Ego

EGO

Look at any object in your room. Make a picture in your mind, move to another point and look at it again. This time the picture is not the same. Come to a conclusion; looking at the same thing from two different viewpoints is exactly looking at two different things. Fortunately, the simplest of life’s facts can be applied to the complex phenomena. When we look at something, someone or some event; we, consciously or unconsciously, analyze it and prepare a reaction or a creation. The reaction or creation is merely a reflection of our personality. This personality is ‘ego’, the combination of our mental, emotional, spiritual and physical ‘selves’.

Ego is the personality that develops when consciousness (that is pure awareness) manifests in any form and concentrates in soul, mind or body. Our body is the projection of our spiritual, emotional and mental aspects. As we experience situations, we create our mental, emotional, spiritual personalities and hence our physical personality; our body, in response to the experience. Hence every individual has ‘personalized’ mind, body and soul. If I get bitten by a dog, I will develop a fear of dogs which will become a part of ME (i.e. my overall ego, my personality). It will not just leave a scar on my body but also on my mind. Moreover, the effect on my ego or my acquisition of the fear is in my hand to a great extent. Human beings are the most aware beings on our planet, we have a personality that we can mold into any form, animals have this property to a limited extent, plants lesser and non living things (as we call them) much lesser.

Concordantly, choice making capability is also a function of personality flexibility. I can let myself develop a morbid fear of dogs and hence develop abnormal body reactions on seeing a dog, or I can choose to forget the painful parts of the experience and just be careful around unleashed dogs. An animal or plant or non living thing wouldn’t be able to ‘get over’ a painful experience as easily as a human or make choices as easily. This difference in the ‘personality’ from specie to specie, nation to nation and religion to religion is a part of the ‘big plan’. It enables us to be more than just one person, it gives us the power to take sneak peeks from viewpoints of all personalities and thus ‘know’ all personalities experientially. This includes animals, plants, non living things and other creatures we have not classified.
EGO AND EXPERIENCE:

Ego is a platform from which we can experience the higher truth of Oneness, it is a standpoint from one of the many huts (each made differently, small and large, simple or ostentatious) by the sea, all of which are made to view the sea. We can change huts all we want and we do because that creates new faces of joy and new possibilities in which the Whole can be seen. Once we define our ego, we can take a deep breath and enjoy the beauty of the TRUTH. Since our ego is changing in every moment, it is a good idea to keep oneself updated on the changes so that new possibilities of creating new situations can be known and utilized.
Example: A man robs my house and takes precious things, both material and non material, and hurts me. Now I have two choices.

1. I declare it as a ‘bad’ experience. I curse the robber and hope he hurts more than I did when he gets caught. I try to act as if nothing happened so that I could forget the whole thing and carry on with my life. If I make this choice, a negative and resentful belief would be created in my mind (subconscious mind) and will become a part of me, my ego. From then on, whenever I would hear about some robbery, that belief would ignite a negative thought and a negative vibe would be generated that may cause frustration or simply an undesired feeling in me. Since I blame someone for that experience, I would be calling it a mishap i.e. something that shouldn’t have happened. This would disable me to see and understand why it happened; disable me to explore its purpose and its implications, disable me to learn from it because I have rejected it as an experience.

2. I declare it as a fruitful experience because an undesired experience has more to offer than a desired experience. I look at its implications and the changes it made in my life. If I will look closely, I will understand that it was my own calling that brought the experience into effect. I needed to learn something and a robbery was a situation in which I could that. When I will know this, I will endeavor to see every experience in this manner and reduce frustration and disappointment from my life. It will also be very easy for me to forgive the robber because I would see him as a part of the play that nature devised in order to provide me with an experience. I wouldn’t have any negative beliefs stored in my mind ready to erupt and I would also be more open to undesired experiences since I dealt with one wisely.

EGO FIELD:

Ego is closely related to the form it is manifested into. A dog’s personality would differ from a cat’s more than it would from another dog. A Christian’s way of thinking would be different from a Muslim’s but would not vary that much from another Christian. It can be seen that every attribute that defines us has an ‘Ego field’. An ego field can be thought of as the collection of similar egos. Species, religions, countries, cultures etc. are basically ego fields in which each member’s personality varies slightly from the others. An ego field is just like an electric field around a charge, concentrated at the centre and gradually decreasing in all directions with no definite circumference. Ego fields overlap each other and a major part of our personality is the combination of all ego fields that we are a part of. An interesting phenomenon is that we can ‘move’ through all ego fields that we are a part of, these fields are like communities and each of us is a member of the communities of attributes that we own. We can expand our fields by understanding, knowing and adapting to more and more attributes. The more attributes we own, the more we are capable of slipping into others’ shoes and different personalities and hence creating more opportunities to view life from different angles.

Human ego fields are the largest among all other creatures on our planet. Not only that but they also ‘contain’ every ego field possible in the scope of experience on our planet. In simple words, humans can shift into every possible personality including all humans, animals, plants and non living things. This enables us to have more experiences than any other creature.

This concept can be further made clear by simply analyzing your own ego fields. Ask yourself a few questions; what is my personality, my family’s personality and so on for town, city, country and continent. Your personality will differ from your family’s personality as a whole but not as much as your family’s personality will differ from other families and so on. This goes similarly for religion, culture, specie and other ego fields. All in all, our individual personality is the essence of all ego fields that we are a part of plus our acquired beliefs, emotions, desires and other adaptations of the subconscious mind.

EGO AND ENLIGTENMENT:

The quickest way to experience a feeling, situation, faculty or attribute is to ‘be’ it. Kindness can be experienced most easily by being kind. May it be knowing first and understanding something to experience it or simply being it, the purpose is to experience. When we experience something, we add it to our ‘selves’. It becomes a part of us, a part of our ego. If I have experienced kindness once by any way, I can shift my awareness into practicing kindness whenever I want. As we gain experiences and consciously make use of them in the purposes of our lives, we become ‘enlightened’.

Ego and enlightenment can be best understood by an analogy of a flood lighting system in a stadium. Imagine yourself standing in an empty stadium. The stadium represents all of life; the light bulbs represent all ego fields. When we look at life from only your point of view, one light bulb is on (still quite dark). As you adapt and experience new egos, light bulbs are switched on, one for every other point of view from which you have seen life. The more viewpoints you have, the more ‘enlightened’ your life is.

IN CLOSING:
Understanding the way ego works and utilizing this information can help in increasing self knowledge and excelling on the path of evolution. Ego should not be condemned but respected. Harmful habits must not be suppressed but allowed to heal through conscious choice making. Always be proud of what you are, if there is something that’s not working, mold into a new personality and see if that works. Continue the process of finding a better (that is a more efficient) personality that is flexible and in harmony with your purpose and other ego fields.