The Ego and Enlightenment: Part 1 The Negative Ego
Everyone has an ego and a negative ego. Being egoless is an illusion. The real question we face is not how can we become egoless but how can we transform the negative ego we do have into a higher level of integration and Self acceptance.
The Negative Ego and The Shadow
The base ego state we all contend with is the negative ego. The negative ego is the outgrowth of the shadow. The unconscious toxicity that forms the shadow feeds the negative ego, gives it its power in our psyche, and eventually raises it to dominance. The negative ego is a unit of separation. Its mission is to separate our mind from our soul and control our life. The negative ego usurps the power of the soul. It is defensive, secretive, and aggressive. The negative ego is not at all self-reflective. It seeks happiness and the fulfillment of its desires in the material world and derides the notion that happiness is dependent on our inner state,- on the nature of our relationship to our soul. When things go wrong the negative ego never takes responsibility for its actions but blames others for its problems.
Negative Ego and the Victim Mentality
When we chronically blame others for our problems we have embraced the role of victim. The victim is self-righteous and feels entitled to take whatever form of retaliation and revenge he deems appropriate. The combination of poor judgment and unethical behavior makes the negative ego a karma generating machine. The longer we let the negative ego remain unchecked the more karma we will be forced to deal with later. Because the negative ego constantly creates karma it delays our evolution and adds to our unhappiness. This in turn leads to a life that is increasingly out of balance and very distant from who we really are. The ever increasing darkness in our psyche that the negative ego produces allows it to become even stronger. While generating karma is bad business for us, it is good business for the negative ego.
Negative Ego and True Identity
If we remain under the negative ego’s tyranny we will never find our true identity. Real identity is stored in the soul, not in the ego. As long as the union of the negative ego and shadow is in force the union of the mind and soul cannot occur. The negative ego and the shadow are the antagonists to growth while the soul and the spirit are the protagonists of evolution. The path to conscious growth begins when we choose to activate the soul and confront the shadow. This choice is monumental and initiates the long and difficult battle between the light and dark elements of our being. The key to winning this war is to take responsibility for our actions, become more self- reflective, and turn within to face our shadow and the toxicity that feeds it until all toxicity is drained from our unconscious swamp. When we “drain the swamp” the negative ego dies and the ego becomes our ally in the growth process not our opponent.