The Man in the Mirror Project - The Shifting of the Ego

Where the ego is concerned there is a block of memory.  What part of me is the ego and what part is my real self?  Sometimes we think of ego as a big head.  Sometimes we think it's the justification we feel in being right.  Ego is not either, but a part of yourself that extends beyond your reason.  It is the small voice that tells you to judge one another, to be part of the bigger picture, to let yourself be held captive to the thoughts and ideas that have been projected by society for eons.

Letting the ego go can be difficult.  We often find ourselves among friends and family who help support our ego.  Saying things like "He is the best marketing person you can find" or "See Johny Tate over there, he's rich."  Statements like this tend to make us believe that we are either rich or a marketing person, when in reality, we are neither.  God did not intend to create a "marketing person" or a "rich person".  Both are simply indications that there has been energy at play and the results that manifested show up as this or that.  The ego then tends to define these things by naming them as a rich person or a marketing person.

In yoga philosophy they have a story about a pen.  That when you first look at it and ask what it is everyone defines it as "a pen".  The story continues then, however, because to a cat it may be "a toy" or to a baby it may be "a stick".  Definitions then come from us.  Definitions and the boxing in of any idea about a person, a place or even a situation all come from the ego and our own perceptions.  When it is often defined as "Edging God Out", it goes beyond that.  It is the human constriction of an idea that is the ego.  It is constricted, not open to allow other thoughts or ideas to enter, it is tight, not allowing for the flow of God's energy through, and it is selfish, always seeking to fulfill itself instead of others.

Shifting the ego then is to be open to a situation, even though the ego may say it is bad.  To not judge, even though our ego says a person may be bad.  To give, even though we may want to take for ourselves.

Little shifts, little changes in thought and little deeds can all help us shift from the ego into the divine part of ourselves.  It is there that the ego begins to die and the true light of our being begins to shine.