Ego: Friend And Teacher

The term ‘ego’, at a lower level, is a derogatory remark; we say that he or she is ‘all ego’, self-centred, self-interested. The funny thing is, who do theythink is making these remarks?” 😀

Ego is simply consciousness attached to ideas about itself and whatever it sees. Who isn’t attached? Ego is what we call ‘me’, or ‘myself’, and ego isself-centred and self-interested. Seeing ego as a failure is lower level spiritual management.

Ego in Dzogchen is our teacher, with self interested concepts being recognised within compassionate space of empty awareness. Consciousness’s feeling of self importance is now clearly seen as our karmic collection resulting from past memories and judgements.

We need not feel guilty or be afraid of having an ego: after all, these feelings will always be with us until the moment of final enlightenment. Ego is our prompter, showing us our reactions and the sort of person we have become. In fact, our ego is our path, uncovering ego’s consciousness’s confusion about reality.

The very moment of recognisingego’s calculations arising within mind-consciousness is the very moment of liberation. These reactions have absolutely no reality: they are a survival mode of primitive brain – fight, flight or freeze.

Antidotes to ego are merely temporary as our attachments will return. In Dzogchen, we see directly that these attachments have no reality as they are merely our habitual programming. It is not concepts that bind us: it is our attachment to those concepts that snares us. This also applies to emotions and sensory experiences.

We needn’t be afraid of our self,
as it never existed.

Before we make a remark,
pure consciousness has already seen.

There you are!