My Ego Myself

Our ego is an identifier. We need to identify with a certain particularity in order to maintain biological and mental integrity. All this is to the good, so how is it that the words ego and egoistic carry such negative connotations? It is because the surface of our ego is covered with super glue. Memories, possessions, desires, experiences, attachments, achievements, opinions, and prejudices stick to the ego like barnacles to the hull of a ship. "This is the totality of me," the ego thinks, "I am my success, my wife, my car, my job, my woes, my wants, my, my, my." And the pure single identity succumbs to the disease of elephantiasis, in which our self becomes grossly enlarged, coarsened, and thickened. From Light on Life by BKS Iyengar


What thins the ego, the sages tell us, keeps it supple, flexible, properly sized, is the Soul. The senses entice the ego with promises of colorful candy, baskets full of fresh bread, forever love. "Look at this, smell that, feel me," our senses turned out towards the world are excited. It wouldn't be so bad but, as any Mad Man would tell you, the ego is easily manipulated, tempted, endless. The ego is easily convinced that it is you, you are it and all the things you possess.

The constant fear and anxiety that we can feel comes from the ego who so identifies with things that perish that death is always near.

Tether your ego to Soul, the sages tell us, for in the Soul there is no wanting, no impermanence, no death. My soul, your soul, which resides right underneath the breastbone, is linked to the universal Soul which I imagine is like a forever flowing river, without ending, without beginning. I draw energy, breath, life itself from this fast flowing pristine source from which I am never disconnected.

I am not without wants in this place. I still want food for my hunger, rest for my fatigue, outlets for my creativity, balm for my pain. But, in turning to my Soul for guidance, am better able meet my needs, wants, and desires, with wisdom, equanimity, and enough.