Transforming the ego

A Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity discussion topic

Copyright 2009 by K. Ferlic,   All Rights Reserved

Overview

Transforming the ego is key to recreating oneself and recreating one’s life. Our mind and the ego it has created is the single greatest issue we will face in accessing and releasing our unlimited creativity or to create anything in our life. For all practical purposes we can say the ego is just the personality and way of being and responding to the world our mind gives to what it thinks and believes. The problem with ego and mind is not the fact that ego exists for ego and mind are only vehicles to create the experience of creation. The issue is mind and ego think they will die because of how they have come to identify with the body yet it is only the material to be transformed into our new creation.

Realizing our  inner world is reflected in the outer, we will be unable to engage in any creative endeavor without some change to our ego. To create something new, we must be willing to enter the sacrifice of the creative process and become the mythical phoenix. In becoming the phoenix, the nest that we have built, that place we call "home," is the identity in which we have found so much comfort and that we use to define who and what we think we are. It is this nest or identity which must be consumed and destroyed only to rise out of the ashes to be reborn in a new identity. Being reborn out of the ashes is very symbolic for it is to only recycle all that we have experienced and look at it in a new way. It is to look at all we have experienced in a way that empowers us to manifest what we desire and better serves who and what we have become.

In the same way mind is a property of consciousness, ego is a property of mind. It is not something with which we are going to do away. Rather, it is something with which we need to learn to work and transform it when necessary. On the topic of ego and transcendence, many religious traditions and esoteric traditions state that to transcend, or to become free of the physical plane, we must become desire-less. However, desire is the fuel for creation/Creation and the ego is only the vehicle used by consciousness for the experience of creation/Creation. The issue is not desire. The issue is not the ego. The issue is to not become attached to the ego and/or its preferences so that one is able to transform it at will to experience a new creation.

When we choose to recreate our life it is the enculturated ego which stands in the way and needs to be transformed. The ego which correspond to our the actual experiences we have had in life and which would exist if it were not for our enculturation is usually not an issue for we have never lived it. Rather, we live in the illusion of who we think we are. In essence, transformation of the ego is simply trading one illusion for another. What we access the truth of our being and live that truth, ego is not an issue. Transcending the ego not about "getting out of ego" or some how leaving the ego behind. Rather is it about not being bound by the ego and allowing ourselves to redefine ourselves as necessary or at will. When we live from the truth of our being transforming the ego is not an issue because we see the ego for what it is. That is, we see it simply the ego as a vehicle for an experience no different than getting out of one car and into another for a different type and kind of experience.

It is much like a car. If we drive around and never leave our car we become very much bound to living on the roads and only going where the roads can go. If however, we realize that we can get out of our car and walk around and even get in a different kind of car or vehicle - like a tractor, boat or plane, we will have enormously different experiences. So too with ego. Our current ego is only a particular type and kind of vehicle we are using to "drive through" life and experience life. We can get out and move to a new vehicle whenever we wish.

It needs to be understood that with the development of the ego, the individualized points of consciousness began to see themselves as separate and divided. They began to see themselves as somehow no longer responsible for the creation of the experiences they have. They could throw the responsibility for Creation on the "God" that created them.

Although these individualized points see themselves as separate, that is not so. They only need to remember and learn to live with the understanding that any thought they hold within their mind and held in the passion of the heart kindles within themselves and every other individualized point of consciousness an energy that can be perceived as a thought whose origins and root lie in the thought of the originator. Whether that thought is of healing, of love, of hate, of prejudice, of war, or of separation, the energy within that thought is transmitted simultaneously throughout reality. To readily transform our ego it is incumbent on each of us to accept our birthright and to consciously become the creators that we already are and become aware of how and what we think and how we choose to act or not act.

The key to transcending the ego is to know, and act on the knowing, that we are responsible for all that we see and experience. That is, the whole world and universe we see and experience and the body that we inhabit is to have an experience. At one level this can be perceived as the ultimate ego trip and in many ways it is. However, if we hold this perspective and act from it, as viewed from the negative side from ego’s perspective, this view will either totally destroy us draining our energy and/or causing an illness or forcing us to shrink into a very protective shield. On the positive side, it will force us to look to transcend how we currently define ourselves to see how it is possible we create our whole world we experience.

Relative to transforming the ego, what any one individual will need to do to transform their ego will depend on the individual and what they are desiring to create. What is provided here are some thoughts about the ego and what may affect our ability to transform the ego.

An overall recommended approach

In general, probably the easiest way to transform the ego for any creative endeavor is to understand and learn how malleable the ego really is. It has been found the easiest way, and what can be the most amusing way, to deal with ego and the mind to get started on understanding this process is to establish a “not doing” practice. Not doing is doing things that are "not us" as mind and ego perceive as us. It is to do things that lie outside how we have defined ourselves. When we do things that lie outside how we have defined ourselves and who and what we think we are we demonstrate to the ego it will not die and can readily be transformed. The more we do not do the more comfortable we become. In this awareness mind and ego relaxes in this comfort and the greater depth and breath of our creativity is opened.

Probably the greatest issues that arise in starting a not doing practice are embarrassment and fear of what will happen in doing what we normally would not do. However, in a safe and secure space, both of these issues can be quickly overcome. What then arises is how one begins to see how confining the currently life they live created by the ego which existed prior to the not doing exercises is restrictive and confining. The motivation then arises to do one of two things. One is to stop the not doing practice for fear how much one’s life will need to change to accommodate the newly found malleable ego. Or, the other is to recreate one’s life to accommodate the expansion of one’s being found as the ego changes.

Additionally, a playful not doing practice is an excellent way, if not one of the fastest ways, to return to a state of creative play. However, in attempting to use not doing to return to a state of creative play, one can expect all the reasons and fears as to why we lost our ability to creative play to surface to be addressed. One is then faced with dealing what arises or abandoning the not doing practice and leaving their creativity in the cage of their own making.

Relative to transforming the ego, it is highly recommended that one start a playful not doing practice to both return to a state of creative play and to learn and understand how malleable the ego really is..

Free will, early programing and ego transformation

In looking at our programming, it is it is interesting to quickly contrast what seems to be the general Eastern and Western views on free will which underlies many of their philosophies and the societies in which grow up and bias our thinking.

Western philosophy has been more inclined to think and teach that destiny in one’s life is shaped mainly according to the strength of individual will - to go and get, to conquer, to control, to make happen. This view has given rise to the aggressive masculine approach to take what one wants and the rise of very strong ego identities.

Easterner philosophy has been more inclined to think and teach that destiny is either shaped solely according to past activity and choices [Karma], or the Will of God. Thus one has to be satisfied with their lot in life and work with the conditions that we have created or been given. In this view, the ego becomes weak for it lies at the mercy of the past or of God.

As we experience our free will, we will find both views are correct and it seems to be one of the fundamental paradoxes of life. However, what we will come to see, it is only how consciousness creates the experience of life and there is a dance one must learn to do between the masculine choosing to thrust forward to go and get and the feminine role of nurturing and sustaining what is. In essence it is the dance between heart and mind and the two views of creation. The question is what best serves the interest of our creative spirit and are we free to choose to protect those interests and hold our creativity sacred.

Evolution of the ego

Relative to both the Eastern and Western traditions is that times have changed. What needs to achieved does require slightly different techniques than what were used in the past. It needs to be remembered each human is a product of the collective and the collective understanding of what it means to be human has changed over time is continues to change. For example, at the time and place when meditation was developed the ego was not as strong in self identification as it is now exists in the Western world and rapidly coming into existence in many non western societies. In the past, individuals tended to see themselves as the servant of their society, their king or whomever ruled their society. The concept of individual rights and a destiny for the individual was not as common as it is today. Today, in Western society, there is the belief the individual has certain inalienable rights and the freedom to choose what they experience. Many of these beliefs are enter Eastern societies. How the individual defines themselves is somewhat different that the way and individual would defines themselves when meditation was first created. So we can expect meditation to not be as effective as it in transforming the ego.

When meditation was first created, it was a technique sufficient to create the inner awareness and has been used by many successfully for centuries. However, the ego that has developed through the current Western line of thinking tends to be very strong, very masculine. It needs a more active approach for its transformation. The masculine must learn to surrender to the feminine.

In the past, the ego was much like an egg in that it had a thin shell easily broken with the slightest tap. The reason for this is that collectively, humans were very much at the mercy of the world around them. Most were never able to develop a strong ego for the experiences of the world continually reinforced the belief that anyone individual was not in charge of their life. In these experiences, the ego never really felt that it was in control of its world. The ego always seemed to somehow be surrendering to powers well beyond their ability to control them.

Modern technology has changed all of this. It now lies within the individual human’s ability to control and change the world in which they live. Our egos have begun to believe it is in control of what is happening. Although this is true for we do create our experiences and the reality of those experience, it is not true in the way the ego has come to believe it is true. That is, the individual does control its world and its reality for we are a world unto ourselves. However, Physical Creation is a shared creation and we are part of a much larger process only playing a role in that process.

In any case, the modern ego has become more like a coconut than an egg. As a coconut, its outer shell can be quite strong requiring a rather large hammer forcibly striking the coconut to shatter its shell. On this note of the strong shell of the ego, the thickness of the of the ego, has nothing to do with whether a person is raised in a traditional Eastern or Western culture/society. The thickness arise from the evolution of the collective human consciousness and the human being thinking and, more importantly, acting as though he is separate from, and somehow more important than, the rest of nature. This separation of the man from nature runs very strong in both Eastern and Western traditions. The whole concept of spiritual leads to this separation and foster the stronger ego even if the individual perceive itself to be a victim. A victim consciousness is still ego trip. The prevalence of human thinking that spirit is somehow separated from the physical is only the ego and the ego shell of the collective human consciousness revealing itself as to who and what it thinks it is.

A strong ego

There is a perception in today’s world that comes from both the Eastern mystical traditions and the Western intellectual and religious traditions that there is something wrong with the ego. From a creativity perspective, there is nothing wrong with the ego per say, it is only a vehicle for experience and we can transform it to become whatever we desire. We create it by what we believe, how we believe, how we think, and by the choices we make. It is our creation and it is the vessel that we consciousness use to experience creation. In the same way our body is the vehicle or vessel our energy the energy consciousness uses for the physical experience as a human being, our ego is the vehicle or vessel our consciousness of the energy consciousness uses to experience any experience or aspect of Creation. Both our body and our ego are our creations. The ego is just more malleable and flexible than the body because it is consciousness based whereas the body is energy based.

A strong ego, a strong self determination, and a strong will, are essential if we are going to create the reality of our choice and claim our birthright. We have to be able to endure the birth pains of creation to grow and manifest in the world. That will not happen with a weak ego, lack of self determination, or a weak will. We must be capable of intimately loving all parts of our being, especially our body-- whatever it looks like and whatever its physical condition. To deny our body is to deny the creator of that body, the Creator of Creation and ourselves. Self love is essential.

We are a unique creation and no one perceives reality as we do and no one possesses the gifts we do. If we do not love ourselves unconditionally enough for those gifts to come forth into the world, who will love us? We cannot give what we do not have. We cannot get from another what they don’t have. Until we learn to love ourselves unconditionally for who we are and what we are as we are, we will not be able to love another. We can only give what we have. If we have no love for ourselves, we can’t love another.

Look at it this way. If we don’t love our car enough to give it gasoline, change its oil, and keep it in good repair so that it functions properly, it will of no use to us. So too with our being. If we do not give what our being needs and meet our true needs, we are no use to anyone and to think we are is an illusion of our mind. If we are not whole, we cannot give wholeness. If we are not functioning properly at every level of our being for the uniqueness that is us, we will only give to others what we lack for that is what we have - lack. If we don’t love ourselves at every level of our being, we are not giving another love. We are giving them something else – maybe obligation, maybe duty – but it is not love.

There is one issue about having a strong ego that everyone will need to face. At some point, once we have learned to love ourselves at every level of our being, we will be asked to totally surrender ourselves to the purpose of our incarnation and the role we incarnated to play. We are free to chose to fulfill that role or not. We can stay in the bliss and joy of self realization and the wonderment of "Ah" of our unique creation or we can surrender to be transformed into a new life living directly from the   Source being one with Creation manifested.

Finding the ego - the story we tell

There are two stories that we can tell that are tied to the ego which can help us understand the ego we have. One is the story we normally tell about our life and who and what we are. This story is reflective of the enculturated ego. The other story is the story of which we are not yet aware. It is the story we can tell which is reflective of why we incarnated into a physical body and may or many not be reflected in our physical body. That is our physical body is intimately tied to something specific we are here to do as opposed to just being a vehicle for the physical experience.

The first story, that one we can tell, is reflective of how our ego currently perceives itself and is very much biased by our enculturation and early programming. This first story is reflective of how we think and what we believe. Some of our stories are entertaining and/or empower us to move though life. Some stories help us to grow and discover the depth and breath of our being. However, there are other stories we can tell that really don’t work to help us grow and discover who we are. Rather, they justify our inaction and give us reasons and excuses that hold us in what can best be described as a victim consciousness. That is, the story we tell causes us to give away the creative ability and creative power we have to create the experiences of our choice turning them over to others. One of the more effective ways to see this first story we tell is to draw what is called a life map or a map of our life. In this process we draw our life as it were a map. It is to draw a path of some type with a series of milestones or events representing the memories we carry that we wish to include as part of our story. In drawing the map, we use whatever images that appeal to us and which we feel best represent how our story should be told.

The second story will reveal itself only in time. It evolves out of the first story. However, it does not being to appear until one reaches a knowing within their being that integrates what they have experienced in life into what they need to do in life. The story is no longer a story as such. Rather, it is more like wake of the trajectory for one’s life. As a trajectory it will give a very clear indication of where one’s life is going. The way to reveal this second story is to pull the string on the first story we tell and ask one’s self, "Why do I tell this story the way I do and not another?" Here we need to explore the question "Why did I live the life that I did and why did I have the experiences that I had?" It is also important to ask, "What other ways can I tell the story than the way I do?" We have a perceptive on life and about the life we lived. It is not the only perspective. As we play with other possible stories, we will come to understand there is more behind the events in our life than how we first perceived them. Answering these questions also help us to develop the ability to become a detached witness to the events in our life

Ego - a natural phenomenon

The ego is a natural phenomenon of mind and simply the identity our individuated consciousness chooses to define itself. As an individuated consciousness, we place an identity around ourselves as to who we choose to think we are. This identity is our ego. It is neither good nor bad. It just is and is the vehicle that we use to give color or interpretation to our unique view of creation. Ultimately the way mind defines itself and the ego it uses is the creative force of Creation. It is what causes Creation to happen. Quite simply our creative life energy flows to create an experience of how our consciousness focuses its attention and awareness. What we think and believe is how we focus that attention and awareness. Depending on how we choose to define ourselves we may make our creative passion, the flame that fuels our life, to shine less brightly and we rob ourselves of our own creativity ability and creative power in the process. Whether our light and creative abilities shine outward depend on whether the beliefs we hold confine our ability or allow we freedom of movement and creativity.

To understand the issue of ego, look at the world we have available to experience and the universe that is open to us. If we go outside into a open field, we can experience an unbounded space in a hemisphere around us. Nothing stands in our way. All is open to us. This is the universe that is open to us. However, to protect ourselves from the elements - the wind, the rain, the snow, the heat of the sun and the other things we don’t want to be exposed to like wild animals, we create a house. The house is simply something to protect ourselves and make our life a little bit more comfortable and enjoyable. Now if we stand in side our house or apartment, we are boxed in by the walls and the roof or the floor above us. So too our being.

Imagine all that is open to us as a circle and in the center of that circle we draw a small box. We, the consciousness that perceives, is inside the box inside a huge circle. Even if we expand the box to the limits of the circle, the box will still not embrace the circle. We cannot make a box fit a circle. It is the proverbial trying to put a square peg in a round hole. They don’t match up. The ego and identity we have created for ourselves is a square box within an infinitely expansive universe of the circle and no matter how big we make our ego, it still won’t fit the circle. The bigger we make our ego in an attempt to fit the circle we create a whole set of other problems. As long as we try and protect the identity we have created for ourselves as opposed to stepping out of that identity into the universe as it is open to us, we will be confining our creative abilities to box. We are placing our infinite creative ability in a square box or a cage of our own making. Unless we are willing to get out of the house that we have created to protect ourselves form the things we don’t like in our environment, we can never know that truth of what is and all that is open to us.

To understanding how to get out the square box, of mind and ego, it is appropriate to look at this problem a little deeper, and how we define ourselves. Because we are physical beings, we start to look at the process with the experience we have as a physical being for they are ultimately what are defining who and what we are. This then takes us back to the story we tell. Here there is the need to tell our story and then being to see what other possible ways we have to tell our story. In many ways it is a "not doing" in story telling. That is, we tell our story with the same events in life but in a way that is totally different or opposite from what we believe about the story.

Projecting the past

There are three parts to any sensory experience we have. There is the sensor, normally perceived as the nerve in one of the five senses, a transmission line to the brain and the experience of the transmitted energy in the brain. All three parts must be fully functional and operational if we are going to perceive the physical experience as it truly is. Here we need to note and emphasize, what is sensed is the movement and flow of energy. We sense a flow of energy no matter what sense. What we actually sense and how it is sensed makes a different but what we ultimately perceive is a flow of flow of energy. However, what we experience is determined by what we believe about the experience we are having, what we perceive about the flow of energy that arrives in the brain and whether or not the flow of energy as experience was accurately relayed to the brain.

It is a known fact that one can sever both the sensor and/or the transmission line and still have perceptions of feeling that are generated by the mind based on past experiences. The experience of amputees is a case where this is quite common. It is possible for a person who no longer have certain sensors but they still perceived pain where there is nothing to sense. The evidence suggested that their mind simply projects the past and what it thinks should be present. To them the pain they experienced is very real but there is nothing there to do the sensing. What this all suggests is that unless we are truly "out of mind" and the judgments and biases of the mind and the way mind projects the past, we may not be perceiving the physical experience as it actually is. We may think we are experiencing what is happening as it truly is happening. But, in reality, we are masking the true feelings are consequently the truth of what we experience. We need to become very aware of what we feel and what we sense if they hope to get past the biases of the mind.

A simple example is that we can experience an apple, or any other food, from a past memory if we so choose without the need of either the sensor or the transmission line. We can simply imagine eating an apple. However to truly experience eating an apple and fully understanding the experience we are having, we must focus all of our attention and awareness on the experience at the time we are having the experience without bringing in the memory of mind and its thinking. If we go to our memory and compare the experience to other experiences we have had of eating an apple or we are thinking of something else, we are not experiencing the physical experience as it is truly happening. How often have we tasted an apple and said or thought, "This is not what it is suppose to taste like" because the apple my be too hard, too soft, too old, too tart as opposed to sweet or simply a different kind of apple that tastes different. However to thinks such a thing as "this is not what an apple tastes like" is a rather strange thing to think and say when we are eating and experiencing an apple as it is. Do we know better than the apple what the apple is suppose to taste like? Or, maybe we are just projecting the past so strongly we cannot realize each apple is unique and its uniqueness is to be savored as it is, not compared to a past experience or any other apple.

It needs to be noted this can occur for every physical experience we have. Additionally, if our mind is preoccupied with something totally unrelated to the physical experience we are having, we are again very possibly denying or suppressing the truth of what is. Over time, we begin to live in the mind and don’t really experience the physical experiences we are having. We think we are but we are not. If we think about it, the entire world of acting and world of deception and illusion is based on mind seeing something other than with is. That it. mind sees what it thinks and believes is happening as opposed to what is happening.

The problem is attachment

Our problem is the way mind remembers what it experiences and then selectively attaches to the experiences it has. The issue isn’t remembering. The issue is the way mind selectively remembers and how it remembers and then projects what it remembers to bias what it is experiencing. The attachments, whether they are positive or negative, can be a problem for they bias the truth of what is.

The natural process of creation is to birth an experience, define ourselves during the experience to respond to the experience and what it has to offer, and then die to the experience and the identity we created allowing the energy involved in the experience to dissolve and be available for the next experience. However, if not by choice by habit, we become attached to the identity we create for the experience and some of the experience we hold in mind and call them good or bad and/or give the habitual identity a name such as I am a father or mother because so many of our experiences may be about taking care of a child. Although we go through the nature cyclic process of experience and dissolution, we don’t recover all of our energy from our experiences to create a new experience. Some of it remains bound. Rather than each experience being "clean" we carry a remnant of the past with us.

Ideally, we should be like the wind - coming with nothing, leaving with nothing. Each experience of Creation is seen independent of any other and no beliefs are carried forward. Yet many of the experiences we choose to have are made because of what we hold from the past. Here again, this is nether good or bad. It is just how creation works and Creation would not be much fun if the process did not exist. The ultimate problem with mind and the ego is they arises from the experiences we have in our body. Rather than allowing the consciousness that inhabits the body to be the witness and observer of the experiences that the body has, the mind, and subsequently the ego, defines itself by these experiences and thinks it is the body.

Since our ego knows our body will die, it thinks it too will die. It doesn’t realize it can be transformed so it will fight and fear anything that it thinks will cause it to change and die. To step out of the ego and to step out of the mind, that is, to step out of what we think we are, causes the ego to think it will die. So it is typical for the ego to fear any creative actions that cause it to change, including fearing change itself. It is afraid that refining itself means it will die.

Yet we are a creative living process. We are always changing never completely the same as we were. But, the ego and mind pay little attention to this fact for they are masking the truth of what is by what they think and believe about themselves. We are always adding and shedding beliefs carrying some into future experiences. The question is, "Which beliefs do we let go and which do we hold and why?" In any case, the ego then, in turn by the choices it makes, creates new experience by what it believes about the previous experiences based on what it believes. One of the strongest beliefs we carry is that because we have our experiences in the body, we begin to believe our consciousness and the awaken awareness that is who and what we really are, is the body as opposed to only being defining by the experiences of the body. We experience our body as though it is us and we come to believe our body is our essence.

Consciousness and the coconut

There is an effective analogy to help understand what needs to happen in this phenomenon of transforming the ego of consciousness and its human experience. The life of the coconut is something that can help explains what actually happens or can potentially happen at two levels of our being. The fruit of the coconut palm contains a kernel or a seed, which we call the coconut. The seed consists of three parts. A white meat enclosed in a hard shell containing a milky liquid called coconut milk which most of us are aware. The seed is within an outer shell of the fruit. The seed can be separated from the coconut fruit. However, when the coconut fruit is unripe and raw, if the shell is broken, the kernel will also break. In the raw coconut fruit, the seed and the shell are joined together. However, the dried ripe coconut is different. If the fruit is dried, the kernel can be removed intact. The seed of the dry coconut shrinks inside the shell and becomes separated from the shell and there is now a distance between the shell and seed. The seed contains the hard shell and a white meat can be eaten and the liquid the coconut milk can be drunk to give life.

A similar thing occurs with our consciousness. It believes it is its creation. Our consciousness creates a vehicle for an experience and then believes it is the vehicle. It believes the shell, the vehicle, and the kernel, the awareness that created the vehicle are one. However, there will come a time when the consciousness becomes aware, when it become ripe. That, it is, the creator separates from its creation. We call it death. In death there is a distance or detachment between the body and the consciousness inhabiting the body but the process doesn’t stop there. So too the ego. It too is a shell used by the consciousness to define itself and it too can be separated from the consciousness. Ideally when we die, the ego create as a result of being in the body also dies. However, many hold on to the ego whole or in part after death of the physical body.

The essence that is us is what creates the identity by the experience it has. The body is like the shell of the coconut seed and the ego is like the hard outer shell of the seed. It gives a form to the seed and hold and protects the edible parts inside the seed that can be used to create or sustain life. The ego can be separated from the essence that gives life. All the entities of the unseen world that have an identity are simply the egos projected by the consciousness inside the ego expressing themselves in the identity it projects. We are no different. We are the seed and that seed will create life ad infinitum in whatever realm that it exists.

However, we have a choice. We can wait till we die and have the consciousness and ego separated from the body and wander around the universe as that seed ready to crate a new life in the identity we have created. If that seeds falls on fertile ground and conditions are correct it will grow into a new life repeating the life cycle all over again. This phenomenon is what gives rise to the idea of past lives and karma for unless we break the hard shell of the ego, that identity mind has created for itself continues to create generation after generation after generation based on the ego it has created slowly evolving itself bases on the experiences it has. Whether the life it creates for itself is in the seen or one of the  unseen realities of Creation, that is a human being or some spirit entity in some part of the infinite Creation, a life will be created based on the seed.

But, we can if we wish, separate our awareness from our body before it physically dies. Going one step further, we can separate our ego and mind from the awareness that gives rise to the mind. In that awareness beyond ego and mind, we can see we have the "stuff" it takes to create any life in any form in any world. We only need to create the vehicle to do so. This is what it really means to transcend the ego and what many mystics have been trying to communicate for eons and is the source of our creative power. Learn to identify with the "stuff" inside the hard shell of the seed beyond the form that exists.

Stepping out of mind and the ego mind created

Stepping out of mind has bigger implications than one realizes. For some individuals stepping out of mind is a very dangerous prospect. For many, there is the fear if we step outside of who we think we are we can literally and figuratively be "out of mind" and become crazy. But the real issue is not becoming crazy. The issue is that in doing so, one is suddenly faced with the entire external world as part of their own being for there is no longer the belief I am this or I am that. There is no boundary to who and what we are. There is no "I" to say "I am." Any "I" statement is a statement of ego and simply a statement of how consciousness is perceiving itself and projecting itself. The realization is that what we are experiencing and how we define ourselves by the experience are one. One doesn’t exist without the other. We cannot define ourselves without the experience and the experience we have the way we choose to express it is what defines us. We are faced with being the creator of the creation we experience. It is to realize that we, the observer, and the observed experience are one. For without the observer there is nothing to observe and nothing can be observed without an observer.

This realization is something that tends to make most go crazy for their mind cannot fathom how its identity is totally a result of its experiences and then how we choose to act creates the experiences we use to define ourselves. The physical world is only the backdrop or the stage we use to create the experiences which defines us. It ends up being a vicious cycle that seems almost impossible to break. However, it is a cycle that can be broken. When one realizes they are the awareness that can detach from the process and watch the process of how ego is creating, they can detach and watch and decide in consciousness how they will define themselves.

However, the question that arises is, "What is this awareness and where does the process start to create a whole new path of evolution take root?" It is here that real fear of getting out of ego arises for the mind of the awareness will realize it doesn’t know who and what it is. It us just that mind cannot perceive itself as not existing but the awareness can not seem to exist for it does. It routinely goes to sleep and awakes but there is nothing to worry about. It simply is. Sometimes all of it awakens, and sometimes there is only a part but the process of awakening and going to sleep is endless. Probably the question that is in our mind is, "How does one do all of this?" The answer we will find is that it is only accepting that we are one with what we experience and have created all of the experiences we have can we begin to see how it is done and how we do it. When we see how it is done we will be in wonderment and all we will be able to utter is "ah."

In talking about mind and ego and how they work, it needs to be realized there is a reason that the intuitive guidance that surfaces in our conscious mind works directly with our nonconscious and the infinity of Creation. Through the energy one senses, one is capable of simultaneously accessing both the seen and  unseen realms of Creation as a result of the localized and nonlocalized aspects of energy. 

However our mind as we know it and experience it has a finite view and it is very difficult to put an experience of the infinity of Creation into a finite box. If we try to hold to how and what we think and believe about ourselves and the nature of the universe in any way, we will be trying to force the infinite into a finite container. If we resist we will shatter ourselves and that can give rise to many forms of pain as we move pass our limits and barriers. However, there is a failsafe mechanism that kicks in to prevent such things from occurring. Long before we can come close to shattering ourselves, fear will step in, in one way or another, and we will naturally withdrawal from whatever it is that is pushing us to step beyond our choose limits. In this cases we will return to a way of being where our intuitive guidance will be the vehicle that we use to access the infinite realms of creation as opposed to our conscious mind. However, if we are willing to let go of any of what we think and believe, the universe is then free to give us what we need to know and understand with a minimum of resistance in conscious awareness. The choice is ours. We just need to decide if we wish to access the infinity of the universe in a conscious or nonconscious way, or maybe not at all. As for facing the fear and the fear of pain that may arise if we decided to take the inward journey to explore the depth and breath of our creativity to become a conscious creator they will need to be faced in one way or another. Otherwise, we will thwart our own creative efforts. The topics on fear beginning with "Dealing with fear" and the various topics on pain beginning with the discussion "Pain" may assist in helping to address any fear or pain which may arise.

Related topics
Issue of desire
Becoming our truth
Facing the dark side

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