Read a beautiful article about the human ego. Reproducing it in full below and also the link to the website.
There is so much confusion about the question: What is ego? Because our ability to recognise the true face of the ego, to see it for what it actually is, depends entirely upon how far we want to go on the spiritual path.
A simple psychological definition of the ego is something like the “self-organising principle,” that all-important command centre in the psyche that coordinates the different aspects of the self. And that command centre must be in good working order for a human being to be able to function in the world with any reasonable degree of competency. The ego as self-organising principle is neither positive nor negative; its function is mechanistic, and in that, it has no self nature.
Arrogant Self-Importance
But there is another definition of ego, and the ego in that definition has self nature. The human face of that ego is pride; is arrogant self-importance; is narcissistic self-infatuation; is the need to see oneself as being separate at all times, in all places, through all circumstances — and that ego is the unrelenting enemy of all that is truly wholesome in the human experience.
When this ego is unmasked, seen directly for what it is, finally unobscured by the other expressions of the personality, one finds oneself literally face-to-face with a demon — a demon that thrives on power, domination, control and separation, that cares only about itself and is willing to destroy anything and everything that is good and true in order to survive intact and always in control. This demon lacks any capacity for empathy, compassion, generosity or love; delights in its perfect invulnerability; and, worst of all, will never ever acknowledge that which is sacred….
I can’t tell you how many times I have witnessed the shocking and often frightening transformation of a human personality when faced squarely with the truth of its own division, hypocrisy and deceit: in an instant, a warm, intelligent, sensitive, apparently caring personality can change, becoming the face of pure ego, glaring with narcissistic rage because it has been exposed. It is because of many experiences like this that I have spent hours thinking about the questions: What is the personality? Who is the individual?
Spiritual Heart Vs Ego
It seems that in the end, it really is black-and-white, simply because who we are depends upon where our allegiance lies. Is it with the narcissistic ego? Or is it with the spiritual heart? Of course, we can only really find out the answer to that question when we are tested because otherwise it’s inevitable that the truth of our own condition will remain obscured, masked by self-concepts that are based on the ego’s need to always see itself in a positive light — even if it sees itself as a victim.
Who we are and how we perceive our own experience and the world around us depend upon where our allegiance lies. The perspective of the individual who has surrendered the will of their own ego to their spiritual heart is drastically different from the perspective of one who has not….
Price Of Purity
To walk the spiritual path in earnest is to find out what we’re made of and how much we are truly willing to give up in order to come to the end of the division within ourselves. The price for that kind of profound and deeply liberating simplicity is too high for most, because that price is ego death... That means endeavouring with all our being to purify ourselves from every attachment, gross and subtle, to the narcissistic ego, that demon of false individuality that masquerades as our own self and whose task it is to keep us, at all costs, separate from our own heart.
http://www.speakingtree.in/public/view-article/Face-To-Face-With-Your-Ego
There is so much confusion about the question: What is ego? Because our ability to recognise the true face of the ego, to see it for what it actually is, depends entirely upon how far we want to go on the spiritual path.
A simple psychological definition of the ego is something like the “self-organising principle,” that all-important command centre in the psyche that coordinates the different aspects of the self. And that command centre must be in good working order for a human being to be able to function in the world with any reasonable degree of competency. The ego as self-organising principle is neither positive nor negative; its function is mechanistic, and in that, it has no self nature.
Arrogant Self-Importance
But there is another definition of ego, and the ego in that definition has self nature. The human face of that ego is pride; is arrogant self-importance; is narcissistic self-infatuation; is the need to see oneself as being separate at all times, in all places, through all circumstances — and that ego is the unrelenting enemy of all that is truly wholesome in the human experience.
When this ego is unmasked, seen directly for what it is, finally unobscured by the other expressions of the personality, one finds oneself literally face-to-face with a demon — a demon that thrives on power, domination, control and separation, that cares only about itself and is willing to destroy anything and everything that is good and true in order to survive intact and always in control. This demon lacks any capacity for empathy, compassion, generosity or love; delights in its perfect invulnerability; and, worst of all, will never ever acknowledge that which is sacred….
I can’t tell you how many times I have witnessed the shocking and often frightening transformation of a human personality when faced squarely with the truth of its own division, hypocrisy and deceit: in an instant, a warm, intelligent, sensitive, apparently caring personality can change, becoming the face of pure ego, glaring with narcissistic rage because it has been exposed. It is because of many experiences like this that I have spent hours thinking about the questions: What is the personality? Who is the individual?
Spiritual Heart Vs Ego
It seems that in the end, it really is black-and-white, simply because who we are depends upon where our allegiance lies. Is it with the narcissistic ego? Or is it with the spiritual heart? Of course, we can only really find out the answer to that question when we are tested because otherwise it’s inevitable that the truth of our own condition will remain obscured, masked by self-concepts that are based on the ego’s need to always see itself in a positive light — even if it sees itself as a victim.
Who we are and how we perceive our own experience and the world around us depend upon where our allegiance lies. The perspective of the individual who has surrendered the will of their own ego to their spiritual heart is drastically different from the perspective of one who has not….
Price Of Purity
To walk the spiritual path in earnest is to find out what we’re made of and how much we are truly willing to give up in order to come to the end of the division within ourselves. The price for that kind of profound and deeply liberating simplicity is too high for most, because that price is ego death... That means endeavouring with all our being to purify ourselves from every attachment, gross and subtle, to the narcissistic ego, that demon of false individuality that masquerades as our own self and whose task it is to keep us, at all costs, separate from our own heart.
