Some people want to kill their ego. Others want to dissolve it. And yet others will say just make peace with it. So what is it? Violence certainly doesn't sound good. Is it even possible to dissolve it? Peace sounds good, but the ego tends to not be very peaceful.
In today's podcast, I answer all these questions in depth, as well as discuss how we can use the ego as the powerful tool that is. When we understand the nature of the ego we can identify its tricks, we can bring conscious intention to it, and we can discover the key to living with mental peace and joy.
Please enjoy other episodes where Todd shares meditation techniques, tips and spiritual lessons from around the world for peaceful and stress-free living. Remember to subscribe to stay up-to-date.
*****
If you ever feel like my words brought a change in your life, and want to show your SUPPORT for what I am doing, click here.
Find all of my BOOKS for wherever you are on your spiritual journey: https://www.eastwesticism.org/spiritual-meditation-books/
Want to gift a book to a prisoner? Go here.
Some people want to kill their ego. Others want to dissolve it. And yet others will say just make peace with it. So what is it? Violence certainly doesn't sound good. Is it even possible to dissolve it? Peace sounds good, but the ego tends to not be very peaceful.
In today's podcast, I answer all these questions in depth, as well as discuss how we can use the ego as the powerful tool that is. When we understand the nature of the ego we can identify its tricks, we can bring conscious intention to it, and we can discover the key to living with mental peace and joy.
Please enjoy other episodes where Todd shares meditation techniques, tips and spiritual lessons from around the world for peaceful and stress-free living. Remember to subscribe to stay up-to-date.
*****
If you ever feel like my words brought a change in your life, and want to show your SUPPORT for what I am doing, click here.
Find all of my BOOKS for wherever you are on your spiritual journey: https://www.eastwesticism.org/spiritual-meditation-books/
Want to gift a book to a prisoner? Go here.
0:02
Welcome to path to peace with Todd Perelmuter. I'm your host, Todd Perelmuter our world is a projection of our collective consciousness, the more peace we bring into our lives, the more peace we bring into this world. So let the transformation begin.
0:23
In order to dissolve the ego, we must first understand the nature of the ego. Every single conflict on earth comes out from the ego.
0:44
It is a very low level of awareness and intelligence, that we too often confused with our true selves, and our highest form of intelligence. But the fact of the matter is, the ego doesn't even exist.
1:09
It is non physical, and merely the result of electricity firing throughout the neurons in our brain, creating a mental illusion of often words and images in order to deconstruct the infinitely complex universe around us.
1:45
It only exists, if it can trick us into believing that it is us. And it does this by creating an illusion of self importance. Every ego, no matter how big or small, is an inflated ego, which is to say, more self important than it actually is. And it can only have this illusion of self importance, if it convinces us that it is in charge of us.
2:25
Even though we are our true selves are able to ignore or listen to it, which is to say, we are actually in control, not the ego.
2:38
And if it can convince us that it is in charge, that it is in charge of our mental and emotional state, and it is in charge of our actions, behaviors and habits, then it can control us, then it has two arms and two legs, and a mouth and a whole human body at its disposal. If it is caught as a non existent illusion, then it becomes powerless. And it fears its own death.
3:18
And so it will fight at nothing to maintain its importance. And it will come up with every trick in the book and every distraction it can come up with to make us forget that there is a higher consciousness within us.
3:39
It will do any number of tricks such as self compliments that further inflate the ego and boost our feeling of self importance. And if that doesn't work, it'll love to go to self criticism and self judgment and be completely negative and convince us how much we need this ego on our side.
4:06
If we try to sit in meditation, or just even observe a flower or a sunset, without the constant mind shatter, it will try to create a very entertaining and compelling story. And try to get you to remember all those great memories that you've had and anything to take you out of the moment because when you are in the moment, when you are fully present.
4:36
There is no thought you can't be lost in thought. You can't be thinking something while being fully present. As soon as you're thinking something. You are taken out of the here and now and you are lost in a mental story. That is the egos doing the more it can talk and you live Sun, the more power it has, and the greater chances that you will identify with it. And you will engage it constantly.
5:13
Because, as I said, the egos biggest fear is its own death. And any moment of not thought to this ego is death because the ego is like a little child. And it is incredibly impatient. It has no real concept of delayed gratification. It's all about me, me, me. Now. Now now. And if it doesn't get what it wants, whether it's some addiction, some pleasure, some physical desire pleasure, it will throw a temper tantrum until it finally has you pay attention to it.
6:02
It doesn't have a big perspective. It has this very narrow perspective, and all it knows is this moment, and if it isn't getting exactly what it wants, if everything isn't exactly perfect to the ego, it will go berserk.
6:23
And this will be seen when we try to go without some favorite food for an extended period of time or if our phone dies, and we have to just stare at our shoes while we're in line at the post office. The ego knows no patience, and no quiet peacefulness it is by its very nature, a chaotic monkey mind as it's often called, which is to say swinging from thought to thought topic to topic, aimlessly and wildly.
7:04
Over 90% of our thoughts are repetitive and negative, which means they are not useful. And we are not consciously choosing them. In fact, they are completely unconscious, unintended thoughts that are causing our own suffering, and disturbing our inner peace. And to keep that constant drama going.
7:36
These egos need constant entertainment, constant pleasure, constant praise and affection and compliments and freakout at the slightest bit of criticism or negative feedback.
7:57
And the bigger the ego, the bigger the target for criticism. That is why we see so much insecurity in narcissists. The bigger the narcissist, the bigger the insecurity. And we see that time and time again, where they are unable to handle any criticism and they need constant praise.
8:23
And this is why so many people are always on that up and down roller coaster of life, that mental roller coaster, from highs to lows, and a steady peacefulness is so elusive to so many of us.
8:44
And the ego is even very good at convincing us that we need the ego. That's the whole thing with the ego is it will tell us we can't meditate. That's the ego. That's the ego talking every thought is the ego. And it will say meditations too hard. It's pointless. Quit give up. You know all of these thoughts we've had about meditation, which we all have had, every time anyone starts out meditating. These are the most normal thoughts that come into mind.
9:23
And this is the ego fighting for dear life. And it will play every song, movie conversation we've ever had in our head over and over and over again to entertain us to distract us to keep us thinking we can't meditate. And the more we try to quiet the ego, the louder it gets. And this is really quite simply because we cannot fight the ego.
9:57
It is a part of us And the more we fight it, the more we focus on it. And the more we focus on it, the more attention and energy we give to it.
10:11
And the more attention and energy we give to it, the stronger it becomes. And in order to dissolve the ego, we mustn't fight the ego, you cannot fight a part of you, you have to just allow it to be, you can't fight it, you can't kill it. And you can't ignore it either.
10:44
Ignoring it is exactly the same as trying to fight it, you are resisting, you are trying with effort to let this thing not have your attention. And fighting it only makes it stronger.
11:11
And the other impulse may be to give into it. Just say, okay, you know, whatever you want ego. This is equally detrimental. This is like giving a child, everything they asked for. It will just spoil the kid rotten.
11:34
Like a child having a temper tantrum. You don't fight the child. And you don't give in to the child. You let them tire themselves out, you give no energy.
11:49
You simply allow it to run its course.
11:55
You can sue that. You can be a safe, calming peaceful space for it. But you don't give in. You don't ignore and you don't fight. You let it be. And you allow for love to transform this negative, incessant, repetitive thinking machine into an intentional, thoughtful tool that it was designed to be 100,000 years ago, these egos were absolutely fantastic tools for hunting and gathering and finding a mate.
12:50
That are it is a problem solving machine. That when it's not run amok, when it is used when necessary, and able to be quiet.
13:02
When not necessary, we can have a incredibly peaceful, incredibly productive life. We need the ego, because it helps us understand that we need to find food that we need to be wary of tigers and bears, and to keep a safe distance from the cliff's edge. To help us remember how to navigate with the stars. These are all the things that the thinking mind can allow us to do.
13:46
But it is only effective when it can become quiet. Because when it becomes quiet, insights, ideas and creativity have space to enter our mind. And the ego is what is able to convert that creative energy and those insights into words and ideas into innovations and tool tool development and all the other things that we were able to build our societies into.
14:26
But once we became almost solely focused on labor and survival, when that became full time jobs when newspapers and radios and film and radios were able to pump our heads full of words.
14:51
These egos got too much input and too much to constantly think about up and reflect on.
15:03
We were supposed to spend a few hours hunting and gathering every day, and spend the rest of the day with our friends and family in a relaxing peaceful environment, and overtime,
15:20
News of the World, worries of the world. constant stress of survival overtook our lives and consumed our minds.
15:34
Even just 100 years ago, we would see people just sitting on their porch, maybe drinking some tea, and just staring out into the nature for hours in the evening, after a hard day's work in the fields or factories or minds.
15:55
And we didn't call it meditation. But it was this absolutely vital time where our minds could come and settle down and enjoy some peace and quiet.
16:14
Today, an idea like that is stressful for people. Peace is now stressful, and it causes so much inner turmoil. People can't even stand peace anymore. And this is really the root cause of why our egos have run amok is that we have too much information and things that can hold our attention.
16:46
That peace and quiet has been shoved down the list of ways to spend time. And this is really why we haven't had world peace. Because we really can't stand peace, and we really crave drama, or at least the ego craves drama, at the expense of our own true lasting happiness.
17:11
The ego just absolutely craves conflict, it needs conflict because it knows itself by knowing what it stands against. And the more conflict, the stronger the sense of ego, the stronger that we identify with the ego, because we have these strong, solid positions that we have dug our heels into, through arguments and disagreements.
17:42
And if we're not disagreeing and arguing with someone else, then we aren't sure how we exist in relation to others. And if we're not even arguing with someone else, we can aro always argue with our false sense of self, the ego.
18:02
And we do this all the time, when we say we really hate ourselves, or we love ourselves, these these relationships that we have with ourself based on this delusion, that there is who we truly are. And then there is our ego. And we develop a relationship with ourselves instead of just being ourselves. And this is where so much of the ego gets its energy from.
18:35
And when we recognize our highest self, our true self, our light of consciousness within us that animates this physical body, that is what perceives all thoughts and emotions, and is able to have a higher intelligence, which can choose to listen or not listen to the thoughts in our head, which can give into the impulses and temptations and desires of the ego or not.
19:13
And we recognize that that is our true self, our highest self, then this duality disappears, because the thoughts in our head, have no more weight and power over us. It is simply like walking down the street and hearing a conversation from someone else. It's not us and it doesn't matter what these strangers say.
19:40
And so that is the place where we can evolve to personally and recognize that these thoughts in our head do not have to dictate where we put our focus and attention. That is our true power.
20:04
We don't have to go on a downward spiral of emotions and thoughts just because our ego got bruised.
20:14
Because we don't identify with the ego any longer. And so to really dissolve the ego starts with dis identifying from the ego, because that is really where it gets all of its power. Instead of just being another voice.
20:34
It's obviously nicer when that voice is positive than negative. But going beyond thought, is how we truly dissolve the ego. Many indigenous cultures recognized this thinking mind, and did not actually give much importance to it.
21:02
Because they recognized their intuition of the heart. And their instinct from the gut, which they call the second and third mind were actually more important than the thinking brain, and those annoying little thoughts in our mind. And we can actually see a real difference in cultures who nurtured their heart and their guts, more than their mind.
21:38
A culture that focuses on the mind, as the highest form of intelligence only sees that caveman seek out food and mate viewpoint. And so they have cultures that are destroying the planet, consuming its resources, and can even with extreme wealth, have extreme poverty and homelessness.
22:10
Whereas cultures that nourish and listen to the heart and the gut more, those cultures often are matriarch ease, and take much better care of each of their citizens.
22:28
And they put a greater value on the feelings and quality of everyone's experience. And remarkably, this isn't even just metaphor, as we are now finding brain neurons in the heart and in the gut. And it is no longer assumed that all of our intelligence comes from the brain, as we are finding these new neurons that connect these three systems.
23:05
And the brain is really all about those physical needs and pleasures the basest desires that we have, and it is very effective, when we are in survival mode, but in modern society, of relative safety, it is the cause of more suffering.
23:33
It sees us instead of connected as separate, and always acquiring more, and in competition with our fellow humans.
23:47
But the more we disidentify with that ego, and we identify with that, connecting energy that is within all of us, and is the same within me as you that animating lifeforce energy of consciousness.
24:07
Then we see how we can work together to make sure everyone has a fulfilling, rich life of meaning, purpose and dignity. And the more moments of peace and quiet reflection, we can bring into our lives to listen to that intuition, and that instinct, our hearts and our guts, which too often gets drowned out by that screaming ego.
24:42
We can move past tribalism and we can really experience deep down that we are part of this one life, this nature care of mother earth.
25:04
And we can work together to build a future that honors all of us.
25:15
And the more time we allow for that peaceful, quiet reflection, to become our new state of being, that ego will get quieter and quieter.
25:32
It will run out of things to distract us with as we turn our attention towards the here and now. And it may kick and scream a lot at first, try to convince us to give it our attention.
25:54
But over a few days, few weeks few months, it'll get quieter and quieter, until it eventually gives up. And we are in a regular state of peace and bliss that doesn't come from physical pleasures that are only fleeting and temporary, but from that inner source of love, and awareness.
26:26
Thank you so much for listening.
26:29
This has been path to peace with Todd Perelmuter. Peace and love.
26:34
You've been listening to path to peace with Todd Perelmuter. Being here and putting in this important and noble work is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself and others. If you found this podcast even a little helpful. Please make sure to leave a review so it can reach others who may be in need. And remember, the path to peace starts with a single step.