Monday, June 21, 2010

ROLES OF EGO


ROLES OF EGO

By Prof. Jorge R. Olguin.

EGO AND SPIRIT

Most of the people are not interested in "how they are", but in "how they look like" or, what image of themselves they are projecting (appearance). People are more interested on the image more than objectivity. And then the man of society and those who belong to that society participate in that competition of appearances, in the typical desire to see “who deceives the other”, and how they can give a better impression. The world is an immense stadium in which "the pride of life" plays a great match of labels, social ways and economic exhibitions to compete for the social image, a combat in which human beings don’t care on how they are, but rather on how they look like.

THE SPIRIT AND THE BEING:

The Spirit has always been avoidant. We have been avoidant to the Spirit. Materialists say: "that is a crazy thing". The being or spirit sustains us all, it is our source of strength and life, however, it is something our parents taught us very little about. John tells us: “He was already in the world, this world didn't recognize him. He came to his own house and his relatives didn't receive him." An old writing of India tells us about the Spirit the following thing: " A knife cannot cut It, the water cannot wet It, the Wind cannot move it away and the sun cannot dry it"

Each molecule of the universe is full one of existence; each thought, each piece of information that we receive through our five senses is not another thing than existence. But we can overlook it because it keeps a total silence, like a choreography teacher that never participates in the dance. Truly, he always existed and it will exist. We only need an opening to be "in spirit" or inspired.

EGO AND THE I:

As well as there are two poles in a magneto, one positive and one negative; people also have to cope with two characters in dispute; one of them is the one that makes the effort to succeed materially and the other one aspires to raise spiritually. The description given by Sogyal Rinpoche in the work "The Tibetan book of living and dying" explains the thousand marvels of this discovery: "Two people have been living in you during all your lifetime. One is ego: talkative, demanding, hysterical, scheming; the other one is the spiritual being, hidden, whose wise and low voice you have heard and only paid attention in strange occasions."

EGO OR THE SOCIAL MASK:

The small word "ego" has had several meanings. For the Freudian school it is "the unconscious aspect aware of the psyche that decides between the basic instincts of “id” and the morality of the “superego.”

Very academic definition. This model's stereotype is usually a male. The person with problems of ego is considered that he/she is boastful, selfish, scornful, conceited and, in general, unpleasant, or also, the person devoted to hatred, malice and destruction. Ego has also been considered like something which is inside of us, controlling our daily life, pressing us so that we show a "good image."

Attention: You can be altruistic and kind just to appear nice before others... and that is also ego.

For the purpose we follow, we suggest another definition of "ego": Let’s "consider ego like the idea that each one of us has about ourselves. That is to say that ego doesn't constitute but an idea, an illusion, but an illusion that exerts great influence." Nobody has seen ego. It is rather a ghost that we accept and controls our life. The problem is that keeping this illusion can prevent us to know our true self, our spiritual essence.

We say that ego is a disposition of erroneous thinking that tries to present you as you would like to be, instead of how you really are. In essence, ego, the idea of oneself, the mask, the role that we are playing; supposes a distorted way to affirm and live our existence. This social mask (ego) loves the approval, it wants to control situations and people, and it relies on power because it lives in fear.

SUGGESTIONS TO OVERCOME EGO AND REACH A HIGHER CONSCIENCE:

The following suggestions will help YOU to contact ego and overcome it:

* Try to know your ego and determine when your ego influences and dominates your life. Ask yourself: Am I listening to my false me or to my spiritual me? As you go acquiring conscience of your ego, you will be able to get rid of self-centeredness and enter in a higher conscience.

* Start counting the frequency you use the pronoun " I " if you are not centered in your own person, you will be overcoming your ego.

* Start considering your ego like an entity that accompanies you and it has a purpose. It is invisible and it is always at your side.

It is trying to convince you that you are separated from God, of your superiority to others, and that you are "special." Ego wants you to feel insulted when you receive an incorrect treatment, when they insult you, when they don't caress you; offended when you don’t get what you want, hurt when you lose in a competition. First acknowledge this entity. Then notice how it is working on you. Lastly, you will be free of it.

* Listen to the others and do not focus always in yourself. During the conversations, concentrate on what the other person is saying and what the other person feels. Then respond with a sentence that starts with "You" This is called active listening. It is a way to hold back ego and allow that your spiritual self participates.

* Resist the habit of allowing that ego controls your life.

The more you refuse to allow that your ego controls your life, the sooner you will fill the space that was occupied by the demands of your false self.

* Practice daily meditation or silence your mind to undo the illusion that you are separated from the universe and that all the souls are extensions of the energy of God. You will start treating others as you would like to be treated. You will feel connected with everything and everybody.

* Try to erase from your mind the word "special". Special implies “better than”, or “more important than”. It denies that God inhabits in each one of us. We all are special to the eyes of God; therefore, nobody needs to be labeled as "special”. There are no favorites. Nobody is relegated.

We all are One.

* Write a diary. Try to describe what benefits you receive when your feel offended. Everything that offends is a work of your ego. Do not pretend that the world should be as you are and not how it really is.

* Give more from yourself and request less in exchange. Leon Tolstoy, passed from being an egotistical being to be a servant of God, after learning many lessons and going through tribulations. And he wrote the following thing: "The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity." Be the one who caresses. Be the one who gives affection.

* Remember every day that the highest cult that one can give to God is to serve humanity, and by means of that act your spiritual self will be complete.

* Put an end to the external search of freedom and know the taste of authentic freedom, which is the communion with your spiritual self.

The authentic freedom doesn't need anything to demonstrate its existence. Only being genuinely free will you be able to love, because love doesn't exist without freedom. The false freedom demands that you have at hand something that gives faith to your existence.