{"id":321,"date":"2009-04-10T09:43:34","date_gmt":"2009-04-10T00:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulgoodchild.net\/blog\/?p=321"},"modified":"2012-02-19T19:28:24","modified_gmt":"2012-02-19T19:28:24","slug":"recognising-ego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/recognising-ego\/","title":{"rendered":"Recognising what the ego is"},"content":{"rendered":"

For as long as I remember, I’ve understood the concept of ego<\/em>.\u00a0 We nearly all know what it is… basically just another word for pride<\/em>, right?\u00a0 Or at least, that’s how it is most often used.\u00a0 When we see someone acting up, they’re being a bit hoity-toity<\/a>, we are likely to throw the term ego<\/em> in their direction… because obviously we are best situated to state they’ve got an ego.<\/p>\n

I think that this equation of ego<\/em> with pride<\/em> only scratches the surface of the titanic ice-berg we are dealing with here.\u00a0 Our lives are dictated by this entity in almost everything that we do and think.\u00a0 In fact, it is <\/em>what we think.\u00a0 It is deeply invested in everything that we think, we do, and we say.\u00a0 It is what we present to our friends, our family, strangers, and to ourselves<\/strong>.\u00a0 It is what we believe the world to be; what we believe the world should be; how we believe people should be to each other and to us.\u00a0 And through these beliefs we state our considered correct<\/em> opinions and how wrong <\/em>the other person is, if not to anybody else then to ourselves, and by doing so we separate <\/em>ourselves from<\/em> “others”.<\/p>\n

Your ego is your identification with your conditioned mind<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Who am I?<\/h2>\n

So if I’m saying you are all of the above, what is my point exactly?\u00a0 Am I saying that you can be reduced to a series of thoughts, beliefs and actions?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 I’m saying that those are what you are identifying <\/em>with and making (part of) who you believe you are.\u00a0 Who you truly <\/em>are is what lies behind this identity – Eckhart Tolle calls this the Silent Watcher<\/em>, in the [AMAZON_AFF item=”powernow” text=”The Power of Now”]\u00a0book.\u00a0 It is, I have found, fairly easy to find this watcher, but much more challenging to keep it present for prolonged periods.\u00a0 Very often we will connect with it and be <\/em>our true selves and for just a moment become truly awake, conscious<\/em>.\u00a0 But almost immediately we lose it, returning again to our mind, where we act out our lives based on the scripts written by us through our experiences.<\/p>\n

Can you remember a point in your life where you had a moment of pristine clarity, where nothing mattered except right now<\/em>?\u00a0 Nothing that came before, nothing to come after.\u00a0 All that existed at the point, was now<\/em>.\u00a0 Your presence <\/em>at that time is who you really are, without the mental conditioning.\u00a0 Your mind was silenced, there were no thoughts or judgements.\u00a0 It is just You<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This practice of finding the silent watcher and realising what it represents is a powerful one, but not one I intended to write about here.\u00a0 I am using this solely as a contrast so that you may perhaps be able to form a new image of what your ego<\/em> is.<\/p>\n

What if I didn’t have …
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A great question I have come to use, if only to remind myself of how connected the ego is to everything, is this:<\/p>\n

If I were to lose this thing<\/em> that I have, am I now less than what I was when I had it?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You’ll discover that when you really think about it, while it’s sometimes difficult to get there, that anything for which you ask this question the answer would always be no<\/strong>.\u00a0 Is there a single thing in your life for which you can answer “yes” to this question?\u00a0 You can consider all manner of things and they don’t have to be physical.\u00a0 You could question your job, your home, your relationships, your beliefs, your reputation, your looks, your dignity, your blog, your car, your autonomy, your partner, your space, and possibly one that is missed most often, your time<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We integrate all these things into our self-image, our sense of who we are… when they move out of our lives, we are left with a sense of loss and frustration.<\/p>\n

While it’s easy to very casually look at this idea and think “hhmmpff, I know that of course!”, try to observe yourself reacting to something that threatens any one of your possessions.\u00a0 Watch as your frustration rises when the shop assistant doesn’t process your order quickly enough for you… he\/she is wasting your<\/em> time.\u00a0 You wake up one morning to find a noticeably wrinklier wrinkle and you realise you’re getting older and your<\/em> looks are fading.\u00a0 Realise that your looks are not who you are and your sense of being shouldn’t be ever factored on it.<\/p>\n

When someone refers disrespectfully to you based on your ethnicity, you can take offence, or you can even go as far to take offence on-behalf of someone else who has been so-labelled.\u00a0 It’s all the same thing, it comes down to your identification with what is right and wrong.\u00a0 Obviously, you naturally and implicitly say to yourself that what you believe is right<\/em>, especially if you can find a majority to believe it with you.\u00a0 The idea that you’re right, and the others are wrong is the ego’s way of strengthening its own position.\u00a0 Rather than share a common humanity, your ego is stronger in a position of uniqueness and separation.\u00a0 To have that separation, you must have “others”.\u00a0 Others that do stuff wrong<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Separation and sustainability<\/h2>\n

At the time of writing, we’re in a global economic recession and people are losing their jobs, their apartments, their wealth and their status.\u00a0 We are being directly impacted materially by this.\u00a0 By being attached to the things in our lives, drawing sustenance and identity from them, when they are lost <\/em>to us it leaves us with a sense of dejection and loss.\u00a0 We don’t see at the time that this isn’t about it being good or bad for us, but rather an opportunity for growth and change in our lives.\u00a0 Our material standard of living has been challenged, but who we are remains steadfast. Our true identity underlies all of the upheavals (and joys!) in our life and knowing this, we can move with confidence to the next stage.<\/p>\n

I don’t have the answers, but I have found an enormous shift of perspective that comes from recognising the ego in what I do and say, as often as I can.\u00a0 Being present, and watching my actions\/emotions and further realising that what I see in others is my <\/em>ego’s projection of their identity. <\/em>It is their identifications.\u00a0 Their ego.<\/p>\n

We remain separated from one another by our egos and only by realising this can we truly connect with the real people<\/a> in our lives.<\/p>\n

Let me know what you think?\u00a0 Do you believe all this ego and identity stuff to be just crap?\u00a0 Or is there something to this?\u00a0 Can you raise your awareness of who you really are, or do you know who you are already and this ego is nowhere to be found?\u00a0 I’d be interested to hear what you think and invite you to comment below.\u00a0 Thank you for visiting and reading.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For as long as I remember, I’ve understood the concept of ego.\u00a0 We nearly all know what it is… basically just another word for pride, right?\u00a0 Or at least, that’s how it is most often used.\u00a0 When we see someone acting up, they’re being a bit hoity-toity, we are likely to throw the term ego […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[33,173,31,43,47,32,30,178,177],"class_list":["post-321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cat-grow-your-mind","tag-acceptance","tag-be-present","tag-eckhart-tolle","tag-ego","tag-identity","tag-personal-growth","tag-power-of-now","tag-pride","tag-separation"],"yoast_head":"\nRecognising what the ego is - Plog - Paulie's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/recognising-ego\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Recognising what the ego is - 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If the lives we are living were sustainable, we wouldn’t have a recession.\u00a0 I believe it to be a macro symptom of a micro problem.\u00a0 Our socio-economic system is based on the individual, and collective, ego’s need <\/em>for more.\u00a0 More <\/em>and more. <\/em>It is never satiated<\/a>.\u00a0 No matter how much we attain for ourselves, the hunger will never rest.\u00a0 We prop up our lives on fashion, luxury, electronics, and fine-dining, all the time ignoring the reality that for everything there is a cost that goes far beyond money<\/em>.<\/p>\n