HOW OUR EGO CONTROLS US!
Understanding the ego can be a little tricky, so lets try to explain it simply! Your ego is your self-image, and it allows you to be aware of yourself as a person separate from everyone else. It is the “you” that most people typically relate to. It is not your soul, or your higher self, but rather the mask your higher self wears in this physical reality to identify itself as an individual. The ego is a mask over the all-loving higher self, it can block out a lot of our inner love and kindness when it’s relied upon too heavily. While egos do serve an important service to us, an out of control ego can cause us to take actions that are unloving and unkind.
Being aware that the ego is not a true representation of your soul, it can help you let go of it a bit, and not feel the need to rely on it so much. If you can let go of your ego a little bit, it will be easier to follow the intuition and guidance from your higher self and this will help you make more decisions based on love and compassion rather than separation and disconnectedness.
Here are a few signs of an out of control ego. Please realise we all do these things from time to time and that’s ok. However, it’s a good idea to be aware of these signs so that when we see them, we can recognize that we are letting our ego get away from us. With awareness, an out of control ego, can choose to drop the mask when it isn’t serving us. We can remember that the separation is just an illusion, and that we’re really all in this together.
An Out of Control Ego Will:
Complain frequently,
Argue and fight with others,
Be defensive whenever criticised,
Be self-critical, and speak badly about itself,
Have a hard time apologising,
Be very impatient,
Be judgmental of others,
When we see these behaviors in ourselves, it is a sign that we are working with an out of control ego and we are disconnected from our higher selves. Each of these actions occur, because the ego deeply believes that it is separate from everything else in the universe.
Because the ego believes it is separate from everything else, it often feels the need to justify its importance to itself and “others.” The ego is secretly afraid, thats what makes it different from everyone else and might indeed make it “wrong.” This is why an out of control ego can be aggressive and hostile. It wants to prove that it is valid and “right.”
The higher self will not feel the need to defend or justify itself. It focuses on the interconnectedness between all of us, rather than the separation that appears to be “real” in this physical reality. As a result, a person who is highly connected will make choices based on compassion, patience and love, because it realises that we are all one. It knows, to help another is simply to help oneself.
For those looking to have a healthier relationship with their ego, daily meditation on Naam is a great treatment. During meditation, one becomes aligned with their higher self and can start to observe the ego’s thoughts from a higher perspective.
Meditation is all about quietening outside thoughts to connect more deeply with the oneness. When one becomes skilled in meditation, it becomes easier to see the ego as a mask over the true self. In time, much of the destructive chatter from the ego will lift and the individual will be able to easily identify, when he or she is making ego-inflicted choices.
To be clear, the ego is not a “bad” thing. In order to experience ourselves as individuals, we must have egos that can perceive the separation between us. However, it is our interconnectedness that brings love, happiness and prosperity, so it’s important that we maintain a strong connection with our higher selves.
The point is not try to get rid of the ego or to punish it, but simply to give the ego less responsibility and to be aware of it's danger. To allow the ego to do its job of perceiving the world, but release it from the responsibility of making decisions on how we should think and act. By handing over the responsibility of the decision-making to the higher self, we make higher vibrational decisions that lead to more happiness, healthiness, love and prosperity.
So, with Naam meditation, we can connect back to the “one” and our inner guidance. Then, we can begin to make choices and decisions based on the idea that we are all in this together. We can see others as extensions of ourselves and treat others as we would want to be treated. This is how we tame an out of control ego, and let the higher self shine through the mask.
Guru Arjun Dev Ji Says, "Serve the True Guru, and meditate on the Naam; renounce the egotistical pride from your mind."
Vaheguroo!
