Ego: Thank you, Mr. Tolle, for your wonderful thoughts. Here, if I may, are a few additional comments of my own.

 

 

Ego is a part of the human experience.  Sometimes in AA, and in other schools of spiritual thought, we place it in a negative light (or, maybe that's just my interpretation of the light it is placed in?).

Speaking strictly for myself, I'm not sure the point is to try not to have one at all -- it is not a bad part of me, it is just a part of me; just like I have an arm, or a leg, and they are neither good nor bad but simply parts of me. 

I believe (for me) the point is to be aware of my ego and then try to transcend it.  To not let it be a driver but rather (to indulge a terrible metaphor) to have it be just a passenger.

To work -- using the tools of AA -- to be "right sized," that  is, neither 'greater than' nor 'less than' in relation to others, the world, or strangely sometimes even myself.

My greatest successes in this endeavor have come from two things:

1.  The repetition of a healthy message I hear in AA meetings (although that healthy message may be presented in an unhealthy way, meaning, some people are, as they say, shining examples while others are horrible warnings.  I learn equally from those who inspire me to emulate a positive example as I do from those who caution me through their behavior to try to be nothing like them).

2.  Prayer.  Whether I am actually able to connect with the Divine, or it is just a form of mental gymnastics in which I am rewriting the software of my mind, doesn't actually matter.  The result is what matters.  And in dealing with my ego, prayer works.

Comments

[intj]

Right on. I like what Stuart Davis says in "Love Has No Opposite" about working with the ego instead of against it. Take what you like & leave the rest as they say :)

http://www.stuartdavis.com/node/1717

[David]

The Book Book actually suggests reading outside spiritual literature for those who want to. I find that helpful, to each his own. The major traditions, East and West, have dealt with this issue for centuries and have come up with some suggestions. Search around.

[I I I]

Ego is only a function of the mind that can't be avoided. It's not simply negative. That's a gross oversimplification. It's just self perception, positive and negative. I always assume, when people talk about "smashing" the ego, what they're really talking about is arrogance or being self centered.

[Eric]

I'm not clear on why exactly I should put my ego in the passenger seat. Aside from the obvious ugliness of a narcisistic personality, what reward do I get for all that work? Show me the prize, not the pain!
Eric from Arlington