30 Jun How Can You Surrender the Ego to God – July 1 2019
So: How can you surrender the ego to god?
First become acquainted with what is the ego. It’s the persistence of the animal instinct, but now elaborated through mind, the intellect, and given authenticity by the mutual agreement of society.
Paying attention to current events–what you see is every ego mechanism played out on a grand stage. So if you want to understand your ego, what you try to do is comprehend what goes on in the world, and see it in terms of the ego, and you’ll understand yourself.
So letting go trying to change it in the world is letting go trying to change it in yourself. Forgiving the world and forgiving yourself are the same thing. The world is just a projection of the ego. You might say it isn’t my ego. Well, it’s the collective ego.
Every step forward you take affects all mankind.
David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D
Many of us raised within the Judeo-Christian ethic have been taught to see instinct as sin. It is a sin to lust after someone in your heart, a sin to be arrogant, to think you’re better than someone else. A sin to be egoic.
By tracking the development of consciousness through the animal kingdom, Dr. Hawkins demonstrates that ego in fact is simply an expression of our survival mechanism. It is the discerning factor in us, labeling things as safe/unsafe, edible/inedible, breeding partner material/not breeding partner material. These ‘judgments’ keep us alive and have kept our species thriving.
When we become frightened, we will have an ego response. We will react as an animal. This is our nature.
Many of have been taught to see this ego response in terms of morality, and to see an ego response as a sin. We then proceed to beat ourselves up with the internal voice of our judgmental parent figure.
When we can see that it is a natural animal survival response for ego to arise, we can begin to let ourselves off the hook. We can begin to notice the ego, rather than be identified as the ego. We can say something like, ‘wow. The ego really doesn’t like this thing/person/event. Big reaction.’
When we can observe the ego, we can know ourselves as something other than the ego. We can move in the direction of knowing ourselves as higher Self. As spirit.
We can forgive and accept this natural response in ourselves; and as we do so, we will be able to forgive and accept it in our fellows.
Today I will notice when I am having a fight/flight/freeze-based, egoic response to something or someone in my life, and I will observe this in myself, rather than identify with this in myself. I will find my way in that moment to self-forgiveness. And when I find myself judging someone else in the world for their arrogance, selfishness or rude behavior, I will remind myself that in that moment they are at the mercy of their animal nature, and I will find my way to stepping out of the seat of judgment and into acceptance and loving-kindness.