Is the Ego Necessary for Survival?
Question:
The “problem” with spirituality as I see it is that it is not enough to know what to do, it is all experiential. We have to see for ourselves and learn the lessons ourselves to really understand. And this is one big difference between religion and spirituality in my opinion.
Most religious people I have met only do what they do because they have been told by someone else that it is the right thing to do. They are blindly following guidelines because “God” says it’s right. Their ego’s are so tightly glued to their beliefs that any reasoning with them they take as an attack on themselves and they get angry.
Of course they do. It’s their whole story, it is who they think they are. Who would they be if all of a sudden everything they thought they are would dissolve? You see, the ego provides a very useful function in our lives on this planet.
How else would we know to protect ourselves? How else would we know to feed ourselves? How else would we know to not put our hands in the fire, stay away from things that makes us ill, gather food for the winter, dress ourselves warmly, spread our genes to ensure that the species lives on and fight when we have to?
Ask yourself this question: Where would you be without your ego? Probably dead. Long time ago. Spend some time thinking about that one if you haven’t before.
So one of the functions of the ego is to ensure the survival of this body that we are in. It does so that we think that we are our thoughts, our minds, our body, emotions, the stuff we do, the things we have and everything else. Without the sense of self, there would be nothing to protect. If there was no other, there would be nothing to fear and we’d have become extinct long time ago.
My response:
First off, props to you for realizing that you do indeed have to EXPERIENCE Truth in order to know it. Simply intellectualizing or believing, buying into any structured external belief system of any sort will necessarily hold you apart from the highest Truth.
Truth can not be verbalized, only known. Whenever you put it into words, you are filtering down the infinite vastness of all that is into a few letters and sounds. The word “apple” is not the same thing as eating an actual apple.
Interestingly, you brought up this point and then went straight back into imagining (read, going to the mind for answers) as to what life without the ego would be like. You’re directly going against exactly the issue you just brought up.
Intellectually wondering what life would be like without an ego, while STILL coming from a place of ego will not work. You can’t transcend duality through duality. You have to reach Oneness by going to Oneness, not by going through the world of illusion.
Living in this world is like dreaming while you’re asleep. When you’re asleep, everything feels real and you know it to be so. You can’t say this is just a dream because you have nothing to compare it to.
It is only when you wake up that you can look back at the dream and accurately determine that it was all a dream, all a made up illusion in your mind.
This life we live in is the SAME thing. In order to experience it as a dream, to see the world of illusion as illusion, you have to first WAKE UP and then once you have awakened, look back at the dream and identify it as such.
You don’t need the ego to survive, or more accurately to identify with this as opposed to that. The idea that you do is one of its BIGGEST lies. It’s sourced in the ego’s fear of death.
You know that leaving your hand in a fire will lead it getting burned. There is a caution system built into the body so that it protects itself. The ego is what takes this caution and spins it into worry, guilt, regret, and anxiety, basically neurotic fear in the past and future.
You can have awareness of bacteria so you wash your hands before you eat. You acknowledge it, deal with it, and move on with your life.
There is a difference between being cautious and getting attached.
Caution is simply common sense. It’s knowing that something may be detrimental and thus avoiding it. It often comes in through your intuition or gut feeling. Emotional attachment is when the mind gets its hooks into something potentially dangerous and starts spinning its wheels on the subject, often making you think of potential “what if” scenarios so that you can be better prepared… just in case!
Is it possible to live without an ego? Do you and your body literally die once the ego is completely transcended? Simply look at enlightened masters for your answer.
“Love your neighbor as you Love yourself.” Remember that loving yourself includes honoring and taking care of yourself. You Love all and take care of all. It’s not that you suddenly stop taking care of things and you forget how to eat, breathe, and brush your teeth once you drop the ego.
Two guys were once walking down the street. The first stated that the whole world is an illusion and that none of it was real. The second guy, being a very intellectual yet skeptical man, took a rock and threw it at the first man, drawing blood. As the first man cried out in pain, the second man said, “Why are you screaming? The pain is an illusion! The rock is an illusion! You are an illusion!”
This is a very logical conclusion that the mind makes, but it’s a radical misunderstanding of the nature of “illusion.”
Illusion does not mean “This does not exist.” in the traditional sense of the word and thus is unexperiencable. Rather, it means, “What you see is not how things actually are. There’s more to the world than meets the eye. There is something beyond what we are consciously aware of. This is not it.”
As you deepen your connection to your Higher Self and strengthen your connection to Source, higher level Truths such as “Time is an illusion” or “This is better than that” or “Love is all there is” become radically apparently, experiential truths. No amount of mental debate can ever bring you to the same level of certainty or understanding.
By transcending the ego, you will come to know these truths, even if you had never heard of them.
It truly has to be experienced to be understood.
From there, the state is SO clearly real that, just like looking back at a dream when you wake up in the morning, it becomes obvious that this physical existence we live in is pure illusion.
It truly is possible to be in this world, but not of it. To be “not of it” means to not be sourced in the domain of duality, of ego. Rather, it means to be sourced in the energy of your higher spiritual self. From this place and ONLY from this place can you truly come to know (as opposed to merely knowing about) the realm of Oneness, to truly experience Unconditional Love towards One and All, towards everyone and everything you meet.
To know and to know about are two totally different things. To know you must experience. To know about you can read about or hear about, but until you experience, you will not know.
So, let’s experience it.
It is only from the place of being completely beyond ego that you will realize that the ego is truly is not necessary for survival. It must be surrendered eventually.
Yes, the individualized “you” that exists right now will die with that happens. The dream will “die” when you awaken, yet you will realize that nothing real actually ceased to exist. Quite to the contrary, you will realize that you always have been, always are, and always will be. And even more accurately, because time is an illusion, you simply are.
The real you is simply asleep, but You can not die. You can either be asleep or awake.
Time to wake up. 
Thanks for your question.
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Hello,
Just would like to clarify what you are saying. You have no ego and that all these spiritual masters have no ego left, well how much of an ego does one have to be able to say such a thing, surely come on, your ego, although not the whole reality is a definite function needed, an infant would surely die without this acquired tool it is a necessary part of living as if u r a human being that is all, no need to deny it or demonise it, the ego is an intuitive intelligence which grows an learns there is intelligent egos and no so intelligent egos, even Nisargadatta said he still had an ego except that he did not identified himself as it anylonger, the ego is what keeps u from walking through traffic, it is a function and a necessary one, denying it is simply another set of concepts, so many so called people who are this awareness and nothing else seems to still hang on, even very subtly to certain concepts, please let us understand that as long as this body lives the ego will remain. The ego is not to be pushed aside just because we have been told too, it is simply an extension of the pure intelligence that I am, simple. thank you
Ariel Bravy Reply:
February 22nd, 2009 at 8:20 pm
Yeah, I agree with you totally karima. My understanding of this has grown since I originally wrote this post.
There’s a functional ego which has the ability to discern and create the experience of separation. It helps us survive. Y’know, there is a bus and here I am and I better get out of the way over to that side of the street before it hits me. Healthy separation. Nothing wrong with that.
It’s the fear-based needing to worry about everything, all those thoughts that spin out that we can let go of. That’s the dysfunctional part of the ego, or negative thought. It’s nothing bad or anything to demonize. Like a scared little puppy, it’s just scared of everything. That part can be healed and released.
“it is simply an extension of the pure intelligence that I am”
You bet. It perceives itself to be separate to or a replacement for innate intelligence. ie, using our mind to rationalize rather than our intuition, but as you said, it’s simply yet another expression of what you are, for ultimately everything is you, including the ego.
Thank you for your awesome comment!
karima Reply:
February 23rd, 2009 at 9:59 am
Thanks for ur reply
I was like so many seekers serching for the ultimate I, trying to disidentify from the ego, the thoughts etc then it suddenly hit me listening to a recording of Sailor Bob Adamson saying that the simplicity of it all is: are you awake or asleep? that was it, I know beyond doubt that I am awake as the Buddha says nothing special, out of the ordinary I am and I know that I am again simple. The problem of ego or disidentifying with thought is ultimately imaginary another concept stored away neatly by the mind, there is nothing to do at all for anyone to be what they r already, you have never been lost you are here now always every experience points to u. In the end we must let go of all concepts we have accumulated along the spiritual search they do not help one little bit, If you know you are awake then that is it stop there and the rest unfold, you will suddenly realise we start as “I am not the thoughts, I am not the ego,I am nothing perceivable” and we finish realising” I am the thoughts, I am the me, I am all of it” no need to separate anymore.( sorry if some stuff do not make sense being French explaining something like that in another language is quite challenging)Bye
I lost all fear (which includes, shame, embarassment, and lots of other cool stuff!) with my first awakening experience last April. I’ve sorted of tested myself to see whether the fear was really gone. Bungee jumping, recording videos of myself singing and posting them on facebook, baring my heart and soul at the risk of rejection, and most recently (yesterday), shaved my hair off (my dad is handling that one pretty well!).
The bungee jumping I always wanted to do, but for the adrenaline rush. There was none. I had no fear. It was a non-event. The rest of those actions would have mortified “me” prior to all of this. The guy suddenly met someone else and it was love at first sight, so the response to my soul-baring was news that he had a girlfriend.
When he told me, I sort of felt myself drain for a few seconds, then I was just silent and I felt a peace and strength of spirit supporting me. He said she was cool, I would like her, he didn’t want to not be friends, there wasn’t any reason he wasn’t chasing me, he just didn’t have that drive to (even though he told me he was having powerful dreams about me – long story). I laughed nervously. I didn’t want to hear that.
BUT, he posted pictures of them on facebook that same night, and as soon as I saw them, I was truly happy for them. I could see that what they had was real and he was happier than I had ever seen him. There was something there that we had not experienced together.
They went to Cuba soon after and posted pictures and made comments and I found, to my amazement, that I couldn’t be bitter or jealous or dislike her, even if I tried! It’s a great feeling, unconditional love! I didn’t have to have any negative feelings towards anyone because I didn’t get what I wanted. And I was honestly happy and trusted that whatever is meant to be will be. I could see that they were meant to be together at this time.
With losing the fear, my friends and family started to worry a little that I would do something “crazy”. I told them that just because I don’t have fear doesn’t mean that I don’t have common sense! I think common sense is the intuition that comes from being connected to source and I have even more of it now, which keeps me safe (e.g. safely avoided crashing my car as it swerved all over an extremely icy road – I really thought I was gonna crash and no fear arose, I just did what came naturally and got the car back under control, again, to my amazement).
I don’t really know whether the fear being gone means that the ego is gone. And I’m not sure how big a role the ego plays in survival once you are hooked up to the most vast supply of common sense! I dunno know.
It’s all very curious, but I don’t feel the need to figure that part out anymore. I’ve experienced it, and that is more than enough.
Ariel Bravy Reply:
February 22nd, 2009 at 10:21 pm
yes yes yes yes yes
I’ve noticed that I don’t get angry or frustrated with the ego anymore. When it pops up I just laugh or roll my eyes and continue on. I also seem to be so joyous and fun-loving all the time now. I first thought that maybe it was ego that was leading me to just wanting to have fun and not being serious but what is there to be serious about, really? I just go where I’m led and where I find myself going and it is always a joyous experience and I feel so much love! I catch myself wondering if I am laughing too loudly or acting too differently but those are judgments and no one seems to notice anything different in me and somehow what ever needs to be done gets done. I just feel so much love for everyone and everything and I feel loved as well. So how can that be ego?