Ego Illusion

“Make your ego porous. Will is of little importance, complaining is nothing, fame is nothing. Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything.”  – Rainer Maria Rilke

Someone told me the other day, that it was important that he have some Ego in his line of work.  I disagree.  You can be successful without Ego, in fact, I think Ego gets in the way of success.

Ego is an illusion and it keeps us blinded to our true self and yet, it has great power and  influence over us.  Our Ego needs to be fed to keep alive and so, when you change the belief about who you are, you are letting go of the familiar and that creates fear.

“Not everything is about you,” Clary said furiously.
“Possibly,” Jace said, “but you do have to admit that the majority of things are.” – Cassandra Clare

The description given by Sogyal Rinpoche in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying has a great explanation of Ego. “Two people have been living in you all of your life. One is the ego, garrulous, demanding, hysterical, calculating; the other is the hidden spiritual being, whose still voice of wisdom you have only rarely heard or attended to.” He refers to this hidden spiritual being as our wise guide”.

Practicing to live without Ego which by that I mean, living more in my heart (Without judgment or Pride, Accepting of myself and others, forgiving, and having more compassion) and less in the busyness of illusion and thought, I feel more confident as my true self emerges and less intimidated about who I should be.

Ego and Love cannot live together…….

Ego keeps us away from happiness and peace.  Sometimes misery has many things to give to you which happiness cannot.  For some, letting Ego die, can take away their entire identity, which is pretty scary when you are safe in the role as “victim” or perhaps the identity for you is being “rich” and “powerful.”  So ask yourself “Can you still love yourself if you were not your identity”?  “Do you know your true identity?

The ego dies by you accepting what you are. That you say, “I am fine as I am, where I am is good. It’s will is my will.” “When you have dropped all the tension about the future – that I should become this and I should become that – the ego evaporates.

So today, take note of how your Ego keeps you limited into discovering your true self.  Step out of the familiar and into your freedom.

“When desiring ceases, the other world opens. The other world is hidden in this world. But because your eyes are full of desire, full of the ego, you cannot see it.” – Shriniva Avanti