Should We Bypass the Ego or Fight It With Its Own Remedies?

For many years I have been reading a lot of spiritual books, and it is clear to me that what we call the ego in spiritual terminology is causing all the suffering in ourselves and in the world around us as well. The ego is controlling our lives and it fills us with fear, worries and anxiety. The ego may convince us that this or that is dangerous, that our dreams can't be fulfilled, that what we want is impossible for all thinkable reasons, etc.


The ego includes everything we have been told by our parents, the school, our relatives, our friends and society in general. Sometimes it seems that we spend most or all of our lives according to the expectations from all our surroundings. Few of us have the time, courage or energy to find out what we really want in our deepest part of our being. Thus in the final stage of their lives a great number of people realize that they have wasted a big part of their time on earth trying to satisfy the expectations of others, rather than doing what they really wanted themselves.



It is obvious that we must try to minimize the influence of this ego that causes us so many troubles. One of the methods is to meditate and bypass the ego to enter a more subtle and more harmonious stage of consciousness. The more time we spend in this non-ego state, the less time we give attention to the ego, thus minimizing its influence.


Another method is to try to fight the ego in the ego-conscious mind itself. If we can convince ourselves intellectually that what the ego represents is not appropriate, then with time and effort we can also reduce the bad influence from this ego.




Maybe a good approach would be to combine the two methods. Imagine that we meditate regularly trying to balance our conscious and subconscious mind to become more relaxed and harmonious. If, simultaneously, we constantly try to observe our thoughts and behavior and every time we encounter an inappropriate ego-thought we immediately exchange this thought with a constructive one, then our whole perception of the world should change.


Since the ego includes what we have learned from our surroundings, it is obvious that the evolution of society will affect the ego as well. Societies also have a certain morality, and the more spiritually developed the societies, the less harmful the egos ought to be.


Considering that societies are moving in the right direction, the next generations will be less egocentric and more spiritual. In the meantime we can make our own personal efforts to handle our proper egos in the best way.


Of course, I am aware that we don't all have the same perception of what is appropriate or inappropriate. Some people are very spiritual and others are not. I suggest that we fight the ego, but maybe others are living their lives on the ego's terms and having no problem with that. However, I hope that this article can be of some inspiration.