A girl named M spent all her time on an elephant. M practically lived atop the elephant and went wherever the elephant took her. One day a tiny boy looked at her and asked, “Hey M! Why do you not get off the elephant?”
M looked surprised and asked, “What elephant?”
Most of us would call M delusional. “How can she spend all his time atop an elephant and not know that it even exists?”
But here is the sad truth. We are all like M. We are all riding this elephant called the Ego. Somehow we mistake the ego’s actions as our own and we provide reasons and justifications for its doings after the fact. Most of us have no idea that the ego is separate from us, and the fact that it is controlling our lives. We spend most of lives riding this elephant called ego, and yet we are blissfully unaware of this!
Here is quote from Lester Levenson on the ego:
“All unhappiness is caused by our trying to be limited, to be an ego. The more we are our Self, the happier we are. We will never be completely happy until we are completely being our Self.”
It is important to understand that an entity called the “Self” exists. This is our real identity. It is denoted with a capital “S”. Yet we completely forget this and identify ourselves with our ego. Because of this identification with the ego, we think it perfectly okay for the ego to take us where it wants.
Our spiritual evolution lies in waking up to our true identity, as Jim Britt explains: “Waking up to who you are requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be.”
And when our spiritual progress is strong enough to sideline the ego, great things happen:
“The authentic Self is the best part of a human being. It’s the part of you that already cares, that is already passionate about evolution. When your authentic Self miraculously awakens and becomes stronger than your ego, then you will truly begin to make a difference in this world. You will literally enter into a partnership with the creative principle.” – Andrew Cohen
Its time we stop being elephant riders. Its time for us to be free:
I am not here for me
I am not here to promote my ego
I am here to serve the Great Spirit
To be a voice for those afraid to speak
To be movement for those who are stuck
I am here to reveal a mystery
To learn something new about myself
– Holly Near
Related:
I Am Nothing And I Am Everything!
Six Surprising Facts About Your Ego
Credits:This has been written by Raj Shah and edited by Ketna Shah.