Spiritual Ego, By Will Harader
Eventually a person has a moment of clarity. In this moment, they see the inherent emptiness of all the things they thought were so important. This causes a person to reevaluate their whole existence and look for a deeper meaning in Life.
This is the beginning of spiritual Awakening, when a person realizes the life they've been assigned by society isn't who they really are and decides to recreate himself to reflect his expanded understandings. At this point there's an enormous pitfall that most do not notice which causes spiritual growth to halt almost as fast as it began. This is spiritual ego, when a person recreates herself but then gets attached to their new "spiritual" identity.
Identity is a part of the ego. You are you, no identity required. You are a unique facet of the Whole. You were this before you were born, you are this after you "die". Your identity is only who you believe you are. You didn't give yourself your identity, society did that for you. People have identities because they don't understand who they are, if they did they wouldn't have need of a mental construct to tell them who they are. As long as one clings to their identity one is still within ego, no matter how "spiritual" it is.
The old needs to be let go of to make room for the new. This is why one can't cling to their old, static identity. When one is Conscious, experience is always (in all-ways) moving forward. Spiritual ego is an attempt to bring the old paradigm into the New, which doesn't work. If the old ways actually worked, they would be working by now, they've had thousands of years of opportunity. The Present Moment is always New, which is a indicator if one is Present or not. Attempts to explain the Present based on past understandings don't work, they only serve to keep one stuck in the past, which is illusion. This is why letting go of the past is essential in the Awakening process. Awakening is Being Present in the Moment, the only Reality that Exists. Only in illusion can one be in the past or future, but this is where most people's attention currently is and why people are unconscious.
Spiritual ego is most recognizable in those who talk about how Enlightened they are but in the majority of the cases it's much more subtle. It's easy to see ego when the person is arrogant about their spirituality, but what about when the person is humble? Humility isn't necessarily a sign of spirituality, it's often from a lack of Love of Self, just like arrogance. The belief that leads to arrogance is the same as the belief that leads to humility, it's the idea that some people are better than others. The church has promoted this for their own gain. Since they believed Jesus was the best his intermediaries on Earth must be better than the average person. The masses were taught they were inferior, so they could be easily controlled. True humility isn't in thinking you are better or worse than another, true humility is in knowing everyone is Equal.
Many compare themselves to those around them to gauge how Enlightened they are. This is a sign of spiritual growth at all, but ego. It's only the ego that looks outside of self to determine it's worth. Like humility, this is another illusion people often carry with them even though they may be separate from the society that gave them the illusion.
There's an easy way to tell if someone has a spiritual ego, challenge their beliefs. If they get offended, that's ego. If a person isn't attached, they'll be open to new ideas, otherwise they'll be threatened by anything that calls their belief systems into question. One must be very honest with themselves about this to break the bonds of ego. It can be difficult at first to accept anything that threatens one's false sense of security. Of course, if the ego actually made a person feel secure, they wouldn't feel threatened in the first place.
Real spirituality is about Peace and Freedom. If spirituality hasn't brought these to you, you need to take a good look at yourself. Spirituality is All or nothing. You're either Present within the All or unconscious in illusion, which is nothing. Spirituality is not something you turn on and off. There's no on/off switch on Creation.
Love from Mother and FatherGod and the Kingdom of Heaven, Present in the Manifest.
Love,
Comments
The ego is trickster for sure...it tries all kinds of things to stop our spiritual growth. One big trick it likes to play is to tell one they are already enlightened, but there are many other mind trick it plays as well. These are like tests we need to pass to keep moving forward.
Athena .. stop talking rubbish ......
.. just kidding ..
I think EGO is ego, pure and simple. IF you find you are still "taking it personally" or choosing to be "offended" by anything, really, that is your EGO stepping in for you. It's a process to let GO, but letting GO of the EGO to be fully present in the NOW moment is what you're here to REMEMBER. Fear drives the ego train, so take note of your thoughts in each moment. If you're feeling fear, that will show up in your EGO trying to help you. Fear is the illusion; love is the only constant. Let go of fear. It's a process.........to which we all aspire.
THIS IS FANTASTIC POST!
Thank you for reminding us for giving a compas to each person where she is on the strugle against Ego medium,its true every word here,
Enlightened people can still have an ego. They can still do all of those things that egos do, like get offended, or jealous, or be competitive. The difference is that the ego is seen through. It's not taken seriously, because it's not "real". It is just a mask; a character we choose to act as. Whatchew think?
ego is self excitement only. repeats anonymous. the 12 step program says it all. regarding growing into
being a grower. facts are facts. nothing alters facts. ...spiritual egotism. know it alls who are honest do though always self correct.
everyone has an important job(s). each of us, to do our thing, part of the big picture; no one will succeed with out help. sometimes a helper to new ideas taught to him, or whatever, is coolest, for his open and extraordinary mindset to be open, honest. coolest, because he embraces what he himself did not come up with, is his response to recognizing whatever. envy is impatience. we all get our thing, that is true, is still with us without ego. we all have a right to be heard, acknowledged; to contribute what we did. also is for governments to do right; also, book, music, ect cetera publishers who wish to take advantage and tell you to get an agent: those days are to be over. new way time. as artists do what they do, not for money, but fair to be seen. ....living wages, a personal right. ....i'm good looking! [well, not anymore really]. ...my point, good looking is this: CIndy Crawford, bless her, has equal twin souls who think she is so ones type.to "me". ...ambition level is IQ; and all IQ's are so needed. ONE MORE THING: SLOW PEOPLE ARE CALLED MILDLY RETARDED BUT ARE NOT RETARDED AT ALL, AND ARE ABLE TO LEARN, EARN ALL KNOWLEDGE ALREADY FIGURED OUT. RETARDED PEOPLE HAVE ANIMAL IQ. AND THE RETARDED GIRL I LOOKED AFTER, HAS PROFOUND HIGH SELF ESTEEM, SURROUNDED BY LOW WORTHS, WHO WON'T TREAT HER AS I FEEL SHE SHOULD BE TREATED. WOULD BE AN HONOR TO HAVE HER.
mmm...
The Great Spiritual Masters accept God as the cause of all causes ..the cause of everything so they have no Spiritual Ego within them but become A DUST OF THE DUST OF THE DEVOTEES OF GOD
Niiice :) I do think it's okay to struggle and fight with each other sometimes (you know--a peaceful kinda back-n-forth). I think Socrates would agree. Conflict with the ego is no different..I learn a lot from my ego-quabbles but don't feel the need to squash it--it's how I have gotten to know more and more about just who I am. But for me, in times of meditation and trying to tap into the divine wisdom--the ego definitely has to go.
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