Drop the Spiritual Scapegoat: The Benefits of Befriending Your Ego

Have you heard popular metaphysical teachers blame the ego for nearly every human problem? Free yourself from this limiting idea by understanding your true identity.

Metaphysical and spiritual circles place considerable blame on the ego for all of humanity’s woes. Authors and teachers like Eckhart Tolle and Dr. Wayne Dyer, whose teachings have undoubtedly improved my life, have written extensively about how the ego is the source of most metaphysical problems.

As much as I love their teachings, I’m here to tell you the ego is not your enemy. Understanding this stance requires some precision in the definition of the ego, an explanation of the nature of identity, and its relation to the ego. Let’s begin!

So, What Is the Ego?

The ego is a lens that looks outward and examines the physical world. Your ego doesn’t create anything. The creation process happens from sources within. Your ego is the portion of your being that assesses your physical reality. That’s the ego’s job.

I like to think of the ego as a magnifying glass. You use it to magnify your experience in physical reality into the field of your perceptions. The ego does not create the experience but is a lens from which to view it. It is your inner Self that is directing the lens of the ego. It’s like your inner Self is holding the handle of the magnifying glass and deciding where to point it.

Pitfalls of Identifying as Ego

Some challenges identified by spiritual and metaphysical pursuits involve confusing ego with identity. Many people in this day and age mistakenly identify themselves as their ego and five physical senses. Your identity is the eternal and immortal spirit soul portion of your being. It is that which creates the ego to navigate a 3-dimensional physical world.

Identifying with the ego creates fear. Fear creates confusion and dysfunction. In a physical sense, our bodies reflect our souls’ contents and are temporary vehicles. Identifying as the ego is like believing you are now a car because you are driving one. The spirit, soul, or creator self is the car’s driver, the ego’s driver. The driver is who you are, not the vehicle.

In a physical sense, you will not stay in a single body for your entire existence. In fact, you don’t have a single cell in your body that you had seven years ago. Unless you are a seven-year-old reading this article, your cells have turned over multiple times in this lifetime, yet your experience is seamless. This is because your identity or soul exists outside of space and time.

Your ego is tied to your physical body and perceptions, a body that will eventually die. Therefore, identifying as the physically focused ego creates fear because it implies the annihilation of consciousness at the time of physical death. This is a scary proposition indeed but it’s completely unnecessary.

When you identify your being correctly, as the eternal and immortal spirit soul, this fear of annihilation of your being is unearthed as a significant misdirection of energy.

If you are feeling extra frisky, you might take things to the next level and identify as an eternal and immortal spirit soul filled with knowledge, wisdom, and bliss. I double-dog dare you.

Programming Your Ego

The ego is neutral. It is not to blame. Suppose you notice commonly ascribed ego attributes in your experience, like selfishness, jealousy, hatred, and fear. In that case, you have discovered programs you use to direct the ego. These programs and beliefs are not the ego itself. The ego is a lens of perception.

So, where do these programs, that can direct your ego in negative directions, come from? These programs and beliefs that control the ego can be acquired in childhood or developed in adulthood. If you want to change the direction of what your physically focused ego is focusing on, then you must alter the direction of your beliefs. Don’t blame your ego!

Only a completely irrational person would blame their car for taking them to the wrong destination. The beliefs you focus on, as identity, drive the car. Look to these beliefs if you aren’t arriving where you want to be.

Don’t make the ego the scapegoat when you notice unpleasant or unwanted experiences! It’s an innocent bystander and moving with the directives it receives.

Why I Still Love Dr. Dyer and Eckhart

In defense of the life-changing teachings of people like Eckhart Tolle and Wayne Dyer — despite blaming the ego for many problems, they give numerous teachings and techniques that will alter the beliefs directing the ego. This will point the lens of the ego in a positive direction, even though they seem intent on bashing it.

Overall, they sincerely teach how to gain more awareness about your true identity and the connection to the eternal portion of your Self that creates universes, so this is in no way an attempt to discount their work.

However, their teachings would become more congruent if they realized the ego was only a lens. They’ve given the ego far more power than it has. I believe that by befriending their ego, they could free up some energy and focus even more on deepening the connection to their identity.

Bringing It All Home

The topic of the nature of identity is absolutely massive. I will go much deeper into this in future articles. Many complex issues exist, such as your identity being eternal and simultaneously changing. Talk about paradoxical, right? I hope this whets your appetite to stay tuned.

Your ego is the portion of yourself that observes the experience. It is not the portion of yourself that creates, so how can the ego be blamed for the negative contents of your experience? Now that you are more familiar with your ego’s function and necessity, you can let go of the scapegoat and look at the beliefs, ideas, and energies that direct the ego. Who knows? You might discover your ego is your helpmate.

Thanks for Reading! You might enjoy a few of my other articles.

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Dr. Dan