The Ego and The Self
Being on a journey of self-discovery, I have often talked about attempting to strip away the ego and discover the authentic self in my posts. This is a subject I have mused on for hours while holding up a mirror to myself and my behaviour to see if I can really tell the difference between the two.
I have found the reality is that the voice of the ego and the authentic self-merge in to one seamless whole self…
Our ego has an unconscious element and a conscious element. We cannot switch off this unconscious element, but we can take steps to program it to behave more as we would wish. When I refer to the ego being quiet, this is a reference to the vocal part that we can hear and choose to engage with. This is the voice of the judge (or I have called it the foremen) that evaluates everything around us and passes comment.
This is the part of the ego which we can learn to quieten overtime. The mountain pathway is comprised of various insights I have used to do this.
Still though, the line of separation between the ego and the authentic self is blurry and serves as a fruitful training ground for learning how to live.
Here is a musing reflection about practicing this skill that I wrote on the train one day…
Ego talk
The moment the Ego dissolves or is quiet we become present and experience our authentic self.
Authentically awakening is simple and always available.
The challenge is that we live in a world where most people don’t know this. We live in an Ego driven world.
This means our Ego is engaged by other egos and can become excited. It is possible for us to put these interactions in to the perspective of our broader view, but it is very difficult to share this as a means of calming the ego of others if they do not share our broader understanding and metaphysical standpoint.
What are we then to do?
We need the tools of the ego (the introspection toolkit) to manage both our ego and the ego of others.
Key though is to not lose sight of the fact this is just a game.
If I am viewing human interactions as a game, doesn’t this devalue the perspective of other humans?
That human is simply doing right within the constraints of their psyche.
It is what humans do – the best that they can given what is available.
Yes, egoic interactions are not authentic, and too much of this becomes side noise and distraction; but the value of this is to serve as an example to us of what we need to avoid and also provide us with training materials to educate our own mind on the art of non-grasping (not giving a fuck).
I want to discuss this with another human…
Why?
To check I am not going crazy? …
To see if they share this perspective and would like to engage in authentic egoless communication?
Any bid to reassure myself is actually reassurance of my Ego that is a blocker from me living authentically.
This would be the turkey voting for Christmas if I asked my ego to join the conversation!
To be clear, there is still a significant role and function for my Ego. I need parts of it to survive. There are just elements which are over active and hypersensitive to the world we live in so become more of a hinderance to living authentically than a help.
The turkey is not voting for Christmas; it is electing to go to a boot camp and shape itself up so that it can better engage with those that would condemn it to Christmas (an Ego driven consumerist world).
Christmas has become a symbol of this egoic uprising within the collective consciousness of humanity.
So, let’s have the sentiment of Christmas every day but and keep the turkey in training so that it survives!
The Takeaway
Our Ego is essential for us to function but trusting our unconscious programming to run the show leads to an unfulfilling life.
Ask the questions and do the work. Take ownership of your own mental processes and look for validation from the only perspective that truly matters.
Your own.
Enjoy, for now.