The word “ego” means “I”, and the ego is of great importance in the development of human consciousness.
The formation of an image of the self ( that is part of our ego) is a necessary step in understanding our experiences in early childhood.
A young child doesn’t have an internal representation or cognition of itself. The child needs the people surrounding it to mirror back to it, that it exists, and what it is exactly.
(A mirror in the physical world would do the same thing-you can’t see your own face without the mirror presenting you with the reflection of your face.)
Whatever is being mirrored back to the child by the people closest to it in its formative years, will be at the base of the child’s self image. It goes without saying that the content of a self image or ego doesn’t necessarily completely align with reality.
The ego fulfills a few other functions. It can provide a “drive” to get things done or to accomplish something. In this case, it can be a force for good, if it is balanced and kept in check.
Besides that, the ego also plays a role in making you understand the relationship between you and the world around you. It functions as a “bridge” between your inner and outer world. It also checks your inner representation of yourself (your self-image) against reality, providing you with feed-back. In doing so, it also gives you information on the relationship
between your sense of self and the world around you.
(For example, if you meet someone new and they don’t smile at you, what does this mean? Does it say something about you (ego’s vision) or about the other?)
The ego tries to make sense of the world by placing “you” in comparison to the world around you. It is always ranking you in comparison to others and it has a difficult time to attribute value to the self just for what it is.
Even if you have a thought that seems to be just about you, that is often not the case. It typically is a conclusion about the self derived from a comparison to an ideal or to other
people. (This comparison can also result in the drive that the ego can provide for us.)
Oftentimes people’s sense of “self” becomes completely one with the ego.
If this is the case, it is important to return at least some of your awareness to the position of an observer of your thoughts/feelings/ego. There needs to be some separation between ego and consciousness in order to identify the ego and to keep it in balance.
Without the ego we would have a very different perception of our lives and of the world (you wouldn’t feel like you are fully separate from the world around you), but we would also
encounter fewer challenges to help us grow.
The ego is a necessary and valuable step in our personal and spiritual development.
The challenges that the ego’s existence provides for us, are meant to form us and to be of help towards a greater spiritual awareness.
The truth is, however, you are not your ego. Our growth is not meant to be limited by or to the ego.
We are meant to learn how to keep the ego in check, instead of being ruled by it ourselves.
If we were to master the ego, we would be able to return to a certain experience of oneness or unity, but with a greater depth and a greater understanding than before. Meanwhile, we
would still fully understand that we are individual beings, and that we are one part of a bigger picture (unity within diversity).
KIM
25.01.2024