The Best Definition of Ego I’ve Ever Heard!
My whole body of work is based in demystifying ego…that mysterious “thing” that veils us from knowing our deepest truth. So it’s not uncommon for someone to ask me to define ego.
Internally I think, “My whole body of work points to its various attributes, how do I narrow it down to one sentence that actually gives a graspable understanding of what ego is?”.
I usually say it’s our false self, but I know it’s still too abstract and only makes sense to those who are already somewhat familiar with a spiritual path.
However, when my personal mentor was asked this, he gave the perfect answer, one that was both succinct and graspable…
He said “it is that which can be hurt.”
This answer is a thousand times better than describing ego as our false self because it points to something that can be easily recognized…emotional pain. It points to the aspect of our nature that feels vulnerable…the part of our nature that acts out through defense or attack to minimize any sense of vulnerability.
It immediately causes us to begin an inner exploration as we ask ourselves “where am …
KEEP READINGThe Two Reasons We’re Here (in this physical experience called life)
We’re here in this physical experience called life for two very important reasons.
Number one: to learn we’re that which we came from…pure love and light.
Number two: to extend the truth of what we are (Love) into the world, as a way of helping others recognize this truth within.
All of your inner transformational work is meant to lead you to consciously recognizing the truth of what you are. Once that’s been completed the only remaining thing to do is to extend love into the world, however it chooses to flow through you.
However, the ability to fully extend love into the world rests on your decision to show up and do your inner work.
The inner work that lies ahead of each of us is to remove all blocks to love’s presence…to withdraw the value we’ve been giving to ego’s perception of truth in order to open to that which lies beyond ego.
It’s important to note that ego can only hold sway in our awareness if we give it the power to do so, which, unfortunately, is something we do every time we believe it represents the …
Are We Supposed to Love Everyone?
“Are we just supposed to walk around loving everyone? I mean, aren’t there people who we should distance ourselves from as a matter of doing what’s best for our own growth?” a woman asked when I finished giving a talk this past weekend.
This question stems from a place of deep resistance to changing one’s current perspective of a particular person or situation that is causing them pain on some level. And, of course, this resistance is rooted in ego.
Ego equates extending love in situations like these as condoning something you disagree with, which creates an inner conflict between how you feel inside and the action you’d be taking outwardly. This inner dissonance also means that your outer action wouldn’t be backed by an energy of love. Instead, it would likely be soaked in resentment.
And it’s true; none of these actions would be based in love. In fact, they’re not doing either party any favors. In order to truly align with love, we’ve got to be willing to change our perspective of the original person or situation.
The reason we feel pain is because our personal ego is …
Acceptance: The Greatest Act of Love
One of the greatest acts of love we can extend to another is to fully accept them right where they are, in their journey. This means accepting the light they’re expressing as well as any aspect of ego they’re expressing.
Not. easy.
Yet worth endeavoring to do so…especially since the ability (or inability) to accept another is indicative of where we are in our own inner growth.
The more inner work we’ve done to heal our ego-mind, the easier it becomes to accept another. This, of course, means the opposite is true, as well.
When we see through the lens of our own ego, we give someone else’s ego the power to emotionally affect us. This immediately takes us out of a state of pure acceptance (love) and sets us up to resist the other person’s ego to the degree that it negatively affects us.
A further break down of what’s happening…
When we’re personally identified with our own ego, we set ourselves up to be personally offended by someone else’s ego.
This positions us to blame another for how we feel…
“Can you believe what so and …
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