Ego Mastery
“The ego only has as much power as you give it, and it gains power when you identify with it. Your ego is threatened by your true Being because when you connect with your true Being, you realize that, by contrast, you are not your ego.” - Eckhart Tolle
The ego is a gift that leads to enlightenment
The ego is a perfect mechanism to provide the growth the Soul desires via incarnation. The ego’s selfishness is a multi-faceted array of constructs that obscure and/or oppose one’s True Nature, which leads one on a journey of Self-realization (realizing the True Self). It gives our Soul an opportunity to evolve (actualizing potential) through providing the choice of growing the Divine Virtues or the material virtues. No growth is possible without an opposing force that presents obstacles to overcome and the separate-self construct, or ego, is the primary obstacle generator ‘ally’ obscuring the realization of enlightenment.
When one has relaxed the ego fully, one’s True Nature is expressed naturally. When we can maintain this relaxation, we become naturally identified with the True Self, which is the essence of enlightenment. One relaxes the ego by:
Becoming aware of constructs
Mindfully observing the constructs over time
Generating insights about one’s relationship with the construct (including Loving the construct for how it has served us and releasing our dependency on it).
Seeing the construct as empty (deconstruction), which leads to seeing the construct as not one’s Self (not the Absolute), which leads to dis-identification with and the relaxing of the ego (letting go of attachments with loving embrace).
With the ego relaxed, one practices living the qualities of True Self mindfully in every moment (identity migration progresses into full enlightenment).
The constructs can be summed up as simply, ‘the activity of the mind’ or ‘the effort of engaging the mind.’ When we have fully relaxed the constructs and the ‘activity of the mind’ we enter into effortless being and we experience the True Self. In order to relax the activity of the mind, we deconstruct the ‘reality’ or realness of a construct and release our identification with them over time. This increases the ability to abide as True Self with greater stability when navigating life’s circumstances—thus one realizes a more authentic and sustainable enlightenment.
This is akin to the Greek term Kenosis, or self-emptying, where one “empties” oneself of that one is full of that blocks the Will of God. The Buddha did this to achieve enlightenment and, over time, was able to see his True Nature was equanimity, respect, and love for every single one—whether pleasant or unpleasant, beautiful or ugly, evil or good. One could say this is the Will of God—enlightenment as perfect pure love.
Once one has deconstructed their ego constructs, one has fully relaxed (dissolved) all that obscures one’s experience of enlightenment—they have become selfless. Selflessness is equivalent to the ego being so aligned with True Self that it no longer eclipses the Self’s qualities and thus the light of pure Love shines as the ego. There is no longer an appearance of a ‘real’ separate-self to do the eclipsing—there is the realization of the Truth of the One Self, which is the essence of enlightenment. The ego was always a convenient little fiction, but it can now be seen as the empty conceptualization that it is.
If you could get rid of yourself just once, the secret of secrets would open up to you. The face of the Unknown, hidden beyond the universe, would appear in the mirror of your perception.”
- Rumi
“If you could naught yourself for an instant, indeed I say less than an instant, you would possess all.” - Meister Eckhart
When one has achieved selflessness, one can enter the Unitive stages of development and enjoy the treasures of full alignment with the True Self: blissfulness, equanimity, contentedness, sentimentality, peacefulness, perpetual presence, harmoniousness, kindness, spaciousness, spontaneousness, playfulness, joyfulness, gratefulness, fearlessness, enlightenment (no suffering or ignorance), perceiving perfection, and pure-Love/free-Love for example.
Want to travel there? Sign up for Ego Mastery Coaching with Cory and you will unlock the 100+ ego constructs that will enable you to enlighten.