The Ego is not a Problem, But a Stage

Category Ego, Enlightenment

There’s this experience that sometimes happens when a person aims for enlightenment, and I’ve seen it happen within me as well. The person sees enlightenment as the ‘goal’ and the ego as the ‘obstacle’ to overcome. It is identification with the ego that is the ‘problem’ holding them back from enlightenment and thus they may come to the conclusion that because they are identified with the illusion, they aren’t seeing the Truth of reality. They’re doing something wrong. Their perspective is distorted by the veil of the mind and they feel somehow incomplete. This can lead to feelings of guilt, resistance, and not accepting one’s current level with the knowledge that there’s something better available.

Yet the thing is that in order to go beyond the ego, you must first accept it fully as it is.

Stages

The ego is not a mistake. It’s not something to overcome anymore than childhood is an obstacle to be overcome on the way to adulthood.

Like childhood, the ego is simply a stage along the journey.

Rather than seeing the ego as a problem or challenge to overcome, see it as a stage along the journey.

Life, like all of Creation is a Process. Even when you reach enlightenment, you haven’t reached the end, believe it or not. There is ALWAYS more. Always!

You are an infinite being. There is always more to you. Check out the definition of infinity.

Even the universe itself is constantly expanding and so if you were to suddenly realize that you were the entire universe, in the next nanosecond the infinity that you were just a moment ago is now even MORE!

You’ll never get it done. You’ll never reach the end, for there is no end to infinity, not even enlightenment.

Acceptance of Now

Accept where you are without resiting where you are. Where you are right now is the exact perfect spot for you to be. How do I know this? Because that’s where you are!

There are no mistakes. If you weren’t meant to be in this exact place at this exact moment, you wouldn’t be.

With this understanding comes a lot of release and letting go of the idea that you need to rush rush rush and get somewhere other than where you are now, a relaxing into this moment of allowing things to be as they are.

And ironically enough, it is this allowing of things to be as they are in this moment which is the most powerful platform upon which you can springboard yourself to the next level!

After all, enlightenment is not about becoming something new or attaining something you don’t already have. It’s simply coming to realize who you truly are in this moment. That’s it. There’s nowhere to go.

So Love this moment. Love what is. Love everything about your life and in your experience for it is truly perfect as it is.

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7 Responses to “The Ego is not a Problem, But a Stage”

Logan said:

Hi Ariel, I like your blog! :-)

When I accept the present moment I feel peaceful. When I resist I feel anger or sadness or something. So I know the value of accepting the now.

And still my ego resists to accept all parts of my life. It feels like if I accept something that I would like to be different, then I accept it forever and it will never change and it will never be the way I want it to be.

Recently I discovered that accepting what is has another meaning: If I accept something at this moment it means also that I’m fully present at that moment so I’m able to take a (new) decision or action with a completely clean mind. I can decide or act with love without anger, sadness, guilt, …

Would be cool if you could comment on that.

Logans last blog post..Women don’t know what they want

Ariel Bravy Reply:
December 1st, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Logan, you hit the nail on the head.

The ego may think that acceptances means passivity and not doing anything about it, but how can it know for sure without trying?

Which position feels more empowering? “I shouldn’t have lost my job.” or “I lost my job. Now what can I do about it?”
Scarface said:

Hi, I have some questions about (the) ego. That I couldn’t find anywhere answers on, accept in my own head.
My questions are;
* When did ego arise/got created ? And (if after birth) with what or how does/did it arise?
* And what is ego actually (if it’s something that exists)?

The current concept I have taken on, “created” by my own thinking is as follows. But it feels to me a bit off, and I have doubts about this concept it’s accuracy. And I can’t find confirmation nor other explanations about it from the (great) sages:
I read a baby doesn’t have ego(Freud) until about the age of one. So I thought my previous concept that ego came with the creation of this body is not correct. So I thought maybe it’s something that does enter simultaneous with the “Presence” energy, and has with (or in it) also this ego energy. That energy I (my mind) can only “feel/receive” after about the age of one year. I also thought about that the ego is something that got installed after the age of one (but rejected that for the follwing reason), but when I wake up in the morning for a short moment of time or so. I also sometimes had the feeling/idea that the ego was not there yet, but the presence was. So then I thought, maybe it’s something that came with the presence but takes just a little longer to “kick in”, because of that the mind has to be used to “feel/receive” that ego energy.

thanks in advanced for the replies.

Ariel Bravy Reply:
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:38 pm
How did the ego arise? There’s a number of theories and ideas which I’m going to explore in later posts for they all help us understand the ego better, but my core understanding is that it is simply something we choose as a way of forgetting who we are and thus then get to remember who we are through this process called life.

Second, what the ego is… it’s not real. It’s not a thing. It doesn’t actually exist. It’s a puff of smoke created out of nothing, just like everything in physical reality. It’s basically a form of resistance to what is via labeling, judging, saying no to, categorizing, etc. It’s just a collection of thoughts that tell you something other than what’s true so that you can experience something other than what you are. Thus it’s not something you can “kill” because it doesn’t exist. All you do is let go of all the false thoughts it tells you and the false sense of self that’s created because of those thoughts.

As to exactly when the ego is created, it may be around the age of one as Freud said. Perhaps it happens at birth when the body/mind/soul all join together into one unique being. This I don’t know.

Jasper Reply:
December 4th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Well, the evolution researcher would probably say something like: The ego emerged as a means of sustaining physical life, as soon as life got to a certain stage.
This stage/shift could be termed as “what makes us human”, what separates (ha!) us from the animals.

An metaphysician might say: Well, the ego was given to mankind, because it needs to learn some lessons, according to karmic law, in order to return to god.

@Ariel: the thing about the universe expanding is an interesting topic as well.
The temperature in the Universe (e.g. “empty” space) currently is about 3 Kelvin, which is just above the absolute zero point.
As the Universe expands further, the temperature is likely to decrease accordingly, until it reaches 0 Kelvin.
What will happen, when we reach the absolute zero?
The big inbreath?, the big Implosion?
…or the start of something even bigger?

We´ll see…

Ariel Bravy Reply:
December 4th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I don’t think it’s possible for anything in existence to reach Absolute zero. You can get super-close, but you can’t extinguish life in that sense.

Scarface Reply:
December 5th, 2008 at 2:51 am
thanx for your reply ariel and jasper. Looking forwards to post(s) about the different ideas of when and how ego arose.

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