Simply put, the ego is what prevents you from being conscious.
The ego (or false self, as some call it), is what you hear as the thoughts in your head. These thoughts also have the remarkable ability to "make" you feel certain things, which in turn influences your behaviour.
So, in essence, your ego is living your life, not you. It's in the driver's seat.
As small children, you learned to identify with certain things, whether they were objects or concepts. For example, you learned that you were a "boy" or a "girl", you learned you were "Joe" or "Grace", you learned the concept of "my"..."my toys", "my food", etc.
As soon as you started to identify with things the ego took over.
Identification with things means that a part of your identity (who you define yourself to be) is tied up in that thing. This is also the beginning of fear. If a part of yourself is in something that is outside of you (again, this can be an object or a concept), there must be fear that that part of you can be taken away, damaged, or lost in some way.
This fear leads to the need to control and possess. Can you see the beginning of the incidious cycle that causes a great deal of suffering in life?
My son, who is three years old, is a living example of the emergent ego. He attacks the dog violently whenever the dog wanders near to him while he's eating something. When I show up at daycare and the other kids are there and come over to say hi to me, he starts, "My mommy!" And heaven forbid you forget his blanket anywhere. To him, it would be the equivalent of losing a limb.
The ego survives on the energy produced by your thoughts and emotions, particularly the negative ones. That is why (if you pay attention ot your thoughts, you will notice this) your thoughts are almost always focused on the past or the future. Neither of which are real, nor do they have much to do with where you are in the present moment.
Have you ever NOT been in the present moment? Were you ever in the past? Will you ever be in the future?
No. You have always been, will always be, and are in the present- the Now. Your ego doesn't want you to know this. If you always live in the present, the ego would dissolve into nothingness.
I'm really just scratching the surface here. I will go deeper into this discussion as I write more. If you are interested in reading a book about this right now, there are three I would recommend, The Power of Now and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, and The Secret of Letting Go by Guy Finley.
In the next installment of this blog, I'll talk about who you truly are, if you are not all the things you have learned to identify with.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
How I got here, Part II
"Knowing".
I have a quote in my email signature that says, "As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live."
I love that quote. To me, you can't really acknowledge and believe the things you just know without deep trust in yourself.
That "knowing" comes from a place deep inside of you that is the very essence of who you truly are. The part of you that is connected to the energy that created the universe, the Source, God, Consciousness...whatever you want to call it. But you can't acknowledge, even now, that you know this is True if you don't fundamentally and implicitly trust yourself to know it.
We live in a society that doesn't value intuition (or at least hasn't for a long time). Intuition isn't just a "wild guess"; it is a knowing that comes from your connection to all that is and all that has ever been. And because we are all connected to this-to each other-we all know the same elementary things.
It was when I started to trust myself and my ability to know certain Truths that things began to really open up for me. And then a friend of mine lent me the movie, The Secret.
Though it has gained worldwide recognition, the concepts presented in this movie are merely the tip of the iceberg. I will credit this film for prompting my very active search for more knowledge and understanding.
I believed the concept of the law of attraction immediately. I knew it was a universal Truth. But at the same time, I also knew that it was not the whole truth. There was something deeper here and I had to find out more. So I started reading. In the original version of The Secret, Esther Hicks was one of the primary contributors. She was edited out of the second version for some reasons surrounding recontracting for a global release of the film (it was her decision to be removed from the film). Anyway, I decided to read Ask and It is Given, by Jerry and Esther Hicks. The book is actually written by a non-physical entity named Abraham, channeled by Esther.
This again, was just a beginning. I read The Teachings of Buddha, Busting Loose from the Money Game (by Rob Schienfeld-don't let the title fool you, it's a very spiritual book), The Sedona Method (by Hale Dwoskin, also of The Secret), QBQ! The Question Behind the Question (by john Miller), The Celestine Vision (by James Redfield), The Secret of Letting Go (by Guy Finley), The Power of Now, Stillness Speaks, and A New Earth (all by Eckhart Tolle).
All of these books have had a significant influence on the awakening of my consciousness. I feel that the stage I am at now, is creating new habits. No change happens without consciousness. We all experience moments of consciousness, some of us more than others, and some moments we are able to sustain for longer than others. We have spent so long living unconsciously, that those ingrained habits, not to mention the strength of our egos, require that we be conscious of consciousness...at least until it becomes our normal state.
From the vantage point of this stage, I have to say that every small effort is absolutely worth it.
In my next post I will talk about some of the things that prevent people from approaching consciousness.
I have a quote in my email signature that says, "As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live."
I love that quote. To me, you can't really acknowledge and believe the things you just know without deep trust in yourself.
That "knowing" comes from a place deep inside of you that is the very essence of who you truly are. The part of you that is connected to the energy that created the universe, the Source, God, Consciousness...whatever you want to call it. But you can't acknowledge, even now, that you know this is True if you don't fundamentally and implicitly trust yourself to know it.
We live in a society that doesn't value intuition (or at least hasn't for a long time). Intuition isn't just a "wild guess"; it is a knowing that comes from your connection to all that is and all that has ever been. And because we are all connected to this-to each other-we all know the same elementary things.
It was when I started to trust myself and my ability to know certain Truths that things began to really open up for me. And then a friend of mine lent me the movie, The Secret.
Though it has gained worldwide recognition, the concepts presented in this movie are merely the tip of the iceberg. I will credit this film for prompting my very active search for more knowledge and understanding.
I believed the concept of the law of attraction immediately. I knew it was a universal Truth. But at the same time, I also knew that it was not the whole truth. There was something deeper here and I had to find out more. So I started reading. In the original version of The Secret, Esther Hicks was one of the primary contributors. She was edited out of the second version for some reasons surrounding recontracting for a global release of the film (it was her decision to be removed from the film). Anyway, I decided to read Ask and It is Given, by Jerry and Esther Hicks. The book is actually written by a non-physical entity named Abraham, channeled by Esther.
This again, was just a beginning. I read The Teachings of Buddha, Busting Loose from the Money Game (by Rob Schienfeld-don't let the title fool you, it's a very spiritual book), The Sedona Method (by Hale Dwoskin, also of The Secret), QBQ! The Question Behind the Question (by john Miller), The Celestine Vision (by James Redfield), The Secret of Letting Go (by Guy Finley), The Power of Now, Stillness Speaks, and A New Earth (all by Eckhart Tolle).
All of these books have had a significant influence on the awakening of my consciousness. I feel that the stage I am at now, is creating new habits. No change happens without consciousness. We all experience moments of consciousness, some of us more than others, and some moments we are able to sustain for longer than others. We have spent so long living unconsciously, that those ingrained habits, not to mention the strength of our egos, require that we be conscious of consciousness...at least until it becomes our normal state.
From the vantage point of this stage, I have to say that every small effort is absolutely worth it.
In my next post I will talk about some of the things that prevent people from approaching consciousness.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Welcome
I will start by sharing my journey. What I have learned and what I now understand.
I can look back on my life so far and see that I have always been aware of the need for the spiritual in my life. It was ever present, teaching me the truth.
I found some satisfaction in a Christian church as a child and youth. Though, even there I knew there was more to learn. The lessons weren't as complete as they would have me believe. (I know now that Jesus was enlightened, but his message was largely misunderstood and misappropriated for other purposes, creating separation where he would have had wholeness.)
As I moved away from attendance at the church, my heart was still spiritually focused. I am an avid reader, as is my mother, and I read several books at her suggestion, which fascinated and awed me. The first was Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch. Though I connected deeply with the message of that book, it was merely the planting of a seed.
While I was working for a small youth mental health organization, I began to learn about 'connectedness'. I heard of research showing that a sense of connectedness increased resiliency in youth. This idea struck a cord with me. I started to recognize that there are some things that, when you hear them, you simply know their Truth. But what is that "knowing" and where does it come from?
I can look back on my life so far and see that I have always been aware of the need for the spiritual in my life. It was ever present, teaching me the truth.
I found some satisfaction in a Christian church as a child and youth. Though, even there I knew there was more to learn. The lessons weren't as complete as they would have me believe. (I know now that Jesus was enlightened, but his message was largely misunderstood and misappropriated for other purposes, creating separation where he would have had wholeness.)
As I moved away from attendance at the church, my heart was still spiritually focused. I am an avid reader, as is my mother, and I read several books at her suggestion, which fascinated and awed me. The first was Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch. Though I connected deeply with the message of that book, it was merely the planting of a seed.
While I was working for a small youth mental health organization, I began to learn about 'connectedness'. I heard of research showing that a sense of connectedness increased resiliency in youth. This idea struck a cord with me. I started to recognize that there are some things that, when you hear them, you simply know their Truth. But what is that "knowing" and where does it come from?
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