Ego

Ego

Do we really need to get rid of Ego?

Our ego is the concept that we are unique and separate from others. It is summed up by our names, refers to a body, and includes our unique characteristics. For example, it is the thought that there is a “Matt”, a particular body belongs to Matt, and Matt is tall, a chemistry teacher, male, and loves cup cakes. With this concept also comes the idea of free will (which will be discussed in a future essay.)

For humans to live in a society together, it is necessary for us to use this concept for the same reason that we give names to bodies of water: It’s convenient for communication. It’s important to know where I am referring to if I say “the Bering Sea” and who I am referring to if I say “Matt”.

We conceptualize that the Bering Sea is separate from the bodies of water that surround it, by its distinctions, but in truth it is not separate, that is only a concept, the water freely flowing through all of the seas and oceans is just referred to as the Bering Sea in a particular location.

In the exact same way, we conceptualize that a human is separate from other forms of life that surround him or her, be it other people, plants or animals, but it is only a useful concept. In truth, life flows throughout all of these forms and we refer to life by different names in different shapes and locations. The idea that life becomes separated in its unique forms and distinctions is only an idea.

So if we are trying to get rid of ego, that leaves us with the goal that we were trying to get rid of an idea of ourselves. To stick with the ocean analogy, it’s not necessary to throw away the entire concept of there being separate oceans to realize that they are really all one interconnected body of water. We don’t need to go around stating “ there is no gulf of Mexico! Only water! that would be insane.

We only need to not get so caught within this concept that we forget that it is only a concept. We can realize that we are life itself and that we collectively agree to call life itself in a human form by your name for the sake of convenience, not truth.

If we get caught in the conceptualization, and think that we really are separate, that there really is a separate individual “Matt” it will be marked by a distinct feeling of uneasiness that can be summed up by the feeling that “something is not right” This is how we become seekers, venturing on the process of finding out what is not right and trying to set it straight. If we do not realize that taking the ego concept as truth is creating this uneasiness, we will scapegoat the problem to other issues, believing we need more money, a better job, a new relationship and these things must be the issue. We only start to wage war with ego when we exhaust the options of trying to fix these other “problems” and it is seen through that they are not the real issue.

But, counterintuitively, the goal of trying to get rid of ego is a successful means of reinforcing the belief of the concept. If you are trying to get rid of ego, then this assumes that you must be an ego, a separate entity, trying to set straight what you see as the ultimate issue so that you may become something other than this limited self.

See through this, you are not this limited self already, you are life itself always, whether you are currently caught in the concept of the possibility that you could be separate or not.