Do you know the way to...?

Many view the ego and the Self as opposite ends of our spiritual journey. The journey begins with the ego trying to learn who it is and why it is here. Through the mind, the ego separates and attempts to distinguish itself physically from other egos. “I am tall, short, thin, athletic, pleasingly plump, etc.” “I have blond hair.” The ego may also associate with ideals. “I am a good person, generous, helpful, etc.” At times the ego also identifies with social functions or groups within its social experience. “I am American, British, Catholic, Hebrew, Muslim, a fan of the Green Bay Packers.”

Why does the ego distinguish itself in so many ways? The only answer can be self-preservation. With so many ways to identify itself, the ego can never be lost in the morass of egos that inhabit this planet. If one identity ceases to exist, the ego can cling to another one of its identities or develop one to replace the one that was lost and remain alive, at least we assume, until the body itself dies.

Even its associations with social groups gives the ego life. When egos associate with groups, a collective consciousness or collective ego emerges that is different from other collective egos (i.e. democrat, republican) whose sole purpose also become one of survival and in many cases at the expense of the individual egos that comprise the collective ego.

Both individual egos and collective egos will do whatever is necessary to survive because they separate from others out of fear - the fear of its own death. The fear of death (and all other fears such as the fear of lack) and the struggle to survive leads to a loss of freedom, limited life choices, suffering, contention, strife, war, and every sort of human degradation. And this goes on ad infinitum or until there the world comes crushing down on the ego or that defining moment when the Self makes itself known. Usually it’s the former when we come to realize that all the faith we have put into our physical reality dies because all of our expectations of what should be is no longer is true. People make promises to us that because we and they change no longer hold true and the promises are broken. Or we believe in the American Dream, for example, and the economy dies as the result of the greed of those in power and we suffer financially.

When the ego becomes tired of the struggle to survive, to excel, or to set itself apart it becomes disenchanted with a life that promises the world in exchange for compliance, allegiance, and compromise but only delivers uncertainty, unwanted change, and lack of empathy, the Self can be heard whispering to try and get our attention. Sometimes it yells quite loudly and shocks us out of our self-imposed hells.

As fatigue sets in and the ego resigns itself to a life that is far less than what it believed it was promised, the mind surrenders its incessant struggle to determine the cause of its suffering so it can alter its future history. In these few moments of quiet solitude, a tiny voice can be heard, “There is more to life.” If we listen, the message continues. “Come inside and I will help you end your suffering so that you are completely free to explore who you really are. You are an infinite being of inner peace, happiness, joy, unconditional love, compassion, forgiveness and deserve all the abundance that Life has to offer, including life eternal.”

This whispered (or sometimes yelling) voice is the Self calling to the ego to remind it that because its Creator is Divine, it too is Divine and the source of all life itself. Because the ego has been conditioned to accept as truth only that which it can experience through the body’s five senses, it lacks the creativity and imagination necessary to envision life beyond the five senses. However, the Self is relentless, exposing the ego to synchronicities (unexplained coincidences) and experiences that defy logic or events which cannot be explained or identified through the five senses. It sends more evolved egos that are closer in touch with the Self to increase inquisitiveness for the ego to look to for answers beyond the external experience. The Self sends the ego inside.

Inner exploration of the ego to discover the Self can be quite frightening. The ego has been so conditioned by social institutions with which it associates to judge unacceptable certain personality characteristics or behaviors and physical features. The ego also has been conditioned by these same institutions (collective egos) that no one is perfect. If in exploring this internal world, the ego confronts or exposes its human imperfections and if acknowledging these imperfections is overly painful, the ego may resist all attempts to discover the Self. The ego is destined to suffer at its own hands. It cannot achieve full Consciousness in this life and possibly even after the demise of the physical body.

One cannot assume that the death of the body results in the death of the ego and the blossoming of the Self. If the ego has been so conditioned to assume it is unworthy and does survive the body’s demise it may continue to override the urgings of the Self to explore the beauty of eternal happiness, joy, and love and continue to exist in a hell of its own making. I believe that the only way to achieve Full Consciousness in this life or any other is to go deep within to explore all that we are, to accept, embrace, and love unconditionally all of our human failures and imperfections. When we do we discover the Self; our connection to eternal Divine life. We enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

As we begin to end our judgments of ourselves we begin to look out into the world with new eyes and see perfection in every human event, even those that we previously deemed most despicable. We recognize the Divine Plan from our Ascension into Full Consciousness and unconditional love and accept that joy and pain, happiness and sorrow, love and hate, war and peace push us along this path to our ultimate destination. For example, Hitler exterminated millions of Jews, Catholics, and all he deemed would contaminate the super race he planned for the earth. The world united to squelch his attempts at world domination and said, “Never again will we accept such reprehensible behavior.” Since then many have tried to reignite this search for a superior race and extermination of those deemed unworthy. Each time, humanity remembered and with a united voice said, “No!”

While it has taken wars and killing to stop this onslaught on humanity, there exists the possibility that we will find peaceful means to end this struggle because humanity, as a whole, is getting tired of hate, violence and war. If not, maybe the only way to end war is to end all human life. Even this would be acceptable within Divine Law as we are much more than just our bodies. After all we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Who knows, maybe the realization will occur one day that the human experiment is no longer necessary. The human experience is only an infinitesimal part of the Divine experience and even if all human life ends, Divine Life continues into and throughout eternity.

Even for those pursuing a spiritual path the journey may not be smooth, easy, or pain free. The recognition of our acceptance of the Self and all it implies is in direct conflict with the condition, experience, and past history of the human ego. The only way to experience unlimited joy, happiness, love, and freedom is to choose them, regardless of what we experience on a human level. There are no laws that state that we must suffer if we are poor, ugly, homeless, unsuccessful, or uneducated.

When you suffer because your efforts have not resulted in desired outcomes, it’s your ego reminding you that you put your faith in a reality that can only offer uncertainty, change, inconsistency and compromise. You must be willing to give up your faith, hope, and expectation that specific behaviors produce specific human experiences. At the moment you become aware of your suffering, close your eyes, take a deep, long, slow breath, and smile. Remind yourself that this too shall pass; that you are much more than your physical experiences and destined for a future far greater than your feeble mind can imagine.

You must be ruthless in the use of this simple tool until the current episode of suffering ends and with each and every episode thereafter. If you remain committed to your Self, the continued use of this tool, which I refer to as the Attitude Adjustment Routine, will end your suffering quicker and quicker. As the suffering ends you will have reconnected with your Self.

There will be times when your efforts result in desired outcomes and may reconfirm your faith in the human experience. At these times too, use the Attitude Adjustment Routine, express your gratitude for the experience, and remind yourself, “this too shall pass” so you don’t fall victim to your addictions to the world’s lure of promise and hope. Secretly you may not want to admit this. You may not want the experience to end. Unfortunately, the next time the world does not cooperate your suffering may increase and you will once again find yourself on that downward spiral towards pain, confusion, mental agitation, and resistance. You may even give up and resign yourself once again to a life of restriction and limitation. Trust me. I know from many, many such experiences.

I have wanted to give up so many times, but the Self is too strong and resilient. It continues to call even if I turn off the sound or take the phone off the hook. Somehow its message gets through and I start all over again. You can too. All it takes is the intention to connect with the Self, an awareness of the ego’s function in human experience, and commitment to the use of a simple tool that transcends the human experience. Are you ready for that plunge inwards?