Ego

Love consciousness rather than fear-based consciousness would indeed solve the world's problems. Yet why is it that eventhough you are very committed to be servants to one another and to loving one another, you find that you cannot always do this? You desire to be in love consciousness, yet fear comes out of nowhere and bites you, so to speak. How is this? Where does it come from? This is the relationship between the ego and the personality. It is the human ego that has the desire for self preservation and is the source of fear. Now, the ego is not bad, is not wrong. The ego is necessary for your functioning as human beings. It is the ego that allows you to understand your separateness, to categorize, to organize the structure of reality so that you can function. You cannot function without the ego, yet the relationship between spirit, personality, and ego must be such that the personality is in charge of the ego and is subservient to spirit. It is the personality that has freewill choice. It is the personality who is the agent of change.

Sometimes it is very difficult work of coming to know yourself, to recognize when it is your ego functioning and when it is your personality functioning in adherence to spirit. Let me ask you this: Which voice is it that says, "That's your ego! You get that ego out of the way!"? Indeed, that is the voice of ego. So, you cannot force your ego into submission, but you can love your ego into the proper functioning with the personality. You can understand that the ego is there for particular reasons, that the ego has purpose. The ego needs to be recognized; the ego has fears.

Love that ego. Calm the ego's fears. Allow the ego the protection it needs to be quieted. Do not allow one of the many heads of the ego to get into war with one of the other many heads of the ego.

Elyon: The ego is not a product of your soul or your mind. The ego is an aspect of your being. It is not a creation of yours. It is merely an arm of your being to be exercised and utilized appropriately. You do not create the ego from within, from your soul. The ego is an aspect of you to be harnessed and exercised much as a muscle group. Therefore, do not think that you are somehow creative of this aspect of your being. Rather you must in your existence learn to function in harmony with this aspect of your being and, indeed, reign supreme, giving over the lesser aspects of your being to the higher aspects of your being.

As stated before, it is not a desired goal to eliminate the ego, just as it is not desirable to eliminate the lungs. Rather it is appropriate to work in harmony with the organs of the body to create an overall whole, all the time the higher, supreme aspects reigning, controlling, and regulating the entire body.  

Question: Could you explain a little about the function of ego in the development of our spiritual lives?

Machiventa: Ego should be treated almost as a separate entity in that it has its own parameters and characteristics, even intertwined with that of your soul or your Thought Adjuster. The ego should be, from your point of awareness, addressed almost as a developing child. Undertake to observe the ego as you would a developing child. Note in your higher self the parameters and conditions. Note how it functions in given situations. Note which situations cause the ego to rise up and which situations quell the fears of the ego.

Never attempt to divorce yourselves from your egos as you would never attempt to divorce yourselves from your Thought Adjuster or your eternal soul. It is an aspect of your creation to be worked with. It is indeed an integral part of your survival as an individual and as a species. It is necessary for many functions you undertake. It is simply a matter of will for you to determine the proper mix of your components: the component of your higher self, the component of the Eternal Fragment within you, and the component of your ego. At any one time your glass is a mixture of these three components. Attempt to segregate, separate these components in your realities so that you can identify the component called the ego. You can therefore more objectively determine the proper capacity the ego is to play in your mixture. The ego can be a very good thing; the ego can be a motivator, a driving force. It can be an inspiring aspect of your personality. Likewise, it has a potential to stumble you in its over-assertion or its incorrect assertion. Therefore, the goal should be to be an awareness of your differing aspects and seek the proper mix. Seek just the right percentage so that you use the ego to be that motivating force, that invigorating infusion, that persistent challenger. So, it is not to not use the ego; it is more of a factor to use it in correct proportion to the other aspects of your existence, to be an enhancer.

Make no mistake that the absolute highest factor of your composition bar none is your direct link with the
Father, your fragment of the Father, the Thought Adjuster. This is the purest, truest channel you have; this higher self has control easily and effectively over your lower self, the ego. Therefore, it is entirely possible to arrange and align yourself thusly to operate from this higher level and to fully control and manipulate this ego so as to make it work for you as opposed to your higher self working for your ego. It is simply a matter of development to enrich and grow your higher self, to realize you have this control over your ego. You may then view it as almost a separate entity, for you will never divorce yourself from it, but if you are looking at it from a perspective of your higher self, you have this control over it, coming from this position.

This wisdom is then channeled through your evolving soul in faith, and when you hear from the others, it is through this more accurate, more divine channel than through your ego base. That gives you one more tip on how to identify one from the other. 

It is also your mission to embrace and draw this ego in, as you say, to fully embrace and love this ego, to love it into submission, you might say. Embrace it wholly and fully as a part of your being; surround your ego with this love light so as to condition your ego's response towards the highest possible outcome. So, indeed, I encourage you to not stand back, rather reach forward for your ego in understanding, in awareness, and in love to draw this integral aspect of your being firmly to your highest center.

Frosty: More like a family meeting, rather than just the higher self and the Thought Adjuster, the ego is part of that family drawn together.

Machiventa: Precisely, a family meeting with your highest self as the moderator so that the direction and purpose of your family meeting can be accomplished under the highest possible guidelines. But as with any family meeting, you desire all members present, and input from all members is desired and welcome.

Ginny: Did I hear you say that the ego is part of your lower self? My understanding of the ego is that it is a neutral force that we need to channel so it can be useful to us in developing our souls. Is it something base?

Machiventa: It is of itself something untrained, something unlearned. It is not that it is a negative aspect. I refer to it only in relation to your higher self as being lower. This is perhaps inaccurate.

Ginny: Lower meaning undeveloped.

Machiventa: Correct.

Mary: In the analogy of bringing up a child, we know that if you take too authoritarian a hand with them you don't get nearly as good results as when you respect them for what they are and lovingly draw them forward. We need to treat the ego side of ourselves that way, rather than lord it over the ego and tell it, "no, no, no."

Machiventa: Exactly. To embrace as a wise parent embraces in realization that it is more fruitful to embrace and love than it is to dictate in authority.

I am giving you this image of holding an infant, and conceptualizing what it is like to inhabit that infant body and mind, for all the messages are 'I am' -- I am hungry, I am cold, I am wet, I am sleepy, I am content. And as that child goes through the natural process of growth and development, the focus gradually shifts outward; and with that gradual shift outward, comes the concomitant development of ego. Over time ego's job becomes to shift the focus from what is inside to what is outside. Finding fault is one of ego's favorite
pastimes. And as this development process continues, there becomes a split.

The 'I am' is rarely listened to. The ego becomes very busy in its full-time attempt to shift the focus outward, and thus, to keep the mind focused on ego, for ego's greatest fear is that universal fear of abandonment and loss of love.  

When one begins to mature spiritually there is a natural shift of focus inward. Ego perceives that as abandonment and reacts out of fear and begins all sorts of gyrations to force the focus back outward. So, in order to have a direct connection with God, with your Indwelling Adjuster, one cannot sever oneself from ego, because ego will throw a tantrum. It is best to reassure ego that the changes you are undergoing, the introspection you must complete, will not leave ego out in the cold.