Ego – Redefined
Over lifetimes, we gather a certain consciousness that’s often acquired and not our original. We look at the world, our society, family, culture etc. and become what we see in them; as well as what they seek out of us. In the process, what we gather is a thick coating of the material conditioning under which the presence of our subconscious (the spiritual) gets lost. For we begin to identify less with the spirit and more with the senses and soon… the material becomes our real self.
That’s how… from spiritual… we become material and start living out of a consciousness that’s only a reflection of the world around us.
With materiality… we also begin to gather Karma, as our personality begins to drift from the true self (Spiritual) to something… that’s never us (Material). The more material we become, the more sensory satisfaction we seek and this way, more Karma we accumulate. That’s the reason why, our life tends to get harder with different births. Something that a horoscope defines through the planetary positions.
But now, let’s look at the biggest problem that comes our way through this shift of consciousness. A problem that largely becomes the reason for all our pain and sorrow and one, that gets harder and harder to resolve when the mind is dominated by the senses or the material. And by material what I also mean – people, relationships, money, success, power, greed, ambition and one’s countless desires. All the things that in today’s time… we deeply identify with.
Things that define us in every way possible and create the biggest problem in us… the problem of EGO.
Ego happens when the real self gets confused with the illusory and breeds a low sense of self-esteem! This because, ego is always connected to the senses and constantly thrives on sensory responses. When the sensory pleasures/joys elude, ego feels low; when sensory pleasures/joys boom, ego is inflated. The mind here responds to the call of the senses and nothing beyond. Hence, it’s always erratic.
That’s the reason, I define ego as – EASE GETS OVER!
A quote from The Buddha, well explains why – “The Ego relies on brute force for strength, the spirit always works in peace through wisdom and understanding!”
Here, we need to recognize the fact that when ego consciousness is our foundation, we start getting more and more restless with time because there’s always a need to satisfy the senses. Making the material as our root and our route… we constantly want more, work harder for more, demand more, desire more, want to be approved more, praised more and stop at nothing but more.
However, in the process, what we don’t realize is… we become… way less!
Anxiety, anger, conflict, depression, pain, hurt, expectations, ambition, jealousy, competition and dependency on the outer world… is what starts increasing. Simply because, our foundation now is material and we seek to fill our mind… with all that’s just material.
However, the material always comes with its own sets of unpredictability, its own sets of rules that are many a times, the polar opposite of our true self… the spiritual self. Yet, we compromise; in a bid to gain and get more… we compromise. We keep ignoring the voice of our subconscious (spirit)… as we continue with our journey in pursuit of the material.
In the process, we start ignoring our real self, our spiritual self, which is the essence of our being and that’s why, gradually, a conflict builds inside of us. A conflict between our real and mistaken consciousness, our real and mistaken identity! And it is this conflict that makes us perpetually uneasy; a conflict that’s driven by our EGO.
Ego, we must understand is not a flattering term. It’s a condition where we operate out of low self-esteem. Because we don’t know who we are! We can’t understand our real self, our real needs, our real capabilities! Because we constantly live and operate out of a false identity that thrives on deception, that thrives on the world’s approval and on sensory gratification. An identity that seldom gets self-approval and thus, a void keeps building within.
Perennially living this conflict, we try harder to please our material instincts, not realizing that we are spiritual beings on a material journey and the journey, no matter how attractive… cannot define us. The journey, no matter how engaging, cannot fulfil us, cannot complete us!
However, till this battle between who we are and what we’re trying to be, continues – Ego remains. We go on living… peace-less, restless, without ease… because each day, we’re trying harder to prove something to the world and to the self; to satisfy the world and in turn, satisfy the self. Not realizing… this world is ever transient!
If only we understood… who we really are – spiritual beings! If only we understood, we cannot be, what we think we are…material beings!
Then, Spirit would easily triumph over Ego!