Death of the Ego II – The Ego and its False Perceptions
The Ego is a live entity that acts, thinks and feels. Every experience we have in our awakened existence is an experience of the Ego. We are so identified with the Ego that we develop a clear illusion that it is the Ego that controls our life. The appearances of pain, suffering, happiness, and loneliness are all projections of the Ego. It can provoke such havoc in our system that it can make one feel empty and unhappy. The compensation for this can come through the pursuit of external elements and self-medication: drugs, alcohol and many other addictions.
From all the realities, or perspectives, of the Ego, the feelings can be the most intriguing because when the Ego makes residence in our emotional system, it can easily blind us and imprison us as individualities, making us its slave. Most of the time when the Ego does not agree with the way reality is manifesting itself, it starts the blame game on others, or starts to attack the individual’s mind with thoughts of less value and self-worth, creating an inner environment of hostility against oneself.
The fact is that the perceptions of the Ego are generally lies and many times we find ourselves being a victim of the circumstances of illusionary perspectives .The Ego tries to consistently prove that we cannot change, that we do not have the capability to transcend obstacles. This is not true. This is the reason that many times, during passages of life or challenges, we feel defeated before we even start the battle.
The Ego manages our existence: it thinks, it reacts and it feels. To learn its tricks, we need to investigate ourselves in depth, because intimately in our beings there is a precious skill of observation, our internal observer. From the point where it is developed inside of ourselves, one progressively becomes aware and conscious of our limitations, and also our potential, virtues and defects, and gradually we prepare ourselves for a new dawn in our lives, to an age of awakening and self-realization.
There is definitely a distinction between self-perception and self-knowledge. In the beginning, with self- perception we can perceive the actions of our Ego over our Psyche, but when we engage in a process of elimination, one starts observing that many times it is not the real Self that is in control, but the many different facets of the Ego. These facets are the ones that get in despair, that get mad and scream. It is necessary to ask oneself what is the reason for these reactions: why one is so mad or feeling defeated etc. This is the beginning of self-mastery.
This exercise can improve much our inner power of observation and make our internal observer a skilled companion on this journey of self-awareness. It is not necessary to analyze the actions and perspectives of the Ego, just observe. As we observe the different nuances of the Ego, we realize what is needed to be changed in order to find mastery, internal realization and peace.
As this power gradually develops, we perceive the Ego’s games ahead of time and they therefore lose their power over the control of external circumstances in our lives, as we are able to act instead of react. As the internal powers of self-observations increase, the more we would gather the power to truly transform our lives.
