by Cathy Hazel Adams
Lately I’ve been coming across the supposedly spiritual “old saw” that the ego portion of our consciousness is bad – that it’s an enemy of our spiritual growth and some sort of evil, “lower” part of ourselves to be controlled, transcended and even annihilated. I’m writing this article to refute those ideas and offer a more expansive, love-based understanding of the ego and its precious role in our lives.
Your ego is your sense of individual identity. It is the layer of conscious focus created and used by your inner, soul self specifically to help you navigate and interact with your physical environment. It’s there to assess conditions and circumstances, keep things organized, and keep you of danger. Your ego is what keeps you from being hit by a bus, and helps you know that someone else’s thoughts, emotions and desires are not yours – and it is the tool the inner self uses to help you realize your soul’s dreams and potentials on the physical plane.
But because one of its traits is that it holds on tightly to what it is familiar with, and to what it believes to be “true,” our ego can become fearful and resistant when its ideas are challenged. It is the fearful ego that becomes a problem, because it tries to take over and stops listening to the guidance of the inner self. Seth (my spiritual Teacher) actually speaks of the Outer and Inner egos, the “outer ego” being the surface level conscious awareness that handles the day to day details of physical survival, and the “inner ego,” which is the part of the Divine Universal Consciousness that knows itself and has incarnated as You. They are meant to work beautifully together, with the outer taking guidance from the inner.
Achieving this beautiful partnership between the outer and inner identities is not as difficult as you might imagine. By first intending to start being more open to inner information, and then spending a little bit of time each day in quiet, inwardly focused reverie (call this time whatever you like: meditation, field of the heart, dissociation, Spacious Present), you quickly reestablish a direct pathway and integration of the inner and outer perceptions. You immediately start to experience benefits: a sense of calm and well-being no matter what’s going on in your life, more psychological breathing space even during busy, stressful times, and a healthier, more relaxed and vibrant physical condition. Conditions in your outer world start changing for the better…
The outer ego part of your awareness starts realizing that there are great benefits to cocking an ear inward, that it is not alone, and that there’s a well-spring of information and guidance available to help it do its job even better. It begins to understand that it doesn’t have to feel stressed and terrified because it has to make all the decisions without having all the needed information. It sees that life is better, and so it gains the trust and confidence that make it start joyfully and voluntarily running to the inner self for guidance and support.
The ego awareness, expanding to include the inner and outer portions of itself, is how we evolve into spiritual enlightenment. The sense of “I” isn’t lost or “killed off” – it expands to an ever-greater, all-inclusive identity.
“The petal of a flower is not more developed than the root…All directions taken by the flower of consciousness are good. The flower knows it is alive in the bulb, but it takes “time” for the bulb to let the stem and leaves and flower emerge. The flower is not better than the bulb, it is not even more “progressed” than the bulb.” – Seth
“The waking self’s main job is to discover how to effectively play the game offered here on earth: how to magnetize the most beneficial experiences…Certainly then, the ego’s insulating mindset is necessary and integral to the “grand plan.” Development of individuality is a central component for conscious navigation and attraction of reality. That is why Kuan Yin implores us not to ‘curse the ego’…”
– From Oracle of Compassion: The Living Word of Kuan Yin
by Hope Bradford
We are multidimensional beings, existing in all our possible forms at once. Just as we do not loose or kill off the 5-year-old part of ourselves to grow up, but rather expand to include and grow beyond the 5-year-old’s limited understanding, spiritual evolution does not require us to loose or deny the Self, but rather to EXPAND into what we are becoming. Love and blessings, Cathy Hazel Adams
Cathy Hazel Adams is a practitioner of quantum, multidimensional energetic transformation and healing, and a Matrix Energetics® Certified Practitioner. Find this and other articles, at www.cathyhazeladams.com
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