Making Friends with Your Ego

My book, end your story. Begin your life... was written as a complete statement on what is needed to awaken to and embody inner freedom or, as it has more traditionally been called, enlightenment, self-realization, or liberation. And, as a statement, I am well-satisfied with it. It is now going out into the world, albeit very slowly, and is already having an effect.

As I wrote elsewhere, the musician, Carlos Santana, of Black Magic Woman fame, evidently bought a copy at Open Secret Bookstore in San Rafael, California, and on March 22, quoted me on the Wall of his Facebook page. A few days later, I received an email from his assistant. We spoke and she said Carlos loved my book so much he bought ten copies for his friends. I've never actually been to a Santana concert, but someone told me he is a very spiritual guy and always appears onstage with a photograph of his guru.

Now, what does all this have to do with making friends with your ego? Everything. Two young seekers of truth, my son, Adam, aged 25, and Cameron, age 26, are both right now engaged in varying degrees of struggle with their ego. I've written this post to clarify things a bit more for them. We will see what kind of a job I do as I wing this post!

As I say in my book, I am a marketplace, as opposed to mountaintop, teacher. An example of the latter is Ramana Maharshi, or Ramakrishna. Krishnamurti was somewhere in between. Jean Klein, my guide, was closer to the marketplace. Marketplace teachers fully acknowledge the role of the ego in their lives. We use our egos to get things done.

I am right now in the middle of setting up a series of workshops with the Krishnamurti Foundation in Ojai, Agape in Culver City, and the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Los Angeles. All this requires writing, planning, communication, persistence, and patience. When I email someone about a proposal, there is a "me" doing it. I am promoting my own work. You might think that I am promoting myself, my ego, but you would be wrong.

Once you are free, and are fully awake to your true purpose for being here, then your purpose comes through you, and your ego is there, as your ally, your friend, to help shape it and guide it into manifestation. You, as consciousness, the whole, use the wonderful tool that is your ego to facilitate the workings of your creative mind, and thus bring your dreams into reality.

All this is explained in different words in Chapter Four of my book, in the section titled Toss the Ego a Bone. As I say at the end of that section: "Acknowledge your ego's existence, and let it go. Come back to simply being open and aware in this moment now. Then your ego need not be a problem."