Lego my ego

It feels like more needs to be said continuing on from that last post on functions in life. This time, however, I want to focus more on ego.

One of the major distortions that happens in religions and "spiritual systems" or paths is that they wind up thinking the ego needs to be subverted, destroyed, or denied in some fashion. Over the centuries, these distortions turn into bloated dharma on sex, morals, and all kinds of other things. Granted, some rules are good to have so that society can function. In this case I am mainly talking instead about rules that make personal life overly oppressive, when a person is not out in the real world. Aside from all the theological arguments for these rules, my point is that these rules are put in place to try and curb the ego. (Understand that I'm not trying to pass judgment on the rules either. I am just pointing out their existence as a fact.)

How useful are these rules for spiritual development? And what is the real deal with the ego as far as the old struggle of good and evil goes?

Well, I've made clear my views on good and evil, so the views on the existence of the ego go with them. The ego exists. It is. Like everything else, the ego is arising out of Consciousness, and like all other objects and concepts, the ego is another expression of Consciousness. Joseph Campbell points this out in his book "The Power of Myth" and even goes so far to point out that the ego and all the pain that it causes is just as divine as everything else.

So is the ego "good"? Is it "ok"? No. It's neither. It just is. The judgments you place on it are the ego trying to categorize itself. If you can be aware of that judgment and that desire to categorize, and then become aware that this is not the Real You, then you've discovered one path to the Present Moment. The thing that is judging is not you. The thing that is watching the judging is You.

Nevertheless, even if you are not aware of this, the ego is still an expression of Consciousness. The difference lies in the awareness, but the difference is whether or not Consciousness is aware of itself, not whether Consciousness exists or not.

So what do you do about the ego? Deny it? Stamp it out? No. You embrace it. You give it space to Be. The infinite space of Consciousness is infinitely more than enough space to contain your ego, and it does. No matter how much ego you can throw at it, it can be contained by the One. Again, the difference is whether you know this or not. Awakened people have egos, some larger than others. However, even the ones with the large egos are able to have egoic episodes and at the same time Be Present, i.e. they are able to rest as the silent witness to the ego while it is happening, and they are able to watch it happen from there.

I'm not really sure about this, but my intuition and some clues from Eckhart Tolle tell me that after enough witnessing of the ego in this fashion, it WILL start to diminish on its own, without any active doing on your part. So just know when the ego is acting, and be the knowing, not the acting.

There is another way. But it is extremely hard. Probably this way is the closest thing in real life to what you'd call the Dark Side of the Force in Star Wars. Essentially, in this other way, instead of trying to let the ego be and then to disassociate from it in order to dissolve it slowly, you do the opposite. You associate with the ego. You feed it. You inflate it as much as possible, and you identify with it intensely. After a long time of doing this (perhaps lifetimes??) eventually the ego gets so incredibly large that it cannot sustain itself. There simply isn't enough energy in the body, or the world for that matter. The pain and suffering caused by the constant feeding and maintenance of the ego becomes too much, and the entire egoic structure comes crashing down. It shatters. Of course, what is left after that is the same thing that is left after doing it the easy way: little or no ego, and a sense of Consciousness.

There are systems that embrace this route, like The Church of Satan, for example. Their teachings lie exactly along this plane, but I'm not sure if they know about the positive ending. Their ultimate stated goal in their bible is to keep the ego around even after death, so it can go out and do stuff, i.e. as a spirit. (The Satanic Bible is an interesting read for this.)

However, again, this way is not easy. Human beings are inherently drawn towards the easy way, i.e. the Light Side of the Force, if you will. :) In order to follow the Dark Side, you would have to go out of your way to do unenjoyable things, and you would suffer all along the way, since the basic result of egoic episodes is suffering. So, unlike Star Wars, the Dark Side is NOT quicker and easier, but it is still more seductive. :)

I'll be out on a business trip for the next three days, so hang in there.