These few days a question is being observed: how to let go of the ego?
True calm and peacefulness is opposite of a grandeur pride.
This philosophy of letting go of the ego is a total contrarian process to the norms of society.
In the life of each of us we are taught to embrace the glamour projected by advertisers since a young age.
But even the very thought process that might be running in your head is part of the ego.
Words like “my” and “I” points to the attachments the ego has to our various possessions. The act of having possessions doesn’t stimulate the ego.
However, it is the attachments to these physical or mental obsessions which creates a slave like dependency.
But this does not mean being desire-less or never appreciating what’s around us. In fact, it is quite the opposite.
In normal day to day life is full of seeking towards happiness.
But this external search will never leave you feeling complete or whole. Because externalities change or disappear with time.
Like being in a dream, the happiness stemming from the external reality will end once the dreamer awakes.
It’s as a gardener who planted roses in his garden. Everyday it’s as though watching a child grow taller and filled with life.
Sadly how can the beauty of a flower last? When conditions are lost so does the life of the fragrance full roses.
When the gardener sees that his dear plant has lost life the happiness before will be lost. And in its place is deep sadness at the conditions of nature.
Or it could be the same with a passerby who happens to notice the beautiful roses in the garden.
He might be appreciating the soft red spring petals with awe and admiration of the gardener’s work.
Soon this interest turns into disgust when he sees these little ants crawling about that makes him lose that sense of appreciative happiness.
Though the aging of the roses is not a something bad of nature. Nor is the ants crawling about something to thought of as disgusting.
It is the ego’s thought process that critiqued the works of nature. Nature itself in these roses is merely a condition that is met.
Without the shadow of darkness how can you notice difference of the light from the sun? Without the blue background of the sky how can you notice the floating clouds?
Mankind is not entirely evil or are they good. Merely the judgements of the ego that makes the differences.
How can a person be judge at one point as altruistic and at another point mean? They both stem from the same mind.
It’s also the attachments to possessions as “mine” that produced many fury for each other despite being in the same home.
A person knowing that they are inside a dream would not in the least become attached to the happiness or sadness caused by the imagery.
Letting go of our judgements of each other we begin to accept each other for the goods and the flaws.
Moreover, there becomes no difference between “you” and “I”. Only by judgements of qualities does difference becomes pronounced.
Dear reader ask yourself are the characters of your dreams and nightmares not of your own mind? Whether they are good or evil aren’t they from the same roots.
Growing with experience the ego becomes aware there’s no nightmares to fear. Why fear if they are all a mere imagination.
In the same way what difference between each other but the forms that we became attached to.
Though some would say that there’s qualities and personalities that produce markedly different characters. Some people are “enthusiastic”, others are “selfish”, while there’s also the ones who are “rude”.
But these are only concepts that their minds are attached to. The mind is formless as the flowing water how can you catch hold of water? Put your hand there and it flows past you.
Moreover, the mind is wider than the world yet more smaller than the breathe of a needle. How can you possibly define it.
Letting go of the concept of qualities there will be the realization of what is which cannot be defined.
Letting go of the concept of time there will not even be a hint of the present moment that can be experienced.
For how can the ‘now’ be attached upon? When you do it has already left you and becomes only a memory you attached to.
Letting go of the concept of form you will understand what is formless. What is the peace beyond the mortal body.
Where there’s no qualities, no time, no form then how can there be a ‘I’, ‘my, or ‘mine’. Such there’s no existence of ‘ego’ beyond the dualistic view.
Letting go of the concept of work everything is simply an act done by the body that is observed.
Without the ego getting into daily experiences even the job of hand washing dishes becomes for the practitioner the practice of the Way.
The strongest force is not always effective. The softest force is not always the weakest.
Illustrated by the humble act of dishwashing. When a stain cannot be removed with great strength or soap there’s also the possibility of slowness and repetitiveness.
Letting go of the ego which judges there’s no high or low between active force or yielding force. All is just part of the Way.
Yet the hardest part of this practice is not simply understanding the concepts. Because anyone can do that.
No difficulty it is to let the ego run about wildly with thoughts and attachments to judgements. Harder it is to silence the roaming and keep to stillness.
The more your push thoughts away the harder they bounce back with no ends.
The harder you seek for attainment towards an end the more impossible the hurdle becomes.
The further your push away the noises of the world the more you found the mind holding onto every detail that enters your organs.
There’s no difficulty for the shapeless Self which has no form and is elusive to be described with words.
To silence the ego requires yielding to the nature of the mind. To accept the noises that enter and stop aiming for the goal.
In truth there’s no need to aim for anything since nature from His work contains no barriers which holds it back.
The wind blow aimlessly across the world and accomplished all its purpose despite the drifting.
So does all of His work which seems complete by themselves. Merely set the goal then forget about it.
Similarly a magnet which attracts the right conditions for the plants to blossom. There’s no before or after state, all follows a condition.
To yield and let nature do her work and nothing is impossible. The possibility of the Self which finishes its purpose without an aim cannot be described with words.
What is the Self? It is the nature of your mind that could only be found when the ego is let go.
The ego associates the physical body with itself, to realize the Self is to transcend this point of view. To observe that the body is more like a vessel.
When people are in the flow state they often associate the disconnection with the “I Am”. Without the attachments of the ego, they are simply “being”.
Life itself almost seems to have a propensity and drive towards freedom or simply what binds them.
The athlete pushes his body to its limitations of its human form.
The businessman aims for the next big deal that gives him another ‘high’.
The sex addict desires an orgasm that removes him from the mundane daily activities which traps him.
It is not wrongly stated that a peaceful dream away from the activities of the ego-consciousness also brings about this type of freedom.
And the big characteristic of the ego is its endless wants for the next ‘big thing’. The next spurt of excitement which propels the economy.
Not that these external searches are bad for humanity. But it brings the awareness away from the simple details that lies here now.
The external seeking for the ego cannot always bring happiness as when the object of desire is lost or unable to be achieved.
Of course there’s also another means to freedom through spiritual practices. Connecting to that which transcends the ego-consciousness.
Some people achieve it through prayers while others through contemplation or meditation.
Meanwhile this search for freedom of the individual has to do with their innate fears which holds them back.
The fear which stems it all is the fear of death. Although death is merely the death of the physical body that the ego identifies as an important part of itself.
So in a more rudimentary way it is the search for freedom that can transcend the fear of death that will release the ego-consciousness.
If you will dear reader let go of the concept of ‘freedom’ itself. You will immediately understand like a flash of lightning that all this search for this mythical concept is unnecessary.
Since freedom has always been inherent in each of us. As all need to be done is remove the trappings of the created ego.
Now the final step is to let go of the concept of ego as well. Not allow the words written here to bind you.
Words themselves are of no usage what’s the point of comprehending something? If it’s the truth that has been written it will leap into your awareness as the Eternal Truth.
When you surrender these thoughts of comprehension as well as the anticipation of what will happen next you will find the Self which has always existed.
Hold that concentration on the Self and there will be nothing which can inhibit you. Because the Self is not attached to anything.
Nothing can inhibit that which is infinite in direction, a void which cannot be described, and has always existed.
