Do You Want To Kill Your Ego?

Category Death, Ego, Enlightenment

Are you attempting to rid yourself of your ego? To become ego-less?

Well, as long as “you” exist in physical manifestation, you will always have an ego. It’s as simple as that.

The ego’s fundamental role is to give you the ability to exist in the physical reality you chose to be born into by creating separation where there is none. The ego is what allows us to differentiate between a this and a that where there is only One.

It is what allows Jesus to heal this person’s legs or that person’s eyes. It is what allows the Buddha to sit under this tree to meditate or teach that group of people. It’s what allows you to know that that food needs to go into this mouth when this stomach starts growling.

The purpose of spirituality is not to rid yourself of that ability altogether, but to recognize that you don’t have to allow a negative ego to unconsciously control your actions. This happens when we mistakenly identify with the separate self, the little voice in our heads, and think that it ACTUALLY IS us.

Enlightenment is about a radical shift of identity, about the realization of your true nature.

Enlightenment is about integration and realizing that you are All That Is. There is no part of All That Is that is rejected, including the human ego.

Waterfalls in Paradise Meadow by Daniel Ewert

Light does not overcome darkness by rejecting it, but by transmuting what used to be dark into light, rendering darkness “dead” in a metaphorical sense. When you realize the moon is made of rock, you don’t have to kill the belief that it’s made of cheese, as if there was a battle in the first place. In a similar way, the light of Truth and the realization of Oneness automatically overrides the incorrect belief in a separate self, one of the main lies of the ego. You don’t attack and attempt to kill a lie. You simply bring in the presence of Truth.

The ego is simply a tool, a conduit. It’s what keeps the physical you where you have chosen to be focused into here in this physical reality. As long as you are in physical manifestation and have a unique personality, you will always have an ego and that’s totally okay. That’s how it’s designed by Creation. Even enlightened people have physical bodies.

So Love your ego, just like you can Love every other aspect of All That Is, of Creation.

The process of self-inquiry by asking the question “What Am I?” is about dissolving the ego’s grip over you, about shifting your sense of identification from what is Illusion to what is Real.

Identification with the ego and the separate self can “die” the same way you can let other mistaken beliefs fall away and “die.” The ego you have and the ability to subsequently differentiate between a this and a that in physical form, even though it’s not ultimately REAL, is still a helpful ability while experiencing physical reality. It allows you to play with the illusion.

Just like when you go to the movies, you know that what’s happening on the screen isn’t actually real and that it’s all a made-up story, you can still have a good time watching the movie anyways. No one said you have to believe that what’s happening on screen is actually happening.

So don’t try to kill the ego or become literally ego-less. Just free yourself from all attachment and aversion to what is. Inquire in to your true nature to realize who you truly are, yet don’t actually believe a single thought the mind tells you. That’s what it’s all about. That’s the heart of spirituality.

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12 Responses to “Do You Want To Kill Your Ego?”

Scarface said:

Yeah I totally agree.
For the ego, I always like to use the metaphore of the leg. I then say like:
“In my view the ego is just like my leg. It’s a part of you (body) and helps you to move forward in this life. But it’s not YOU, in the sense that is the one making the decisions. It’s just a passenger (in/with/by) your body, just like your leg. It’s just a part of you like your leg is, and doesn’t have any more volition like your leg has. I mean have given your leg the authority as if it has free will to go wherever the leg want to go? No. And in my view the ego is equally a passinger like the leg is.”
This metaphore hit light for me, when I came entered into my head. Most peolple where I explain it to in this way, then look to me as if I just weirded out, fun times.

Ariel Bravy Reply:
December 21st, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Cool analogy, scarface.
Dusty said:

Ariel, where is that waterfall paradise?

Ariel Bravy Reply:
December 21st, 2008 at 6:59 pm
It’s somewhere near Mt. Rainier in Washington state.
Enrique said:

Ariel is such an amazing teacher. I can’t wait to see him making videos.
Davidya said:

Interesting – you use the word ego differently than some. Some use ego to mean the idea of separate self, so in that sense the ego dies as you note. But you’re right. Some value remains to individuate what is not separate. Otherwise, our expression would cease as well. We would cease to walk and sit and eat.

Certainly though, our relationship with these things changes considerably during the process.

Davidyas last blog post..What is Unique?
lebensimpuls.info said:

who can kill the ego and who want to kill the ego? how can this go? something to want means – ego.
you should recognize what you are not – all the identities and definitions, and than realize what you are – the indescribable holy universal power. so dissolves the ego.
this says the ashtavakra gita

Ariel Bravy Reply:
December 26th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Bingo. Awareness has no problem with an ego being there and is unaffected by it anyways. It is only ego which tries to kill the ego.
Davidya said:

“It is only ego which tries to kill the ego” hmm – interesting. That’s rather an inverse of the way it’s usually put. But there is truth to that. Living or dying are all born of duality and the sense of being separate.

However, some people do experience it as a ‘death’. Certainly some aspects (beliefs/habits, etc) typically remain to be dissolved. But there can be a sense of it “popping”. Similarly, the deeper loss of identity that usually happens later has been described as a “BBQ”, even with smoke. (laughs)

Some people have a gradual process of dissolution. Others journeys are more marked by very distinct changes in reality. What was there before is now gone.

Davidyas last blog post..What is Unique?

Ariel Bravy Reply:
December 26th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Yeah, exactly Davidya. I suppose we would need to differentiate between the striving to accomplish this goal in the future called ego death versus the actual experience of the “popping” of the separate self. Great analogy, by the way.

Seems to come down to the whole “Let go of trying to make it happen and it happens on its own” dealio.

The following Eckhart Tolle quote seems quite fitting here: “The secret to life is to die before you die and find there is no death.” You experience the ego-based separate self dying, only to find that there was no true death in the first place.

Out of curiosity, in your experience thus far, has it been more gradual or more distinct?
Davidya said:

For me, very distinct.
I’ve been around when a number of people have woken. Usually, you can feel it as they have just become you. Its like you get even bigger. Thats where “popping” comes from – the experience of someone else waking.

The qualities of each one are different. Some make a very distinct shift. May be more head or more heart release. Many have a kind of ‘Huh? this is it??’ as it is so normal feeling. Some kind of slide into it. It’s not uncommon to have a period of uncertainty while the mind tries to grasp. It became clear for a friend of mine when he almost had a head-on collision on the highway and realized he didn’t react.

As on the Rogan post, I often mention the difference between experiencing and being. I had lots of experiences of /tastes and found this confusing as they met the minds ideas of it but were clearly not that. It’s the difference between smelling a strawberry and being all strawberries.
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