HOW GOES IT EGO

Ego, in the spiritual sphere, has been portrayed as the big really bad wolf. Often times the term has been used synonymously with pride, but these are not the same thing. Scientifically, the ego is necessary in existence. How?

Devil or Bad Press?

What is Ego?

The ego is a part of the mind, the point at which the conscious and the subconscious meet. It houses a number of faculties among which is the idea of an identity and therefore the sense of esteem and confidence. Most important, is the ability to test reality or in simpler terms perception.

Whichever way, the ego is necessary to function in the world. The human consciousness has three characteristics; unity-oriented in that it brings many spheres into one, egocentric in that it faces life from a me-perspective and tendency to ownership because of the me-perspective.

The ego is born at the point when we become aware of the rest of existence and our individual selves.

The individualistic ego is very much subject to the life experiences faced as it is born and forms. It however does not outgrow this stage until we actively engage with it, training it up and opening the mind up to more.

True to say, the ego can only get as far as the mind does. It is a faculty of the Mind after all. Wait, what is the Mind again?

The Mind is the element that enables us to be aware of the world and our experiences, to think and to feel. We all have one, yet they are not the same. The Mind functions through pattern recognition. This it stores up as lessons learnt or knowledge acquired. The brain, the organ that generates the Mind, corresponds to this function by a network of firing neurons. Once a pathway of neurons fires, that’s something known. The more it fires, the more it is known and associated with.

That is how the ego is grown. It is fed by the firing of neuron pathways, the more the frequency the higher the degree of association.

Physiology vs Psychology.

When what you know is all you know, you are a fool.

When what you know is not all that you know, you are not a fool. This knowing keeps one seeking and learning. The more one learns, the more new neuron pathways fire. As opposed to a few pathways, the thousands soon become millions. Get the idea.

Neuron plasticity keeps one humble. One realizes just how miniscule the owned existence truly is.

Keep in Mind that to know something is not the same as to practice it. The pathways activated during these two experiences are very different. What you know must turn into what you do.

Psychology vs Lifestyle.

The ego is fed, or starved, by the neuron pathways we fire. It is subject to our choices on a daily basis. It becomes a stumbling block when we unaware of our own selves, become subject to the little we know or do. When we limit ourselves to the few hundreds of thousands of neuron pathways. When we refuse to expand what we are aware of.

The Monkey King fully and truly captures the Ego story best. In conquering his perceived threats, the Monkey King assumes supremacy in his world but is nothing more than a fool amuck wrecking havoc. So is the ego. If it is not freed from this, it is the biggest stumbling block. However, when free one can truly begin to live.

The ego is limited in perspective and becomes fed on the idea of having conquered. When the egoist idea of being supreme in its tiny existence is conquered one then begins to truly live.

Psychology vs Philosophy.

The idea that the ego is bad was coined from this fact. Yet we cannot live without an ego, it is natural to the human nature. Maybe, I dare say to all of nature. We must learn to conquer our own selves. This is the biggest battle of all. We are our own biggest enemies.

The ideas of the ego must be shed over and over again. Examined and questioned. Learnt, unlearnt and relearnt. Otherwise, it remains to function on an outdated operating system. If we cannot get to accepting this, then we are prisoners of our own Minds.

Every time we shed our identities, the horizons grow and expand exponentially. We may never get to experience the wholeness of the Universe but to be aware of it is a gift.

NOTE the ego has many facets to it, with many varying degrees of intensity. In this particular piece, the ego has not been viewed under the scope but is taken in its wholeness. The issues of psychological dysregulation have not been addressed or considered.