What is the Ego Identification or Ego Illusion?

Forgetting who he really is, the man is hypnotized by an idea of self, which he carries his whole life as false identity, in which he cannot find fulfillment.

The physical body is an expression of both our soul and our ego.

We identify ourselves with both in turn, believing that “this is the way we are”. In reality, things are different.

What is the ego?

“Ego” is one of those words which is used everywhere, not necessarily correctly, in various forms and with different meanings, depending on the context.

Psychology uses the word “ego” to define an individual’s ability to maintain his physical integrity, functionality, and autonomy.

It is firmly believed that its presence is essential for survival. While living in the ego, we fear the future, especially death, as fear of death is universal.

The main problem is that people confuse ego with themselves. This is the reason why they don’t have the courage to give it up. But ego is nothing more than a set of thinking patterns, which are deeply rooted and can become more intense through repetition and social approval. The role is acquired in early childhood, during which it develops and strengthens.

An even greater self-programming continues with the use of language, especially the pronoun “I”, which creates a clear, but false separation between us and everything around us. It’s not the nature of ego that’s most important, but its identification with the “self.”

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Ego identification or ego illusion

The ego is just a sum of subjective opinions, programs, provided by the mind and greatly amplified through emotions and feelings. It doesn’t live the experience of the world, it just has an opinion about it. If one frees himself from personal pride, the ego dissolves! All opinions are related to pride, therefore its pleasure is the fundamental fuel of the ego’s persistence.

For the ego, wanting is “I need” and “must have.”

To obtain it, the ego will find many excuses to justify itself. It has a cult of desire.

It will escape reasoning through skillful rhetoric, supported by the dismantling of others, because along with its evolution it would have died if its wishes hadn’t been satisfied.

However, it shouldn’t be regarded as an enemy, it is just an illusion that we can give up, in order for something better to take its place.

The problem is that ego is afraid of dissolution and that is why we feel a powerful, organic, painful objectivity every time we give up something that we were taught it’s desirable and we deserve it.

Although the human mind likes to think that is devoted to the truth, in reality, it’s just looking for confirmation of what it already believes in.

Did you know that, by nature, the mind is unable to distinguish the truth from falsehood?

Through honest self-analysis and attention, we can discover that most of our states of consciousness are the result of validating an option.

Ego is “presumptuous from birth” and doesn’t easily accept the fact that many of its beliefs are illusions of perception.

Dr. David Hawkins said that “once we get closer to the source of the ego’s tenacity, we make a crucial discovery: we are in love with ourselves!”

Another problem is that some still confuse ego with personality. Thus, its derogation could be understood as a loss of personal qualities. Not true! Someone said that the ego is responsible for creating the personality as much as the worm contributes to the apple’s taste.

The ego doesn’t give us personality, on the contrary, it gets us closer to mental pathology and it stiffens our behavior, making us weak when facing attacks. A strong personality is not defined by predictable and rigid reactions, but rather by flexibility, adaptation, and maintaining a strong moral character and a clear scale of values.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow studied many accomplished people with acknowledged value, from several points of view. Maslow called this plenary state “self-actualization.”

It is at the top of the human needs pyramid (along with preservation, security, emotional and social relationships).

If we were to review his study, we would find that all these special people share one quality: they have greatly diminished their ego.

Detaching from the ego can be compared to trimming hair. The hair is ours, but now that it’s gone, it becomes absolutely useless. However attached we are, we don’t lose something essential by detaching from it!

It is essential to understand and accept that the ego is not “bad,” it’s just tenaciously following its own interests.

Its dominance is not diminished through fighting, but through accepting and compassionate understanding.

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