Ego and Spirit

What is the purpose of your life?

The Ego
The ego is a person's separate identity with its "characteristics": father, wife, supervisor, athlete, fat person, ill, unemployed, President, award-winner, intelligent, stupid. It is the ego which takes life very seriously and that hurts. The ego can be powerless over alcohol -- it is the seat of alcoholism or addiction. The ego can be an abused child, a rape victim, a cripple, etc.

The self, once it is known, is one with God or the Holy Ghost. It is a part of us that can never be hurt by the external world. It is stainless and unharmed. It has divine understanding and is the source of wise choices. It is quiet and unmoved in the midst of chaos. It is an anchor in any storm. It is far beyond the power of words to describe. It just is.

Self esteem.True self-esteem comes from an awareness of our true nature as the Holy Spirit or as a person of aliveness and grace. It does not depend on accomplishments or achievements. It is confidence that glories not only in our own identity but in the identity of our fellows. True self-esteem comes from seeing ourselves as loving beings in our very core.

Whoever hates may hide it in speech, but deep within lies treachery; do not trust such a person’s pretty speeches, since in the heart lurk seven abominations. Hatred may disguise itself with guile, to reveal its wickedness later in the assembly. Proverbs 26:24-26; The New Jerusalem Bible: Reader’s Edition, (New York: Doubleday.) 1990.

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