego works against our Quality of Life and represents a lot of unawareness of Presence, but defined another way, Ego is essential to our human survival and functioning in the world ! It all depends !!!!!!!!!!! There are different things that can be labelled as Ego !!!
Some people (but not you) might – but I don't – regard this kind of discussion as nitpicking or semantics. These differences in definitions and the resulting actions can make a profound difference in how much a person suffers ! Throwing out the baby with the bathwater is rough on the baby and the parent !!
I appreciate your describing your experience of the witnessing portion or ability of the unawakened Ego !! Great confirmation !!
And it's lovely to hear Ernest Holmes' descriptions of these same matters, so people can compare and see that Tolle is not unique.
I'm delighted that you understood/grokked, and found useful the bit about contrast, and God's project, as it were, of creating contrast. This has been one of my metaphysical or cosmological axioms since I heard it over 20 yeara ago. It short-circuits judgment and illumines a lot of behavior !!!
I really liked your exploration of the “what if's” perspective on life !
I must disagree with this precise wording:
Presence and the Ego are all ONE (when the ego is rightly reined in from repetitive thought, harsh judgements and self sabotage). [emphasis added.]
For me, as the next blog will make excruciatingly and in great repetitiveness clear, Presence and Ego are all ONE all the time, Ego is nothing but an activity of Presence. Here it appears to me you have done what is so easy to do, blurred the distinction between Awareness of Presence, and Presence itself. It is Awareness of Presence and Ego that become One when the Ego is transcended and included in that Awareness. (my wording.)
You said
The Peace this gives to me regarding all people and all circumstances … regarding all of my actions and reactions… the acceptance is so sublime.
Yes, AND, to some New Age folks this sounds heretical because it sounds like CONDONING “evil” and “suffering.” In fact, to part of ourselves it does, too, I maintain. Dealing with this issue is perhaps the bottom line at which we resist Unity Consciousness. I plan to explore this issue at great length in the next few months. I don't think there is any issue more important.
I'll go with magic and fun. Bring it on !!!!!!!
Thank you so much for contributing here !!
Blessings, OM Bastet
The new blog is up here, but feel free to keep comments coming in here. Loving it !!!!!
Namaste, OM
OM,
Thank you for pointing out my discrepancy. Of course, I can not make a claim of ONENESS and then try to separate out elements. You are absolutely correct it must be regardless, all of the time, or it isn't. As I was posting the daily 365 Tao reading in the Living Metaphysics pod it all came clear for me (I had in some sense been chewing on your observation all night).
Here's the line that made me think of you -
“god must be absolute and this means oneness, omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. Naturally, anything separate and distinct would not satisfy this criteria. If there was a god and a world that god created, then there would be two things - and god could not then be considered absolute. If there were an absolute god, there could not be anything separate from god.”
Deborah
PS - I see a new post coming through (by email notification) but as I was in the middle of this reply, and so will follow up appropriately as time permits.
Thanks, Deborah, that is a great quote.
I wasn't so much after catching you in a discrepancy [not saying that was your perspective either, just to let others know] as checking for internal consistency. To me, internal consistency, or integrity, is crucially important for us, so as teachers we don't send mixed messages to folks that undercut our credibility and effectiveness. To me, there is a lot at stake (on the human level or perspective) about being consistent.
I myself am uncomfortable with the term “absolute” because I don't see how the absolute can include the relative in itself, and I think this is the case to most minds anyway, but there is a glimmer of hope by my mind that it can understand other metaphors for the relationship of the Big Whatever to the smaller whatevers !! So I myself don't use the term “absolute.” But some find it useful, and that's great !!!
“Separate and distinct.” That's another whole discussion. A very important one. Crucially important for this issue of internal consistency, IMO. Ken Wilber explores the difference between separate and distinct in his book No Boundary, at the beginning. I am going to write about this, too, soon.
Distinct, different, individuated, multipicity – IMO none of these require “separate from the All” as part of their meaning, as necessary to perceiving or conceptualizing them. In Unity Consciousness, there are still different phenomena. It's that the underlying Unity is part of the perception of their distinctness from one another. In separation-consciousness, that Unity is NOT part of the perception or conceptualization.
To deny that distinct, different, individuated, multiplicity even exist, or that Unity Consciousness requires their complete obliteration, so experience is one homogeneous blob, renders one unable to live in the world. Of course, that is what happened to a lot of folks who went into that variety of Unity Consciousness. They died. They missed the final step, the embracing of “what is” as an arising of the All, by whatever name one wants to call it.
There are lots of posts in your Living Metaphysics Group saying the same thing I just said, in far more eloquent terms.
Well, maybe I've said my say on that already here. I have a long paper about it I wrote after arguing with a friend who has the view I don't have. But here I just said the essence. As in most spiritual matters, it's not either-or. Not absolute OR relative, not one blob OR separateness.
Hugs, OM
OM,
I absolutely agree with you wholeheartedly about the need for internal consistency - and it can be difficult to pinpoint accurately at times. I am grateful for each and every opportunity to clarify and modify any thoughts or expressions I make (as one can never really capture the ALL that is inside well enough), to attempt to arrive at a better one.
I do understand your argument about absolute. Well it isn't an argument (don't want you to jump on that choice of wording) but a statement really. Ah - this is the crux of the matter. To my mind the absolute must include the relative or it would not be absolute. To indicate otherwise, would be to believe the All That Is - isn't - all that is. Or do I miss a point there?
Yes, what we are trying to nail down is the relationship of the Big Whatever to the smaller whatevers. I can't comment on Ken Wilber as those teachings don't seem to resonate with me somehow, though I have the utmost respect for the following and respect he has and do resonate with the general idea or concept of “integrating”.
I do agree that no distinction, difference, individuation or fracturing requires this limited “aspect” be separate from the ALL. Yes, it is the underlying Unity that counts and does the cleanest “work”, if you will. Sad, if misperceptions of such a simple truth (yet complicated concept - look how much we are able to say, about that utter simplicity) took lives in the working out but then, we are only a flash in a pan, only a brief emergence from non-physical into physical and back again into non-physical - eternally cycling at whatever time interval (which appears meaningless except here in our earthly life).
Ah, the LM group - the heart of my heart. More there than anyone can hope to wade through, given our busy lives, but there none the less for the exploration …
Loving your mind and heart, as I always do when we interact -
Deborah
Hey, Deborah, thank you so much for all the wonderful thoughts, so beautiful and enriching !!!
and I AM SO EXCITED at this formulation:
the absolute must include the relative or it would not be absolute.
THAT”S IT !!!!! That cuts the Gordian Knot!!!!!! It points up that my Friend was falling into a dualistic interpretation of “the Absolute.” And not alone in that, for sure.
Just to be totally clear for everyone, I wasn't saying that I myself believed the absolute was separate from the relative, just that many people do believe that, and I just didn't have a grokking of “Absolute” or even what people MEANT by the term, that would include the relative. Funny, because other metaphors, other languaging, I have no problems relating to. Anyway, now I “get” this one too. Thanks for the breakthrough !!!!!
Actually I still don't grok the particular word “Absolute.” But at least the relationship with “relative” is clearer. But shift the metaphor slightly to name the relative as “conditionally existent” and I have no problems at all with whatever “is” the Big Whatever which includes conditional existence. Go figure.
Namaste, OM
Thank you for a helpful and informative post, I have been following Ekhart Tolle and as you have described many suggestions in regard to the ego and being present, also
aware of its effect resuting in guilt, negative response in self analysis etc..
What find interesting is that Tolle claims and presents the concept that in becoming the awareness and observer of ego it becomes less likely to control, race on and sabatoge..
He also stated that when one continues to '' be aware'' eventually the energy is transmuted, changed into the energy of consciousness.
Perhaps this suggests that a conscious awareness, awakening as he describes in ''A new earth '' will become a ''complete awareness'' where ego will no longer effect or be…In the present
In '' becoming''
are we now creating a dissolving process to completely go or will the like a memory will ego remain as we observe it…?
Thank you for your post..
ange, a trifle late getting back to you. But how delightful for me to revisit this blog and the profoundly wonderful awareness-expanding and mind-expanding comments !!
Really good question does the Ego dissolve completely or does it just become something we observe, as we move into fuller and fuller awareness? Is that the alternative you are describing toward the end there? I am not sure I understand you accurately.
But if I do, then I guess what I would say is it's a little of both, and mostly something else ! How's that for an answer?
I think the negative or unpleasant or harmful aspects of Ego such as useless repetitive thoughts, and our total identification with Ego, those do tend to dissolve and almost or completely disappear. This is the Ego as Tolle defines it. And whatever of that didn't totally disappear would be “rendered harmless” one could say, by no longer being part of our identity, just something going on, somethig we HAVE.
But here's the “mostly something else” I think goes on. As I said in my other writings about Ego, I see the word as applicable to positive helpful beneficial aspects of the functioning of our human psyche, such as what enables us to get around in the world, keep our hands off hot stoves, avoid walking in front of trucks, remember how to drive a car, reminds us to balance our checkbooks, remembers those communication techniques we learned, helps us have healthy interpersonal boundaries, gives us strength in hard times and keeps us going when we are discouraged or being blocked, etc.
I call this the MATURE Ego, and what Tolle mostly describes is what I call the IMMATURE Ego. Thus, it doesn't really disappear, although it is “gone” as it used to be, just like our baby selves are “gone,” it goes through a normal process of growth and development. People's egos of the kind he describes I see as just stuck in an early stage of growth, stuck there. I don't restrict my definition of the term “Ego” to those things he describes as “Ego.”
I apologize for the delay in responding to you, hope this was useful or interesting, and am grateful, very grateful, for your comment and your question ! Feel free to drop in again on any of my blogs ! I enjoyed reading your profile and can certainly see that
I love sharing ideas, I am a natural teacher and explorer of the truth, philosophy and history are my passion.
Blessings, OM Bastet
I keep coming back to this as a reminder. I suppose I should seed the daylights out of it, and make a remark.
I struggle with this often. What are my motives for posting, for being? Why am I doing it?
Ego?
Family has pointed out - “you post on Gaia, people comment, ergo you are there to stroke your ego.” This gets me reflecting, time and again.
Reminders like this re-inform me that I am an “presence.” Plus, knowing that I really don't care what others think of me, as a baseline trait, certainly can't be ego.
Or is it?
At any rate, a belated thanks for sharing this with us.
Wow. What an unexpected pleasure !!
I've been wanting some Fall zinnia brightness lately, but it's too late in the season for seeds, durn it.
I dunno, Christopher, I kinda question the psychological sophistication of your family. I can think of so many other possibilities. You are learning/teaching. You are supporting, encouraging and receiving same. You are inspiring and being inspired. You are lighting fires under others, and receiving same. And I'm just getting started on the possibilities…..
But of course, self-questioning is always in order. Though self-doubt, that's not so useful, and self-monitoring or self-observing, always useful.
Everyone IS presence, just some have forgotten. Apparently.
Not really caring what others think of you – might or might not be ego depending on the reason….. Ah, life is messy……
Anyway, I shall take this opportunity to once again hold forth about the single most common misunderstanding I observe among the many Tolle students I interact with each week. In case it is underlying your family's or your attitude.
It really doesn't matter, really, how “big” or active your (in my terms, negative or immature) Ego is. What matters is how much you are trapped in it, how much you are identified with it. (Or perhaps how much you are identified with your dis-identification of it, hahahaha.)
How easily can you step back and compassionately observe it in action? How quickly can you be saying “AH, there it is again.” ? Where does your consciously experienced “I” self STAND, inside it or outside of it? Are you trapped, or are you (in KW terms) the Witness of it?
People find this perspective a great relief, because they know damn well they cannot simply “kill their ego” and have it be gone. Even the unhelpful aspects of Ego. Thus they feel guilt. The guilt is Ego's guilt about itself, so not even a step forward, really.
But stepping out of the river and watching the flow. That is actually available anytime anywhere even in the heat of life. It's like dropping an effort, and suddenly being relaxed. Free. Jonathan Livingston Seagull comes to mind.
(Hmmm, odd, so peculiar that I am using all these nature metaphors with you…….. LOL !!!)
But not teaching you anything, I am sure, just saying what comes to mind on these points, so we all including me can ponder them further.
Namaste for sure,
OM Bastet