Section #26: The Synergy in Life System
Liberating Energy from Ego Consciousness
There is nothing wrong with thinking consciously. Quite the contrary can be true. Thinking is a potentially wonderful and powerful tool. We must avoid the trap of thought, however. That is the trick. A Gradual Awakening was the first book I read on the topic of self development some twenty two years ago. In it Stephen Levine emphasized that the rational mind is good for collecting and applying knowledge. He said that it is useful for learning, and applying that learning to survival amid the complexities of the world. Further, he explained that while thinking is a good tool and a good servant, it all too often becomes a terrible master. This, sadly, is all too true. A terrible, energy gobbling master!
Thinking has many good attributes that serve us well – no argument. Do you have control of thought? Visualize thought simply as the incessant output of an amazingly potent organ. See thought as output and not as ‘I’ and this paradigm shift begins to loosen the grasp thoughts have. Thoughts are output from the brain and only that, yet most of us spend a tremendous amount of energy exerting and protecting the story relentlessly spun by our thoughts only to propagate the identification with thought as who were are. Reacting emotionally, defending positions and statements, living in the past, living in the future, reaction to memories, creating division …. Vital mental, physical, and life-force energy is consumed so that we may be the puppet of this relentless puppet master! This is energy that is better employed in the desired pursuit of increasing affluence and pursuing purpose in your life. Would you agree? It is surely better to direct energy to your desires than it is to waste it frivolously. It is for this reason that you simply have to get off, or for now, at least slow down the Ego train, and there is scientific support to lend here. Read this as you consider your own Ego train and your plans to derail it.
We know from scientific study that thoughts create sympathetic conditions in the body. This has been proven amply. Let’s test this easily; use your mind right now and check your mouth quickly. Gauge the amount of saliva within it and record it as a memory. Now think about a big juicy lemon sitting on a plate in a brightly lit kitchen, beside it a sharp knife. In your mind’s eye, pick up the knife and carefully and slowly draw it through the lemon until a juicy slice is cut from the rest. See the aromatic fluid burst from the lemon where the knife is drawn, smell lemon juice in the air. Now pick up the bright yellow lemon and slowly bring it to your face to smell it… then bite! Suck the sour juice of the lemon into your mouth and swish it about…. Now check your mouth again – more saliva? If you imagined this scene with any amount of clarity, there will be more saliva, and so, this is a simple exercise which demonstrates the body’s reaction to a simple thought. A simple thought creates a simple reaction.
With more gravity now, what about the reaction of the body to chronic stress? We know the disabling effect stress has on the body in conditions such as ulcers, anxiety, skin rashes, depression and much more. Stress dulls our life-force too. What if even some of this stress was a function of the identification with and the fortification of Ego? More seriously, what if Ego was the primary source of stress? Consider this proposition – what if it were the primary source?
There is a lot of energy invested in Ego, and therefore there are a lot of potentially damaging and dulling effects to our minds our bodies and to our life-force because thought is largely incessant and out of control. To appreciate and acknowledge this is to awaken slightly. To divest from Ego entirely is to awaken. For now, soften your need for Ego. Start this process by finding yourself more often observing thinking or even letting conscious thinking go altogether. This is awareness, and the grounded awareness of your Natural Being is a much kinder, loving, and enlivening place than Ego. Ask yourself, if it is true that you are not thought, then, do you have to continuously create and protect the construct of thought – Ego – through opinions and reactions and judgments? You were and you are already fully created as the awareness behind thought. You were created in complete form before Ego began within you. Consider that Ego is a creation of thought that wants its own completeness, and understand that it gets its way far too often. Relax and simply be.
Many great books have been written on the subject of emancipation from Ego, and it is worth reading some of them, such as Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now or Stephen Levine’s A Gradual Awakening. For the purpose of this system, we have enough knowledge to move to a presentation of the subconscious mind. We are not done with Ego, however. We will continue with the diffusion then elimination of Ego while simultaneously maintaining and developing the importance of directed constructive thought.
