Introducing… Your Ego

As the myth goes, God created man out of thin air and then Eve popped out of his rib. And just when they were getting to know one another, Eve asked Adam to bite her apple. Then along came the snake. The apple and the snake are a carnival act–they are Frick and Frack in collusion. Make what you will of the yarn, but my Sherlock Holmes intuition tells me to find the truth of the matter in close examination of the apple and the creepy crawler. What Dr. Watson and I came up with was this. The apple of course is temptation. Bite it and you pay a huge price–entrapment. The snake is a doppelganger that represents the Ego, that nefarious shadow- self who always wants us to stay ensnared and beholden to his pleasure chest: food, booze, more, self, manipulation and control. Well, I could go on forever. I could stay with the vivisection of the birth and eons of treachery of the ego from the Garden of Eve to the present. But I won’t. What I will do is to tell you that each of us has an Ego, and although venerated by some like Freud, I feel it has to be dealt with. And the dealing is where I am taking you.

Confront. Communicate. Cooperate.

There are many among us who believe that we must destroy the Ego. Use a gun or knife, pick your weapon. I say ‘dig a shallow grave because the Ego never dies; it is asleep but not dead.’ Rather you must confront this essence which is a huge part of who you are. “Ego, this is not working for me and I think we can make a deal. Let’s talk.” Next you must communicate with it. “Ego, I have a stinking suspicion that you are not who I think you are. Could you possibly represent my Shadow–the invisible “other” self–my feminine (or masculine) nature?” And thirdly, you must cooperate with the Ego. “Let’s make a deal, Ego. Teach me how to integrate my invisible partner, i.e., who and what you represent, and let me introduce you to the God of us both. And I am talking about a God with no dogma and no rules and regulations that girdle our capacity to choose beliefs or not. Can you agree to these terms?”

Surrender

I believe in Natural Law. Here is one given to me by the holiest man I ever met, Swami Swahananda. He said for me to address the Ego in its final struggle to maintain Godless control of my soul. “Ego, are you a devil who chases me or an angel who’s come to help me?” And in that moment, I was assured, the Ego must surrender his domain over me and I shift from egocentric fractured soul to a precious child of God. In order to be able to get to this part of the forest, ask yourself: Who do I listen to and what parts of the pleasure chest has me addicted. Surrender is a precursor to the process above.

Om. Tat. Sat. Om.

Albert talks about Ego in his book, “You’re Not Who You Think You Are”. Get your copy today!