“Ego”
by Kelvin Chin
Meditation Teacher
(Note: I am not discussing “ego” in psychological terms here.
I am looking at it through the spiritual filter.)
is ego bad?
What about this idea in some spiritual circles that “ego is bad”? Limiting. A negative part of, or description of us.
I strongly disagree.
redefinition
Ego, for me, means individuality. It is therefore neutral. Neither good nor bad. It is just a descriptive term.
How we express that individuality is up to each of us.
I think we tend to insert a negative, limiting connotation to “ego” when we sometimes — within ourselves — feel limited and helpless. We have all been there.
But our individuality is who we are. We are each unique, vibrant, sentient beings.
Individuals.
And there is a profound beauty in that reality. Accepting that is true “self-love.” Not accepting that is self-loathing.
We often hear people use the term “unconditional love.” As I have spoken about on other occasions, that is a redundant term. Love means “accepting the other for who they are, not who we wish they would be.”
So, loving ourselves already means accepting who we are without conditions.
And we each are individuals. With uniquely operating minds (souls, spirits, consciousnesses, all synonymous) and we need to accept and embrace that fact if we are truly “walking our talk” about love and self-love.
Otherwise we are just talking and wasting our breath. Preaching but not acting. Spiritually fraudulent.
the shift
So what is the missing link? How do we make the shift to more fully accepting our individuality — our “ego” sense of self?
First step, make the recognition that we just discussed.
Next step, turning within.
By regularly practicing a technique of effortlessly “turning within,” we automatically begin to nurture and strengthen the connection with ourselves, deep within. And by releasing our physical- emotional stresses and expanding our conscious capacity for mental-psychic experience, we can begin to directly experience the profundity and vastness of who we truly are as human beings. We begin to break the self-imposed limitations. We no longer feel helpless. We feel confident, secure.
We can then experience the sublime power and expansive connectedness we each have within ourselves and can begin to express that outwardly to the world 🌎 around us — our friends, loved ones, acquaintances and yes, strangers.
But this recognition and acceptance of our individuality — and thus ego — as a starting point, is key. Only from that initial understanding can we blossom and grow in our own self-love before we can share that with others — in our families, our work, our lives.
Negating our ego, our individuality, is a non-starter. Why start by shackling, by limiting ourselves?
Of course I understand it is usually neither conscious nor intentional. Understandably, it often comes from a place of vulnerability and helplessness.
But it can be turned around and our individuality made to be a source of strength by “turning within” and experiencing the greatness that lies within us — that is an integral part of “who we are” as individual beings, as beings of light who are temporarily in the bodies of human beings.
From that place of inner power, self-confidence and self-knowing, we can truly begin to experience what life as an individual living on Earth 🌍 can be.
Kelvin H. Chin is a Meditation Teacher, Life After Life Expert, and Author of “Overcoming the Fear of Death,” “Marcus Aurelius Updated: 21st Century Meditations On Living Life” and “After the Afterlife: Memories of My Past Lives.” He learned to meditate at age 19, and has been teaching Turning Within Meditation and coaching others in their self-growth for 40 years. He helps people understand their life challenges through their individual belief systems, and helps them find their own solutions. His past life memories reach back many centuries, and he accesses those memories in his teaching and his coaching in the same way all coaches draw on their own available experiences for perspective and effective analogies. He can be reached at www.TurningWithin.org.