I find myself increasingly irritated by the thoughtless dismissal of ‘ego’ in messages, postings, writing and correspondence about the subject of our existence on this planet, throughout the Internet.
It seems to have become an alternative catch phrase; a sort of sign of conformity to the vision of “a new world order,” if you can confidently state that ‘ego’ should be put to death; that it is the source of all problems, and stands in the way of all those on the path to enlightenment.
There seems to be to be a lack of serious discussion about this. The ego has become demonized, and the practices of Eastern religions and philosophy are all used to bolster this opinion.
Well, I don’t agree with all this.
Human beings develop, naturally and of psychological necessity an ego.
This ego refers to oneself as a distinct and different person to other selves in the space time universe which it has pleased the Infinite power to create.
Our egos are a natural part of being human and the holy scriptures are full of different personalities, which God “calls by name” and differentiates between them. “Moses. Take off your sandals.”
Adam is not Abraham, Abraham is not Moses, Jesus is not Saint John, Mary Magdalene is not Mary, mother of Jesus. Joseph is a different person to Saint Theresa of Avila and Mother Theresa of Calcutta is, was and never will be Albert Schweitzer.
When Mary came to the resurrected Jesus Christ, she said “My Lord…” and he said, “I am going to my father and your father.” (Two distinct personalities here). Jesus told Phillip that he had never seen a finer Israelite, not Peter, and he told Peter that he would give him the keys of the Kingdom, he did not tell Matthew that.
Jesus came to save persons. Sinners who had fallen short of the righteousness necessary to partake of God’s presence and all of us, even the great saints, fall short. Jesus’ intercessory death and resurrection are our wisdom and our redemption and our access to heaven; for as Christians we do not rely on our own righteousness, but on Jesus’ righteousness.
So what is all this about ‘ego’ standing in the way of merging with God?
Through Jesus Christ, our ego - our particular imperfect person - can and does find unity in God, for by God’s own action we have been made right with him - a personal God - with a name.
That is why he sent Jesus Christ:
‘I have not come for the virtuous but of the sick.’ -
‘I will turn no man away who comes to me’
‘This is Eternal Life - to know the one true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent.’
Jesus also told the Pharisees that the tax-gatherers and prostitutes would be ahead of them in the kingdom of heaven. And why is that? Because the tax-gatherers and prostitutes know nothing about sublime astral bodies attaining unity consciousness, but are just themselves: Jean and Johnnie, Lily and Lionel - struggling to make a living from the oppressive society that has marginalized them. They cannot afford to going swimming in the Pacific before breakfast, meditate sutras for an hour and then go and have a latte at Starbucks. Who is there for them?
There is nothing wrong in a swim, meditation and a latte - but to go from there and preach that ‘ego is an illusion’ is not helpful.
Jesus came for poor persons, with names. He himself has a name. God took a human name ‘the same as us in all respects, except sinless’ so he could mix shoulders with the weary and sick, the oppressed and sinful of this world and give light. And personal names, means personal ‘egos’.
God wanted it that way.
God is also big enough to accommodate those who feel that ‘ego’ separates them from the Power and that to rid oneself of it and merge with the Power is to achieve bliss. Why not? But to say that THAT is the Truth is to overlook the fact of Jesus’ statement: ‘I am the Truth.’
So I wish people would stop trying to push the enlightenment agenda as absolute and the only way to live this life.
I am completely convinced, as Peter was in the Acts, that God “has no favorites, but in every nation the man who is God-fearing, and does what is right is acceptable to him.” Acts. 10:34
The most famous convert to Catholicism in the 19th century, John Henry Cardinal Newman, in Pro Vita Sua, also said, when answering a hypothetical question about why there were so many different churches professing the same God: “It is a test of charity.”
It is not the Church you go to but the way you treat your fellow man that will ultimately be the criterion for judgment. And repentant sinners, who “know their need for God” (First Beatitude), through Jesus Christ, will also be saved.
I am going to lightly edit this and then post it. I hope you will comment on what I have written and give me your ideas because I’d like a deeply thought through, economically written essay in the end. This is just a first draft. I am trying to articulate what I felt for a long time; trying to bring harmony into the singularity of Christians and the Name, as well as the Universal Divine ever-present - the ineffable mystery of God as perceived by eastern religions and some mystics.
I exist. I am part of a larger whole. The larger whole is God’s spirit in the Universe, the Power. But I, the small I ‘ego’ has a name and is a particular singularity: that is what being human is all about.
Why did God create it this way? To deny ‘ego’ or to call the mental concept of ego ‘an illusion’ as if there is no reality long term to this phenomenon, is I believe, to deny one’s humanity - or, to deny at the very least, a kind of humanity, but which God apparently wanted to create - hence our Judeo-Christian heritage and Jesus.
Thoughts please?
