Touchy Ego
October 10, 2018
Open to constructive, knowledgeable criticism is being open to everything including communication. Nearly all ‘ego’s’ are small ones that get out of control when ignited. People assume that it’s best to get rid of the ego. Nothing could be further from the truth. A sense of who you are, especially when it’s ‘who you think you are’ is as part of life as is breath.
Ego is ‘me and I’. Only the spiritual adept acknowledge who they really are. For eons spiritual Masters/gurus have suggested getting rid of the ego. Actually, absurd!
Let the ego grow and with it humbleness and positive discernment. When the ego is strong it is compassionate and is rarely intimidated or closed to any conversation or anything said to you. Small ego’s are usually ‘stuck’ in insecurity that needs to puff up when challenged. Best to have a smooth, balanced, and centered ego.
Had a friend once who was what is sometimes referred to as ‘yogic’ or his ability to withstand all climate conditions, noises, criticisms, emotions, etc with no effect on him. He was very proud of his abilities to be a non reactor, and yet a denier to all honorable criticisms of his behaviors that annoyed everyone. Ego denied, but cleverly buried, and truth be told, a small one.
A touchy ego person will find infinite ways to not communicate or dialog about many things, usually having personal reactions easily enflamed. This type of individual, to be friends with, requires ‘walking on egg shells’ to communicate with. It’s a form of selfishness in that it works for them in their perception, but is often a taking of others freedom of conversation with a practical fear that they will meet rancor or lose a friendship if too open in conversation.
Love your ego! Let it grow in positive ways. Be a friend to your ego, to yourself, and if you would find yourself in someone you would want to spend your life with. The greatest love affair is with yourself, and whether another shares that with you or not on the highest levels, you will be in elite company with your self in consciousness.
Buddhism teaches to dissolve the self/ego. Problem is, who is left to suffer? May sound negative, but the world needs dark to be light or all would die in boredom or apathy. Nurture the self/ego instead and let the process rise to it’s highest possibility, yet keeping and actually enhancing the many sensitivities in a positive way, including the many ways that suffering occurs. Freedom comes when seeing what is not freedom, allowing ones mind to steer clear of just ‘negativities and negative interpretations’.
A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life. ~ James Allen
Arhata~
