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A bigger ego is the only way to truly create "A New Earth"...
Posted By James Arthur Ray on 2008-05-14 22:41
Unless you've been living under a rock for the last 6 months, you've most likely heard the buzz around A New Earth. I applaud Eckhart Tolle for putting forth the time and energy to make such a positive impact on the world.
The things he's teaching are powerful... and yet as I travel around the globe, I still find misconceptions, misinterpretations and confusion. It's obvious that most people have a lack of understanding regarding one of the key concepts regarding the human ego.
And because of that, the ego gets a bad rap.
Anyone who's been exposed to even a small amount of traditional spiritual teachings, particularly from the East, has heard all the ways that the human ego gets debased and despised. To most, the ego is a selfish, materialistic, stingy, controlling monster that must be at least controlled and at best destroyed. This is ignorance and a lack of understanding of something that will never be actualized.
First, the word "ego" is Latin and translates as "I." Every time you read or hear "ego," think "I." Your ego (or I) is nothing more or less than the identity you've created and continue to hold for yourself. Now if you follow this through logically, you'll realize there's absolutely no way you can be "egoless."
Even the most sagacious of teachers and uber of gurus has an ego...
And to think or propagate otherwise is illusion. To work toward "egoless living" is actually an ego/identity. To be a "non-materialist" is an ego/identity. To be "non-attached" and a spiritual person is (you guessed it) an ego/identity.
The fact of the matter is you cannot even exist without some semblance of an ego/identity. Therefore, I submit that your ego is not too big as you've often been told...
I suggest your ego is not big enough!
When you identify yourself with your activities, your possessions, your position or any other of these items of the physical world, your identity is centered as a finite physical being. Truth be understood, you should be identifying yourself with infinity or God.
In my new book Harmonic Wealth, The Secret of Attracting the Life You Want, I discuss that true wealth is a state of harmony and well-being in the five key areas (I call them the five pillars) of life: Financial, Relational, Mental, Physical and Spiritual. Only when these five pillars are in harmony in your life are you truly wealthy and fulfilled. The solution to this ego issue resides in the Relational Pillar.
Now when I speak of relationships, the majority of people automatically think "romance!" While romance is an important part of our relational experience, it pales by comparison to the grander issue: how you relate to the entire world.
Refer to the section in Harmonic Wealth titled "The Hierarchy of Personal Identity." In it, I discuss the 7 different levels of existence in which we play the game of life. If ego is the identity you hold (which it is), then it's important to explore where your sense of self resides.
While I won't go into an in-depth explanation of all seven levels here, I'll briefly explore the extremes or both poles of the hierarchy.
Exploring this model, we truly find the key to creating a new earth for ourselves, for others and for the entire planet...
At the bottom of the hierarchy (or "at the beginning stages of awareness"), you define your identity as an Individual Being.
When holding your ego/identity at the Individual level, your entire world centers around you, the things you want, the things you do, what happens to you and the things you have. This is the level of lowest awareness in the hierarchy.
At this Individual level, you're separate from other beings, from nature and from the world and universe at large. As a result, we traditionally have little care or deep concern for the needs of others, and most often care little for the well-being of animals, plants or the natural world... And certainly not as a primary focus.
This is the level of awareness most likely labeled by spiritual traditions as the ego/identity that must be overcome or transcended... And it's true that you must grow beyond this in the evolution of consciousness... but that's only half the story.
Before I explain that statement more fully, let's jump to the opposite pole of the hierarchy.
At the seventh level of the model (or "at the highest level of awareness"), you define yourself as a Spiritual Being. Now, the word "spiritual" needs some explaining because many misinterpret it to mean "religious." This again is a limited understanding.
Spirit is the creative force that moves through all existence both animate and inanimate. While religious traditions call this power "God," quantum physics calls it "Energy." Choose whichever label works best for your way of thinking, and understand that both science and religion are talking the same language with different labels.
While Spirit moves through all creation and therefore is the Creative Source, religion is a methodology or set of beliefs to allow you to connect with the Creative Source. Do you get the difference?
Religion is the means... Spirit is the end. Let's not define the forest by the tree.
As a Spiritual Being, you realize at your very core your interconnectivity to every single thing in this universe... And even beyond this universe. You understand and operate from a deep sense of inclusiveness and realize you're connected to everyone and everything. With this understanding, the statements of Jesus, "I and the Father are one," and, "If I be lifted up, I lift up every man," become truly awakened within you.
Now here's the critical part many so-called spiritual teachers and aspirants misunderstand. As a spiritual being, you're not out to annihilate or overcome any part of the ego/identity journey--rather to embrace and include it all. So while you must transcend certain small ego identifiers you've created, in order to truly awaken, you must also include them. They're not bad or wrong...
They're just a link in the great chain of being... A necessary step in the great adventure and journey of life.
Think about it, if all things come from the same source (call it Energy, God or Spirit), then as it states in the book of Genesis, "All is good." With this understanding and awakening, you realize that any time you dam any part of creation... you dam God!
Where is God not? Where is Energy not? Where is Spirit not? It's all the same stuff and of the same essence.
Authors and teachers frequently buzz about "finding your purpose." We all literally have one purpose and one purpose only, and that purpose is inclusiveness... The awakening and awareness that you, me, the dog, the cat, the sinner and the saint are all of the same source and essence.
From this perspective, everything is spiritual or of the same spirit.
The great mistake of many spiritual aspirants is that they believe that only chanting, meditating, praying, renouncing materialistic desires and suppressing your sexual nature are the spiritual experiences of this world. But think about it... That's just another ego/identity trip isn't it?
The material world and all the toys, trips and trimmings are not bad or wrong. This is the grand trap that many spiritual traditions fall into. Spiritual exclusivity or renunciation is just the same ego game at a different level.
The material world and all its experiences only become a limitation when you build and attach your ego/identity to them. Likewise, the same is true with spiritual pursuits. Spiritual attachment and escapism is no more the complete answer than is material attachment and escapism.
The master is one plays the game passionately but just doesn't buy in.
For this reason, you'll notice that the most powerfully awakened individuals in history tend to break the traditional rules. Jesus of Nazareth drank wine, broke the rules of the Sabbath and hung out with prostitutes and thieves. U.G. Krishnamurti drove an Alpha Romeo and wore Italian designer shoes.
When you finally awaken, you realize as A Course in Miracles states, "All things are echoes of the voice of God."
You see, once you expand your ego/identity to include everything, you're identified by nothing (or "no-thing"). When this awakening occurs, you can inhabit the world and play the game with gusto. Nothing and no one can hold you or harm you because you realize...
It's all you.
Only with the realization of ourselves as Spiritual Beings will we have "A New Earth." Only then will we begin to think of ourselves, our neighbors, other religions, other races, other nations as the interconnected and interdependent manifestations of the Creative Source.
Only then will we begin embracing versus judging--including versus dividing. Only then will we actualize our one true purpose in life which is a full recognition of our inclusiveness with all. Only then will we have harmony and well-being in every single aspect of our individual and collective lives.
Harmony in all, from Spirit to Form, is the key, my friend.
The answer is Harmonic Wealth... and it begins with you.
To your continued wealth and happiness,
James Arthur Ray
President/CEO
James Ray International
P.S. Order my bestselling book, Harmonic Wealth, today, and I'll throw in 3 bonuses for you: an online study guide, an online video course and a free online viewing of my new movie...
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It all makes sense
Posted By Melissa on 2008-05-15 02:10
I really enjoy reading the comments submitted by James. I read Harmonic Wealth and I enjoy reading Eckhart Tolle's writing as well. Comments posted by James to this site are like mini-tutorials. I've been re-reading portions of the book, and this just reinforces it all. I am enjoying life and playing the game. I have fallen into spiritual attachment/escapism and it helped my life temporarily, but I've always ended up feeling judgmental or like I was being judged by others. This explanation of spirituality is how I remember feeling as a child, and I love that!
Being like a Child
Posted By Janet on 2008-05-15 07:39
Mr. Ray,thank you once again taking the time to write out yet another teaching.I am deeply involved in your book"Harmonic Wealth" at this time and loving it! I read Melissa's comment and it touched home. I can remember as a child having flying capabilites that came with a lot of crashes.In my early twenties I learned more about this from author Ruth Montgomery.I also remember getting to the point in my life where it no longer gripped me about what other people thought.Then getting back in touch with my child happiness .I began enjoying the parks again,yes the playground, I am an avid swingger! HaHa. And in my general way of looking at life altogether. I do feel that being spiritual and seeing life from a childs view is connected.Getting back in touch with our surroundings all the way around is invigorating to say the least! I am glad I didn't spend my entire life losing sight of what's so important due to an overload of toxic energy.It feels great to breathe! Great Day to you All!
Fresh air!
Posted By Marta Reis on 2008-05-16 07:48
Thank you James for the fresh prespective and somewhat validation of what I'd sensed for sometime about the ego. I've heard myself and others wrestle with ways to describe or talk about the ego, often times casting a very harsh and negative light...but I've often thought, if it's here, it's got to serve me in some way...and serve me it does...it's a friend I often dance with and I'm grateful that it teaches me honor, humility, compassion, love...everything I need to learn to build a new earth!
Again, bravo for echoing that point and rock on!
Marta
Ego
Posted By Timothy Bryson on 2008-05-19 10:39
I saw on a PBS begathon one of today's super gurus. He was essentially saying how proud he was of his lack of ego. Standing before a crowd of people, all in awe of him, he says in essence he has no ego? Well, I, who am a lover of contradictions, love it. One spiritual idea that I have come to is that there is truth in contradictions.
No one is expected to always agree
Posted By Zoe Robinson on 2008-05-20 10:50
Your journey brought you to where you now are, and mine brought me to where I now am. The journeys weren't exactly the same (Although the Long Dark Night of the Soul was and will be!), but all of us are pieces required to bring the new era into being. We cannot all hold the exact same calling, for all are needed and all of us will bring forth exactly what we were blessed with to create the changes. At least that's how it seems to me.
Gift of Grace
Posted By kimberlee on 2008-07-08 23:03
Namaste
Blessings James, Your writings are received with love and fuel inspiration within the depths of my being. And so it is that I share from my heart...
The phenomena that is the human experience is truly a gift. The human body is a universe of incredible light. All that comprises of the human existance is a miracle -- no-thing or aspect of being is defunct or void.
To experience all that it is to be human is indeed a great paradox -- immersed within the human experience we become totally absorbed in what is unfolding around us. The transition into physicality renders and consolidates all that is known and understood into invisible essence. Infinite being becomes in-finite.
And so it is that In-finite being experiences something new: a world defined by subject and object. The essence of infinity appears to be separated into a myriad of distinct forms, and one becomes aware of the subjective-objective nature of being. The ego is born.
The human mind is mesmerized as it beholds splendid vistas of colour and light impinge upon the senses -- giving rise to shape, form, and circumscribed object.
As the mind attempts to comprehend the phenomenal nature of our existence, it pushes, pulls, distracts, categorizes and judges -- as it strives to transcend the ordinary. The mind is always attempting to become something greater. Unfettered, the mind is like a small child -- it recites learned thought, recycles concepts, intellectualizes and makes demands in an effort to become God. All the while, the entire human organism is pure energy engaging as a divine orchestrator of something much greater.
It appears that the human organism has been wired so that the ego does not fully comprehend the indwelling presence that is in-finite being. It simply responds in a subjective-objective manner and creates a unique individualized identity. Endowed with the innocence of a child, the ego is shaped by time and space, shadow and form, thought and feeling. And so it is that ego changes with the seasons, engaged within a quest to be better, faster, stronger...human evolution ensues.
As we move through life, the memory of our true divine nature sparkles like a rare treasure, but rarely do we chance upon a glimmer of our own magnificence. To experience such a glimmer is truly a blessed occassion.
Why is it that the ego does not make a concious connection that it is part of something much greater? Why is it that indwelling in-finite self remains hidden? The highest spiritual resolve arises from such contemplation.
Spiritual growth does not ensue from dissolving or disassociating from the body, nor does it serve any purpose to cull or suppress ego. The extraordinary sensory interface that allows us to experience all that it is to be human is truly a great gift -- for to be human is to touch and be touched by the divine.
Ah and here is the great paradox -- and verily, to encounter paradox is to stare into the soul of the Universe. A gift of grace, the ego serves as a portal of unification. Interesting that an interface that looks upon the world through the lens of separation, enables us to experience unity. As the ego develops it perceives a sense of being separate, arousing an inner yearning that propells one on a spiritual quest for meaning. Like the moon made luminescent by the sun, the ego is animated and illuminated by divine being. Infinite Universal intelligence expresses through the exquisite diversity of individualized form, and as we behold the light of divinity shining from every beautiful expression, truth dawns.
There is in essence no separation -- all is pure consciousness. And so it is, dear friends, that there is nothing to defend, nor is there anything to uphold. All that is required is for the mind to accept and embrace all that it is to be human -- within you, within me, within All That Is.
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