Ego - Why Do We Have One?

Why do we have an Ego?

Almost all spiritual guides say that we must eliminate or dispose of our ego before we can reach enlightenment. If this is true, then why did our creator burden us with an ego to start with? Would it not have saved considerable struggle just to let us be born with only a spiritual side and not have an ego to fight with all the time? A fight that most people seen to loose.

What is the ego anyway? The ego is that part of us that makes us separate from other people and things. It is the opposite of oneness that most spiritualists are trying to achieve. The ego is, as the Taoist express, the ten thousand things. So then why do we need one?

The ego allows me to be different from you even though we are made from the same dirt. Namaste. The ego is built from our individual histories or dharma. No two can be alike.

The ego expresses the opposite of the unifying field that leads to enlightenment. We tend to look at the ego as bad and oneness as good. However, the Taoist teach that nothing is either good no bad, it just is. So the ego cannot be bad or evil, it just is. So, why do we have to destroy it to get where we want to be?

If we look at the ego as one extreme and the all encompassing oneness as the other, we see that as humans living in physical bodies that our path lies somewhere between the extremes. When we were created is was so that the creator could experience life in as many different ways as possible. The ego defines each of the infinite different ways. As long as we realize that the ego is just part of the continuum between oneness and the individual, then we can stop wasting our energy fighting our ego and let out lives flow naturally between the extremes of ourselves as different and our selves as part of the whole.

Mike Strawbridge is a Performance Consultant enhancing business and personal performance by integrating mind, body and spirit.

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