This article first appeared in the Conscious Creation Journal
 

The ego must go. Die, sucker. Surrender, you sorry  miscreation. Sound to you like love-based, enlightened awareness?  Okay, maybe I exaggerate, but perhaps not all that much according to some things I hear or read. Focus on the ego as something bad and undesirable does seem to be a common theme encountered along the seeker’s path. As with many spiritual “truths”, this one is often presented with its share of dogma. Rooting out the nefarious ego has been a long-standing theme of various religions, as well as an interpretation sometimes offered of more contemporary teachings, channeled or otherwise. Enough already with the bad rap given to the ego, I would like to offer another viewpoint.

The ego does not have to surrender. Surrendering is a concept born of duality and imaged through a militaristic consciousness. It’s an example of polarity at its finest. In polarity we name things right and wrong. Then we make the right things good and the wrong things bad. We establish that our ego interferes with our spirituality, so we make spirituality right and good and make ego wrong and bad. Uff da! 

There is nothing out of place in this exquisite, efficient universe. The ego has played its part in an evolution of consciousness directed by a profound intention of creation. That intention was to individuate aspects of itself, creating material density while exploring an infinite variety of expressions, and then re-merge the individuated consciousnesses in a self-aware matter form that would then begin a new cycle of creation. Yeah, I know, we can have the discussion that there is only a oneness, a wholeness, and that there is no separation in truth. I would even agree with you, but part of the paradox of how we hold our knowing of the universe is that it is simultaneously individuated and whole. The intention of this article is to bring some focus to the experience of the individuated aspects, and that leads us back to our marvelous companion, the ego. 

The ego is a magnificent creation. It is the means by which the individuations could experience their uniqueness and grow and evolve without awareness of the greater reality. For evolutionary purposes, these many parts have experienced themselves as separate. Evolution has included the experience of duality, for great growth can occur through the movement of energy between polarities. Duality has also been harshly judged at times, but that’s another topic. And why do we find it so necessary to judge what simply is? The ego has been our identity, it has been our sense of who we are, and now we’re supposed to simply discard this great part of ourselves? Geez, talk about showing appreciation!

I suspect that most everyone reading this article has done a significant amount of healing work. In healing work we are recovering separated aspects of self and returning to a sense of wholeness. I am not aware of any healing process that is effective without the presence of love. Love knows the way. Love IS the way. To invite an aspect of self to re-merge or transform is to bring to consciousness and release any trauma pattern or belief system that created the sense of separation.  So I ask, where’s the love in approaching the ego as if it is something that must be destroyed? Is it any wonder that the ego powerfully seeks to continue its existence when faced with a belief that it must be annihilated? We are all undergoing profound transformation. So is the ego. It is not helpful to this evolution for people to continue to hold a belief that we are trying to get rid of our individuation. That’s precisely what creates the fear that leads to further attachment to the dying structures. It’s a dualistic viewpoint, and it only creates more pain. The ego has experienced eons of feeling alone and vulnerable, and it has constructed many protections for itself. If what you resist persists, then attempts to push the ego away or call it into submission will only increase its opposition. Love offers another way. 

We are not losing our individuation. We are becoming conscious of ourselves as unique aspects of a whole. Some things that have been part of our experience are not going to be taken forward into the new creation, not because they are bad or wrong, but because they’re no longer needed in the same way. This great recycler of a universe has a way of reforming itself in an energetically efficient manner, and the transformation of the ego is a significant part of our story. It is not the elimination of the ego, but is instead a creation of the highest, most profound order. Our individuated self is being asked to participate in this grand story by awakening to the truth that it does not have to carry the burden of feeling alone and solely responsible for everything else. We are being asked to understand that we have the support of the universe, and that our uniqueness is not being ended, it is being called forth into ever greater forms of expression. Our own realization of the greatness of our being fills us with the knowing of who we are, and we find that our individuated self has moved into an alignment with the greater whole. 

We are grand being(s) experiencing a grand adventure. It never ends and neither do we. Bring your ego into the all. Hold it in a place of honor and thank it for all it has been for you. Open your heart with great gratitude and surround it with love. Assist it to know that it is not alone and is greatly loved. Hold it gently in that field of love as it releases its fears and transforms into something new. One cannot say it dies, for there is no death. There is only a moment when you will suddenly know that myself and thyself simply becomes the same. 

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Copyright 1998, Chris LaFontaine. Please copy and share freely for personal use.