What is the Ego?

Our special theme says, “To know reality is not to see the ego and it thoughts, its works, its acts, its laws and its beliefs, its dreams, its hopes, its plans for its salvation, and the cost belief in them entails.”

Yesterday I wrote, “People often wonder how enlightened masters, who claim to see no world, appear to us as everyday people with everyday lives.” Next, I shared a story about Nisargadatta when a questioner accused him of seeing a world and having a body by saying, “I see you smoking!”

Today, I would like to share a little more about how it’s possible for us to see a master in a body when the master is not aware of having a body.

On this topic, Bernadette Roberts wrote:

…permanent ecstasy appears incompatible with continued earthly existence. … But if the senses could remain perfectly functional or awake during ecstasy, the world of ordinary life could go on as usual, only without self or consciousness. So perfect ecstasy is the ability of the senses to remain awake and perfectly functional in the absence of consciousness. …

Thus one of the imperceptible changes that takes place between the beginning and the end of the unitive state [the real world] is the increasing ability of the senses to stand alone and not be affected by any change in consciousness or any change in the self-experience. … “pure sensory perception” becomes increasingly important and trustworthy; also, ecstasy or the suspension of consciousness becomes increasingly more perfect, more natural and everyday—though not permanent. So the path that lies ahead once we come to the unitive state will ultimately bring about the separation of these two different systems—namely, consciousness and the senses. The purpose of this separation is to enable the senses to remain awake and functional once the system of consciousness has fallen away. …

In other words, part of the transition period that we call the real world is learning to abide in reality without being attached to the body, which enables the body to continue being moved without an ‘I’ to move it!

As Michael Langford explains in his book, Manonasa:

When the illusory body called Nisargadatta Maharaj says, “I am not aware of the body or the world,” he is referring to the Self. … Nisargadatta did not say that the body is not aware of the world. Nisargadatta did not say that the body now talking is not aware of the world. He said, “I am not aware of the body and the world.”

Or as Nisargadatta said:

Do not be misled by my eating and smoking, reading and talking. My mind is not here, my life is not here. Your world, of desires and their fulfilments, of fears and their escapes, is definitely not my world. I do not even perceive it, except through what you tell me about it. It is your private dream world and my only reaction to it is to ask you to stop dreaming.

I am affected only by my thoughts.

The prayer in today’s lesson says:

Your plan is sure, my Father,—only Yours. All other plans will fail. And I will have thoughts that will frighten me, until I learn that You have given me the only Thought that leads me to salvation. Mine alone will fail, and lead me nowhere. But the Thought You gave me promises to lead me home, because it holds Your promise to Your Son.

In the tip for Lesson 327, I wrote:

The God that we call on for guidance is not some distant deity, knowledge or awareness. We are the one that took the outward journey from truth to our present attachment to manifestation, and every step of that journey is recorded in our divine unconscious. Therefore, the reverse of each step is known in our own divine unconscious. Our own unconscious knows the way! The communication that comes from this unconscious knowing is what I call spiritual intuition.

We can see how true this statement is when we look at Bernadette’s explanation about how the senses learn to stay awake without consciousness. Our divine unconsciousness remembers how we detached from ecstasy and the knowledge of our Self in order to attach to a body as what we are. Therefore, it knows we need to reverse that action by learning to abide in ecstasy again. Every step of our way home will be laid out for us. We simply need to trust and take the step that we need to take right now!

Please use today to contemplate how perfectly we are led. Use today as an opportunity to increase trust in guidance that comes from your own spiritual intuition. Realize it will move you to the next step only when you are ready for that next step. In fact, when writing about the stage of learning to detach from the body and abide in ecstasy, Bernadette wrote:

Until preparation is right, ecstasy keeps returning to the self or consciousness. … The gauge is an increasing ability to ‘bear the vision’ as it were, without the senses going down or without everyday life and its normal behavior coming to a standstill.

So God takes its last step to awaken us beyond consciousness when we are ready for that step, after an effective transition period, which the Course calls “the real world.” What a loving process!

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What is the Ego?

Our special theme says, “To know reality is not to see the ego and it thoughts, its works, its acts, its laws and its beliefs, its dreams, its hopes, its plans for its salvation, and the cost belief in them entails.”

In short, to know reality is not to see the ego or its effects. They do not exist in reality.

Here is how Michael Langford describes reality:

Describing the final Reality as Infinite-Eternal-Awareness-Love-Bliss is the closest one can come in words. In the final Reality, which is the only Reality, there are no humans, no animals, no planets, no stars and no earth.

The final reality is infinite-awareness aware only of infinite awareness. In all of eternity the final Reality has never been aware of anything other than infinite-awareness-love-bliss. Awareness-love-bliss is not three, it is one. In all of eternity the final Reality, which is the true Self, has never been aware of a human, or a world or suffering of any kind. Humans, animals, earth, planets stars and other realms, entities, places, time, dimensions, and that which almost every word in the dictionary point towards is part of the ego dream. When the ego comes to its final end, the dream ends and almost everything that the words in the dictionary point towards disappears.

When the ego comes to its final end, what remains is Infinite-Eternal-Awareness-Love-Bliss and nothing ever reappears. The planets, the stars, and almost everything that the words in a dictionary point towards never reappear. They were all part of the dream. Upon awakening, the dream disappears.

That’s what our special theme teaches too.

People often wonder how enlightened masters, who claim to see no world, appear to us as everyday people with everyday lives. This is one of my favorite stories about that question:

Questioner: You said the body defines the outer self. Since you have a body, do you have also an outer self?

Nisargdatta: I would, were I attached to the body and take it to be myself.

Questioner: But you are aware of it and attend to its needs.

Nisargdatta: The contrary is nearer to truth — the body knows me and is aware of my needs. But neither is really so. This body appears in your mind; in my mind nothing is.

Questioner: Do you mean to say you are quite unconscious of having a body?

Nisargdatta: On the contrary, I am conscious of not having a body.

Questioner: I see you smoking!

Nisargdatta: Exactly so. You see me smoking. Find out for yourself how did you come to see me smoking, and you will easily realise that it is your ‘I-am-the-body’ state of mind that is responsible for this ‘I- see-you-smoking’ idea.

Questioner: There is the body and there is myself. I know the body. Apart from it, what am l?

Nisargdatta: There is no ‘I’ apart from the body, nor the world. The three appear and disappear together. At the root is the sense ‘I am’. Go beyond it. The idea: ‘I-am-not-the-body’ is merely an antidote to the idea ‘I-am-the-body,’ which is false. What is that ‘I am’? Unless you know yourself, what else can you know?

Questioner: From what you say I conclude that without the body there can be no liberation. If the idea: ‘I-am-not-the-body’ leads to liberation, the presence of the body is essential.

Nisargdatta: Quite right. Without the body, how can the idea: ‘I-am-not-the-body’ come into being? The idea ‘I-am-free’ is as false as the idea ‘I-am-in-bondage’. Find out the ‘I am’ common to both and go beyond.

Nisargadatta’s instructions are clear. Find the ‘I am’ and go beyond. That is how we come to not “see the ego and it thoughts, its works, its acts,” and etcetera.

My sinlessness protects me from all harm.

In today’s workbook lesson, our “sinlessness” is our true eternal nature. The lesson says, “My sinlessness ensures me perfect peace, eternal safety, everlasting love, freedom forever,… And only happiness can be my state, for only happiness is given me. What must I do to know all this is mine? I must accept the atonement for myself and nothing more.”

Today is a good opportunity to review the tip from Lesson 139, I will accept the atonement for myself. As you review that tip, keep Nisargadatta’s instructions in mind: Find the ‘I am’ and go beyond. Eternal life, which is infinite awareness, is beyond the sense of ‘I am.

Lesson 139

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What is the Ego?

Our special theme says, “To know reality is not to see the ego and it thoughts, its works, its acts, its laws and its beliefs, its dreams, its hopes, its plans for its salvation, and the cost belief in them entails. In suffering, the price for faith in it is so immense that crucifixion of the Son of God is offered daily at its darkened shrine, and blood must flow before the altar where its sickly followers prepare to die.”

Ew. That’s not a very pretty description.

Yet, that is a reasonable description of the ego, although it is one the ego wants us to deny.

Let review a few things Michael Langford has to say about the ego in The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss:

For thousands of years humans have been stuck in the same pool of inward unsolved problems. Thousands of years ago humans had the problems of suffering, sorrow, anger, fear, violence, conning, cheating, lying, death, etc. Today humans have the problems of suffering, sorrow, anger, fear, violence, conning, cheating, lying, death, etc. All of these problems have a single cause.

The ego controls thinking and the ego does not like to be exposed.

The ego is thought. The ego is thinking.

Living from thought instead of living from Awareness is the cause of all human suffering.

The ego is the cause of all disease, death, war, fear, anger and violence.

All humans are slaves and the imposter “self” is their master.

Here’s a Christmas song by John Lennon that helps expose how “living from thought instead of living from Awareness” manifests itself: (Note: This tip continues below the video.)

It’s okay. A new year of Gentle Healing is about to begin. We can do something to help heal the world, if we want.

Forgiveness lets me know that minds are joined.

Our lesson says, “Forgiveness is the means appointed for perception’s ending. Knowledge is restored after perception first is changed, and then gives way entirely to what remains forever past its highest reach.”

Today, let’s contemplate our desire to free the world of its suffering by letting go of the cause of suffering in our own minds.

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What is the Ego?

Our special theme says, “The ego is insane.” It also says, “The Son of God is egoless.”

What am I?

The correct answer would be “the egoless Son of God,” but is that my actual experience?

Am I free of all sorrow and suffering? Do I live in eternal joy? Is my experience absolutely free of fear and guilt? Do I see only peace surrounding me? Is my experience that of the deepest silence and tranquility?

If not, then I do not know myself as the egoless Son of God. And if I would like to know my egoless Self, I have some work to do to undo illusions in my mind.

I choose to see my brother’s sinlessness.

Our lesson begins by saying, “Forgiveness is a choice.” However, it continues by saying, “I never see my brother as he is, for that is far beyond perception.”

I think Course students sometimes feel that if they let go of the current judgment in their mind, they have let go of seeing their brother with ego, and they are now seeing him and accepting him as he is. However, our workbook lesson says that our brother, as he is, is far beyond perception. That means that as long as we perceive a world and bodies, we do not know our brother. If we do not know our brother, we also do not know our Self.

A Course in Miracles points far beyond simply being kind to others, although being kind to everyone is a very good start. A Course in Miracles points to full awakening, manonasa, as the way to see and know everything as it is.

Sister Bernadette Roberts described creation beyond the world and beyond consciousness as “eternal form.” She wrote, “Beyond consciousness, the ultimate Truth of the divine is that it is neither immanent (within anything) nor transcendent (beyond anything), but IS everything that eternally exists.”

What eternally exists? Sister Bernadette is clear that it is not consciousness or matter as we perceive matter, but there is “eternal form that cannot be grasped by the senses, the intellect or consciousness.” Whatever that is, that is our brother as he is. That is also our true nature.

As you interact with others today, contemplate that you have no idea what this one’s “eternal form” is. You cannot see him/her as he/she is. You do not know anything as it is, not even yourself. Let this sink in as deeply as you can allow it to sink in. Don’t let the mind short-circuit your contemplation by saying, “He is light,” or “She is God.” Don’t be satisfied with mere concepts today. However, DO realize that ego is the obstacle that blocks true vision. It keeps you from seeing everyone and everything in its “eternal form.”

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What is the Ego?

Our special theme says, “The ego is insane,” and then continues to describe its insanity. What stands out to me in this paragraph is the statement:

In fear it stands beyond the Everywhere,
apart from All,
in separation from the Infinite.

I need to ask myself:

Do I want to continue to do that?

I feel this is a really important decision. I know I will either spend my time reinforcing the ego, or I will spend my time in the spiritual practice that undoes the ego and awakens to truth.

I also find this question showing up in my mind:

Do I love God enough to awaken to God?
Or are other things still more important?

Today I claim the gifts forgiveness gives.

Please read today’s workbook lesson in full as you contemplate the questions I have asked myself above.

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What is the Ego?

Our special theme says, “The ego is ‘proof’ that strength is weak and love is fearful, life is really death, what opposes God alone is true.”

In other words, the ego is “proof” that we are limited humans existing in a body in a world and destined to die.

What that means to me is that the ego is the source of doubt.

Do you ever experience doubt? Do you ever doubt that enlightenment is real? Do you ever doubt that eternal life is real? Do you ever doubt that you could awaken to truth beyond this world?

Fortunately, although we sometimes experience doubt, doubt isn’t all that is in our minds. There is also willingness; there may even be a longing to search for truth, possibly a longing so strong that it feels like a calling you can’t ignore.

Will we listen to the ego’s doubts and resign ourselves to the self and world that we are familiar with? Or will we follow our willingness, longing or calling, and engage in the spiritual practice that leads beyond the ego and its doubts?

How far are we willing to go in order to discover truth beyond the ego?

Forgiveness ends the dream of conflict here.

The prayer in today’s lesson says:

Father, forgiveness is the light You chose to shine away all conflict and all doubt, and light the way for our return to You. No light but this can end our evil dream. No light but this can save the world. For this alone will never fail in anything, being Your gift to Your beloved Son.

Forgiveness, as we have seen, is abiding as our unaffected Self. It’s often called being the observer or remaining in Presence.

Our lesson begins by saying, “Conflict must be resolved. It cannot be evaded, set aside, denied, disguised, seen somewhere else, called by another name, or hidden by deceit of any kind…”

What is the difference between abiding as the unaffected Self and falling for habits like evasion, setting aside, denying, etcetera?

How can we abide as the unaffected Self when we feel affected by something or someone?

Consider asking one of these questions, or a similar question, and writing to realize helpful clarity about abiding as the unaffected Self. Any clarity you receive will help, especially if you are going through the purification stage right now.

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What is the Ego?

Our new special theme begins by saying, “The ego is idolatry…”

We can stop right there. Already we have something to contemplate.

What is idolatry?

Idolatry is extreme admiration, love, or reverence for something or someone.

In order to turn this definition into helpful insight, let’s pause and look at the definition slowly and contemplatively:

Extreme admiration, love or reverence
for something or someone.

In our last special theme, we saw that Truth is the absence of consciousness. Now we see that ego is the extreme admiration, love or reverence for something or someone—that is, love for object rather than for absence.

Can you find that— extreme love for object rather than for absence—in you? Can you see that which is intently focused on “something or someone” instead of absence?

Close your eyes and look. What is interested in thought, sensations, sounds—anything but absence?

It may feel like ‘me.’ It may feel like a sense of what you are. It may feel like your very existence. But it is none of those things. What you have just discovered is the ego.

Ego is that which admires, loves and reveres some thing. Ego is that which keeps us engaged in outward focus.

Fear binds the world. Forgiveness sets it free.

Fear is defined as an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.

When it comes to the ego, fear is actually the belief that the absence of someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.

Today’s lesson says,“ego makes illusions.” Another way of saying that is outward focus makes illusions. We could also say attachment to objects, including thoughts, makes illusions.

The lesson also says that “Truth undoes” these same illusions.

In our last special theme, we saw that truth is the opposite of illusions. That means it must also be the opposite of outward focus.

Of course, the opposite of outward focus is inward focus. It is through inward focus that we find Truth, of which our lessons says, “It merely is. And by its presence is the mind recalled from fantasies, awaking to the real. … Without forgiveness is the mind in chains, believing in its own futility.”

In our first special theme, we learned that forgiveness is abiding as the unaffected Self. That means that the ego is undone by turning inward and abiding there as the unaffected Self.

Please contemplate this tip. Notice the ego in you. See it in action. Also contemplate how ego is undone. And then with this clarity, enter into your meditation for today.

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Before we begin our new special theme, let’s take a day to review the special themes we’ve contemplated so far. I will begin “What is the Ego?” tomorrow.

What is Forgiveness? Forgiveness is recognizing yourself as the unaffected Self. Therefore, “what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred.”

What is Salvation? Salvation is healing by “failing to support the world of dreams … it lets illusions go. By not supporting them, it merely lets them quietly go down to dust.”

What is the World? It is a “false perception” where “mechanisms of illusion … go to find what has been given them to seek.” Yet, “all perception can be given a new purpose.”

What is Sin? Sin is ignorance or outward focus. “Sin is the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined issuing from thoughts that are untrue.”

What is the Body? “The body is a fence” that seems to separate us from everything else. It makes duality seem real and makes it seem as if we experience duality directly. However, its purpose can be changed.

What is Christ? Christ is consciousness. It is the process of creation and the unaffected witness of creation. It is what we are. It is our higher Self. (Note: There is a more ultimate reality beyond Christ, compared to which Christ is an illusion.)

What is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is a Judeo-Christian term for spiritual intuition, which issues forth from our Self as consciousness. Its sole purpose is to help us awaken to consciousness. Once this goal is accomplished, its purpose is done. (God takes the last step to awaken us beyond consciousness.)

What is the Real World? The real world is the world as it is seen from the perspective of consciousness. It is a world blessed by forgiven eyes, seen through true perception. The real world is still a dream, but it is a dream that reflects Truth. It prepares us for the next and final awakening.

What is the Second Coming? It is awakening to our Self as consciousness. From this awakening we see with true perception and experience the real world.

What is the Last Judgment? This is the awakening beyond consciousness into Nirvana. With this step, consciousness itself is seen to be untrue.

What is Creation? “Creation” is a term A Course in Miracles uses for reality. It is what is known after manonasa, the death of our sense of self as mind-consciousness. It is our true Self beyond any sense of self. It is our actual existence, often referred to as bliss or Nirvana.

There is no conflict, for my will is Yours.

Today’s lesson helps emphasize any decision we may have made to commit even more to the path of awakening. It says:

How foolish, Father, to believe Your Son could cause himself to suffer! Could he make a plan for his damnation, and be left without a certain way for his release? … How could I think that Love has left Itself? There is no will except the Will of Love. … Conflict is sleep, and peace is awakening. Death is illusion; life, eternal truth.”

And so today we begin again. We forgive ourselves for any past “failings” that we may perceive, and we contemplate what we really want.

Here’s a song that always inspires me whenever I make the decision to increase my commitment. (The Meditation Options are below the song.)

 

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What is Creation?

Step Five of The Seven Steps to Awakening by Michael Langford has this objective:

Be inspired, encouraged and motivated to:

1. Make and maintain the decision to bring the imposter self and all suffering to its final end and thus remain in infinite-awareness-love-bliss.
2. Actually practice…

Here are 21 quotes from Step Five to help motivate our decision. Please read these quotes slowly and contemplatively.

Ramana Maharshi:

Though in this false world one may live on, the ending of both “I” and “mine” in the clarity of true awareness, void of every doubt, this only is the abidance in the bliss of being That.

Returning to the source from which we have emerged, we are restored to our own true Being. Enjoying there bright and clear our natural bliss, still, still, unmoving we abide.

O mind, you wander far in search of bliss not knowing your natural state of Freedom. Your home of infinite bliss you will regain if only you go back the way you came.

A woman with a necklace round her neck imagines it is lost, and after long search elsewhere touches her own neck and there finds it; even so, the Self is here within. Probe for it there and find it.

Sri Annamalai Swami:

Don’t be discouraged by the length of the journey, and don’t slacken in your efforts to get home.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

Steady faith is stronger than destiny. Destiny is the result of causes, mostly accidental, and is therefore loosely woven. Confidence and good hope will overcome it easily.

You need maturity of heart and mind, which comes through earnest application in daily life of whatever little you have understood.

On your side there is so much trouble. On mine there is not trouble at all. Come to my side.

You are quite capable of crossing over. Only be sincere.

Faith is not blind. It is the willingness to try.

If only they go deeply into the fact of being and discover the vastness and the glory to which the ‘I am’ is the door, and cross the door and go beyond, their life will be full of happiness and light.

The Supreme Yoga

One should never yield to laziness, but strive to attain liberation, seeing that life is ebbing away every moment.

He who exerts seriously now is able to overcome predispositions and exalt himself from the states of darkness and stupidity and impurity.

The Self alone is to be sought, adored and meditated upon.

This Self is eternal existence.

The wayfarer does not despair at the sight of the long road ahead but takes one step at a time.

The man of Self-knowledge is awake to that which is non-existent to the ignorant. That which is real to the latter is non-existent to the enlightened.

One surely gains that for which one strives; if one neglects it he loses it. The mind flows along the course of wisdom or ignorance, in whichever direction you make it flow.

Sri Sankara

The Self is ever blissful and never experiences suffering.

By this discourse of teacher and pupil, the character of the Self is taught to those seeking Freedom, that they may be born to the joy of awakening.

Eternal, unfading, joy, unstained—this is the Eternal, THAT THOU ART.

I will not hurt myself again today.

Our workbook lesson begins, “Let us this day accept forgiveness as our only function.”

Our first special theme was, “What is forgiveness?” Through that special theme, we saw that forgiveness is abiding as the unaffected Self.

As today’s lesson says, “The Self which God created cannot sin, and therefore cannot suffer. Let us choose today that He be our Identity…”

Our fourth special theme was “What is Sin?” Through that special theme we saw that “sin” is ignorance or outward focus.

If you look carefully at the two sentences I have highlighted from today’s workbook lesson, you’ll see that the lesson is asking us to “go back the way you came.” That is, focus inward and return to our unaffected Self.

Here are two songs that you can listen to as you contemplate today’s lesson. The first song is directly applicable to the teaching today and over the last several days. The second song applies a bit more loosely, but it is a fun song that just might stick in your head. (The Meditation Options are posted below the songs.)

 

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What is Creation?

Our special theme says, “Our Father calls to us. We hear His Voice, and we forgive creation in the Name of its Creator, Holiness Itself…”

What does that mean, “forgive creation”?

What is God’s only true creation?

What is forgiveness?

Please contemplate these questions with inner spiritual wisdom until an answer that you know is true comes to you. It may be helpful to use writing to achieve that end. It is best to complete this contemplation on your own before reading the tip under today’s lesson.

Here is the music I am listening to as I contemplate this. Some of you might enjoy it too. Others will prefer silence.

Gregorian Chant

I have already chosen what You will.

If there is any challenge forgiving yourself for having wandered from God’s genuine reality, today’s lesson may help with that challenge. It says, “Father, I thought I wandered from Your Will… Yet what I am in truth is but Your Will, extended and extending. This am I, and this will never change.”

Let’s not forget that our special theme over these last several days has been, “What is Creation?” And the answer is, “We are creation.”

In other words, in spite of this dream of consciousness, humanness and world, what we really are has continued unabated. That’s what awakening is all about. It’s awakening from what isn’t true to what is true.

Are you ready?

Please read today’s workbook lesson in full.
Thank you.

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