THE EGO
by Jacquelyn Small, Eupsychia Institute
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[The
ego] is the ruler of our conscious life, the executor of
our identity. It is our personality and individuality.
And it is responsible for meeting our basic needs for
security, pleasure, belongingness, self-esteem, and love.
If it fails to do so, we will become needy, and very
needy and very likely try to meet these needs through
codependent behavior patterns. The ego is also
limitation; it decides which boundaries we live within
and call "reality." It throws everything else
out, labeling it dangerous and irrelevant. (Adapters
often have very strong egos.) It makes sure we don't
become too overwhelmed by the contents of the unconscious
mind. The ego can split into two selves: sometimes it is the approved-of persona, the faade we like to show others, a positive integrated self. However, this persona breaks down when we become too needy, and the ego then reverts to the shadow, our disowned fragments or impure selves that otherwise remain hidden. In addition, the ego serves as a buffer zone for the soul, or Higher Self, which is entering into time through us from a higher (deeper) dimension. The soul is too light, innocent, and insubstantial to withstand the harsh conditions of the outer life. When our ego is gratified, it is in alignment with the soul: it has presence, or potency, and wisdom here in the ordinary world. Eventually, it becomes merged into the soul as a soul-infused personality, which I'll discuss at length later in this book. When the ego is not gratified, it focuses backward, re-active to the conditions of our past. Until the ego purifies and integrates its shadowy fragments and learns how to meet our basic human needs, we will have no foundation upon which to build a whole and balanced Self. Though it can be contrary and sometimes try to rule us, the ego is our friend. [excerpt from AWAKENING IN TIME, pg. 19] THE EGO IS CONCRETIZED SPIRIT. We grow an ego up from the Earth, once it is birthed through a mother's body. And once the ego matures, we embody Spirit "from the top, down" as it descends to reclaim its earthly counterpart. The ego must become permeable so that Spirit can enter. ...The ego is the executor of our personality, as noted by the great psychiatrist, Sigmund Freud. But the ego isn't "a thing"; we can't open ourselves up and find one living in our bodies. It is a psychic construct, an archetype we acknowledge as real, one that sits at the boundary between the unconscious and conscious mind. It is a gatekeeper, deciding what to allow into our consciousness as "reality" and what to close off or reject. When it rejects something, it's as though that thing does not exist. The ego builds a psychological defense structure called "denial" that won't let us recognize that which is too painful or perceived as too dangerous to give credence to. The ego's function is to keep us focused on the personal life long enough to integrate our physical, emotional, and mental "bodies" in a manner that society will accept. In this way, we cam become functional within our culture and can later serve it, when we become wise from our experiences. The ego is therefore invested in looking good, in either fitting into the group or in standing out as a popular and successful idiosyncratic personality. The ego seeks pleasure and gratification of all its needs, and it thrives on being right. [excerpts from EMBODYING SPIRIT, pg. 98-99] |
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