Speaking from Stillness is a fun series transcribing unscripted thoughts while on morning dog walks in my jungle valley. I walk in stillness, then allow whatever arises to get recorded and transcribed. I try to keep them short. The transcript is lightly edited for clarity.
Across all the traditions, Ego, the identity-creation-machine or mechanism, that which makes you feel unique, that which wants to strive to do better, and to push away things that don’t feel good, that which has fear of…ultimately death…but fear of situations it can’t control, the Ego.
Most take this to be that ‘The Ego must be overcome, must be vanquished.’ Ego-Death is a concept or a term that some use, and how that is required for Liberation.
For Liberation is not being attached to an outcome, it is just existing in each moment and moment and moment, which is almost impossible to do with the Ego in the way.
But we humans live in this Relative Reality. We do interact, or seemingly interact, with other things. We experience things. We participate in the world. And the Ego, which manages the sense of identity, can be helpful in navigating our day-to-day.
So Ego-Death is not the goal.
Placing the Ego in the role of a tool. The hammer is not the Carpenter, the Carpenter decides when to use the hammer and how to use the hammer. The Ego thinks it is the Carpenter, making decisions, keeping this body-mind safe.
But Realization lets you see…Existence is the Carpenter.
But the Ego as the hammer can be wonderful. When the Carpenter is building a house, there are jobs to be done. With a pocket full of nails and framing to complete, the hammer is a wonderful tool, and the Carpenter can think little and let the hammer do its work on the nails. There may be a sander, or a putty knife. Those are tools.
So Ego-Death is not important. But it’s recognizing that Ego is a tool to be allowed out of the toolbox when necessary. But to be monitored, and to be put back in the toolbox when not necessary.
The term, ‘I am a hammer, and everything I see is a nail’, is kind of apropos here.
The Ego does not run everything. A fun game is to recognize when the Ego is taking over, is making decisions…and to shine a spotlight…for the Ego can’t handle a spotlight being shined on it, and it will (slink) away.
The Ego also thinks that this body-mind is doing things, is responsible for things.
‘That thought is mine. That action is mine. That outcome is mine. I don’t like broccoli.’
When you remove the Ego and put it in the toolbox, you see that…
This body-mind is part of All Creation,
This body-mind is a component of the Infinite Field,
This body-mind is attached to and Existing as…Everything.
The Ego must be in the toolbox to truly Experience and Know this.
The Ego must be Tamed.
But it also does a pretty good job of helping us navigate the day-to-day of
Existing in this Relative Reality.
