The Ego and Spirituality
What is ego? I’ve often heard people say someone is coming from his or her ego. Ego has gotten a bad reputation because if a person is in his or her ego, how can he or she be spiritual? Are ego and spirituality separate?
Our modern concept of ego started with good old Sigmund Freud. Originally, Freud defined the word ego as a sense of self. Later, he revised his definition of ego to mean the organized realistic part of the psyche, compared to the chaotic instinctual id and the critical and moralizing super-ego. The ego finds a balance between primitive drives and reality while satisfying the id and super-ego. In psychoanalysis, the ego is the part of the psyche that is conscious, controls thought and behavior, and is most in touch with external reality. This perspective is entirely focused on third dimensional experience.
In third dimensional experience, the concept of ego has commonly come to be applied to self worth, self esteem and self identity. A person who is has an inflated sense of self worth is referred to as egotistical. Ego is your identity that separates you from all other people. Taking ego a step further, does having a separate identity separate you from not just other people but from your spiritual nature and from God? You are a spiritual being in physical form. As a spiritual being in physical form, isn’t ego part of you and part of your Divine nature? Every one of us has a mind and emotions. Your mind and emotions are part of you and part of your Divine nature. In order to become more spiritual, is it necessary to eliminate your ego? If we are truly all one, why does separation in the form of individual ego exist?
The ego expresses individuality. Oneness