THE EGO

Finding God's Love - Chapter Preview

And what is the ego? The ego is devoted to me… me… me… while love is devoted to you… you… you… The ego and love are mutually exclusive. Like oil and water, they won't mix.
God will not reside where there is ego and selfishness. If these are there, God will move a thousand feet away from us. He will come close if we call sincerely. Ammachi, Awaken Children, vol. II, p. 343
The ego is the part of our psyche that clings to the outward path and shuns the inward path. The outward path maintains the ego's pseudo reality by virtue of its identification with objects. The inward path leads to oneness or unification with all of life and that view diminishes the ego. The ego is the idea that we exist independently and separately from God, from each other, and from all of life. The ego makes each person into an island surrounded and protected by a moat of fear and narrowness of mind that loathes anything that is different from his or her own self-described menu of human existence. This makes it very difficult to find persons who are interested in getting rid of the ego. Amma says:
Everyone wants to keep their ego, it is so precious to them. People think that the ego is an embellishment; it is not considered to be a burden anymore. People do not feel the heaviness of their ego. They feel comfortable inside its small, hard shell. They feel afraid and insecure to come out of it. They think that they are well protected where they are. For them, what lies beyond the shell of their ego is frightening, it is unknown and therefore unsafe. They believe that what lies beyond their ego is not for them, it is meant only for those who are not capable of doing anything else. Ammachi, Awaken Children, vol. VII, p. 159
The ego arises out of identification with the body and the simple observation that bodies appear to be separate entities. If we have the feeling "I am the body," then we must also feel that we are separate from everyone else. This would be expected because the five senses tell us that all bodies are separate objects. The mind's identification with the body gives rise to the thought of being an individual. The root of this "individual" is what we call the original "I-thought." Which came first, the illusory I-thought which generated a body for its expression, or did the body come first thus giving rise to the I-thought as the logical extension of its separateness? Who can say?

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