However, I don’t want to bore you with yet another theoretical discourse on the ego – but rather take this subject head on as an experiential reality. Those on a conscious spiritual journey will inevitably take up this topic again and again and shed more light on this fascinating, profound and cunning illusion that constantly effects our lives and even our dreams.

Firstly, we need to clarify what is meant by ‘the ego,’ as there are innumerable interpretations of this word in different traditions. The definition of the ego being used for the purpose of this article is as follows: The ego is a mechanism that creates ‘personal identification with anything limited or external.’

What this definition means practically, is that, when we consider our sense of ‘Self’ or ‘Me’ as anything whatsoever to do with what we can see, feel, sense, hear etc. (including people, places, possessions or even ideas), then we are acting/operating from the point of view of the ego. The ego limits our experience of ourselves as unlimited beings, pure consciousness, into an experience of the false self, the limited ‘i’ (the little ‘i’). Its job is to make us very short sighted. It turns us into children who can’t see beyond limited pleasures of now into the future. Little children do not understand the length of an hour, the ego does not understand eternity.

If our sense of ‘I’ or ‘Me’ is based on anything limited and temporary, then we are in the grasp of the ego, the false self, the limited self, the non-self illusion. The basic and undeniable fact is the body you perceive to have now as you read, and all that is associated with it, will die and end one day. This is a fact of life.

The ego does not like us to think of this. It prefers we think we will always be young, that we will always have a certain job or status and does not accept the fact that there is an end to all that it is based upon. It is like a cancer that relies on the host to exist and grow, then destroys the host and, ironically, dies itself.

The ego is a mechanism that condenses the experience of an eternal, unlimited being that is innately free and boundless, into the personified experience of ‘i’ or ‘me’ as a set of limitations such as: ‘I am so and so, I live in Hawaii, I like oranges, I am a mediator, I am good at x, I don’t like y, This is ‘my’ work, ‘my’ ideas, ‘my’ blog, these are my clothes, my wife, my children, I had various problems as a child, I went to this school, etc. etc. etc… Every one of these statements is a statement from the ego. The ‘Real You’ is unlimited and cannot be defined by such things in space and time. The Self is eternal. How can the Self ever be any of the limited experiences that come and go like clouds in the eternal sky?

The witness of life’s events is not the events or the sum total of the events. The real Self is eternally stable and outlasts all events and changes – it goes on after the death of the body. Nothing can destroy the true Self.  Like the screen that a movie is played on does not get burnt when there is an image of fire, nor does it get wet when an ocean is projected, in the same way, the witness, the constant Self, is separate from the projections of light and exists aside from all the day to day experiences of the character on the screen, the limited self, the experience.

When someone addresses You as a person, bodily image or a human being on the screen, they are not addressing You* (the eternal being of light, who is far more than the sum of the bits and pieces of the person), they are addressing a character in a play, the limited, non-self. The ego is the mechanism that claims what is essentially ‘just happening’ as ‘me’. It says ‘I did it, this is MINE, I am this’, like claiming a cloud to be ‘mine’ just because you have been watching it move across the skyline for a while. In Reality, everything simply happens.

Lets test this.

If you were to be fully aware of the clear distinction between the One who is eternally you (the Presence, the Spirit)  and the body/ego/’i', then you would never take offense at anything anyone said, nor would you be upset by ‘failure’, or excited by ‘success’. It is all just happening on the screen of consciousness and You remain eternally the same. Nothing is lost nor gained. Everything is perfect just as it is.

From a truly spiritual point of view, as an eternal being, everything that happens is seen as an entertainment, as no more than a cartoon show. From this state of freedom and non-attachment, you are living in Grace, in the lap of the Divine, you are seeing life as it really is… a divine play. Not good, not bad, it just is.

Ask yourself: How often do I have this experience? How often do I experience the Divine Flow, the Eternal Presence or Pure Grace? In this state, you feel that everything is happening by its own hand, where there is a clearly visible perfection that runs through everything, effortlessly and permanently…you are relaxed, you can let go and allow, you are an instrument, you need nothing and have attained everything. This state is to be free of the ego.

Everything else is tainted by the limitations of the ego. To feel ‘I am doing this’, ‘Why is this happening?’, ‘This is my duty, this is my thing’, ‘I own this,’ etc. -  all of this is the ego. It is the limited sense of self trying to take charge of life and pretending to exist as a temporary hologram – and nothing more. Things are happening and will continue to happen regardless of your claim that ‘I did it’.

Stop for a moment now.

Notice that your experience is constant. Try and see if you can stop doing anything. If you are really the one who is doing it, then you will also be able to stop doing it.

Try for yourself right now. Try to stop your doing, your thinking. If you are really the creator, then you will be able to stop your creation now at will…

Do you notice something inside of you is at work, planning, seeing, thinking…? That is the ego at work… It is on a mission to get things, to achieve, to feed itself. The one who watches silently is who you are. The stronger you identify with That, the more free you will be.

Know the ego by its incessant drive to get something ‘better’ in the never present future at the expense of the experience of the Now. Only Now can you experience who you are. Only Now in this moment can you open up to the Grace of God. Only Now can you be free.

To understand this more, here are some famous passages from the Ribhu Gita, taught by Sri Ramana Maharishi. Read them slowly and with enjoyment…

Click here now

We may begin by using the mind to convince ourselves that we are peaceful and have ‘positive thoughts’ or affirmations. This does have some effect but is often tedious and is inherently limited. The mind, in general, is the product of the ego. Thoughts emerge from an original ‘I thought’ or, in other words, ‘I am so and so, I am a limited being, I live in…, I am a teacher…’ etc. This is the backdrop consciousness from which all thoughts arise.

To have positive thoughts about this ‘limited (false) self’ to empty affirmations ’I am happy,’ ‘I am peace,’ etc. is utterly fruitless as long as the ‘I’, the inner self image, is based on identification with the body or anything limited, external and perishable. There is no real power until this false assumption that I am a body/person is transcended.

A person, a character in a play, cannot be an Ocean of Peace, unlimited consciousness or the embodiment of endless bliss, complete and perfect, free of all karmic bandages, eternal and constantly Divine.

The sense of ‘I am a human being’ traps us in a glass box where the ceiling is based on the limitations of human beings.

We are NOT limited human beings. We are eternal spiritual beings having an experience that includes the awareness of a human being. It includes the body, the role, but the one who is consciousness, from which the body arises, is beyond all limitations of the person perceived.

We simply need to drop this ‘human’ identity and allow the vastness of eternity to reveal itself in all its power. This is not something a human being can attain.  It is what already exists eternally regardless of any external situations. It is not the ego mind thinking positive thoughts that brings this into existence. It is the nature of the eternal self.

Nothing need be done to make this happen. It is more a matter of moving the attention of the self away from the limiting lie that ‘I am a person’ to the underlying reality that the consciousness that I AM is eternal bliss already, constantly, eternally and is here now. That is as permanent and omnipresent as my true identity. Nothing except that remains throughout eternity. There is nothing to do – just release yourself from the one who is trying to meditate and open to what exists beyond the thoughts, beyond the constant shifting events of life. Life will happen by itself,  so relax, let go and experience the full depth that is eternally present as yourself.

The true you has never done anything wrong and is constantly an embodiment of pure love.