Journey to Maturity – Ego Boat

Imagine your Ego is your transportation to the island of maturity. It is the safe and protected way to travel the seas and get to the ultimate goal of the island of maturity. We’ll call it the S.S. Ego.

The S.S. Ego is your ride to the island, and also your way away from the island. You get to choose which way your boat takes you.

Like most things, it is attachment to ego that is the problem, not necessarily the ego itself. Ego says, “I am an individual. I am separate from others. Others are not a part of me. I am not a part of them.” This is how the ego can lie to you and keeps you from achieving your journey to maturity. If you can develop a healthy sense of ego, you will be aware of those ideas as lies, and not act on them as often. The truth is, YOU are NOT your EGO! It is just a vessel that gets you from place to place safely, and that is its job, to keep you safe. Just like you are not your body, your mind, your whatever. You are not your ego. It is transportation. If you get attached to it, it will take you away from your destination extremely quickly.

Example, who is the most important person? Your ego will answer that for you one of two ways, “I am most important, or You/Others are most important.” Neither of those is actually true though. There are times when I need to pay attention to my own well-being or safety, but never at the cost of others. There are times to pay attention to the well-being of others, but never at the cost of myself. The ego tends to feel like it has to be me or them!

When I get going on the ideas of Me. Where I am separate and more important than other people. I am heading into the wave of all waves. That tsunami I spoke of in the last article, well that is the wave of Me. I feel like I have to control things, fix things, do things. I must, have to, should . . .!!! Me, Me, Me!! That is a mother of a wave just waiting to turn your ship over.

On the other hand, if I am attached to the idea of the importance of others over myself, I am also headed into a danger zone. I might be thinking I have to put myself aside for the benefit of other people. I might think that others are controlling me, or that I have to do what they say out of fear of them. I might think they are making me think or feel things. I might say, I can’t be selfish. I have to put others first. I have to be self-less in order to do the right thing. Again, that is ego. It is just the opposite side of the ego coin. It is still just as much a lie of your ego, as the focus on Me. It protects you by keeping you small and weak, but telling you not to try or to try to be different. It keeps you safe, but making sure you are under the control of something outside of you. It is the mother of all freaking storms just waiting to drown your ship in a flash of lightening and deluge of rain.

Whether it be the Me wave or the Other storm, you cannot reach the island in either of these two directions. If you continually focus on yourself or on others, not looking for the ways in which both of Us can succeed or benefit, you will be taken off course into the sea and away from maturity. You will also likely have your ego boat capsized in the sea, with both yourself and others being tossed out into the water losing all of the protections your ego was supposed to provide. Consider the egos on the Titanic. Heroic egos there. In the end, no one really benefitted, and they were all tossed into the sea.

You can only reach the island on an ego boat that acknowledges the equal value of both yourself and others. On a boat that allows you to consider the greater good, which includes you and others. A mature ego keeps you safe by guiding you to a place of connection to others, a place that looks more like Us or We, instead of Me or Other focused. An ego that has a strong crew, with a wise captain and loyal members that all work together. We’ll talk a bit more about the crew of your boat in the next article. For now, consider that your S.S. Ego can take you to or away from maturity based on whether you are focused on the idea of collectiveness or US, instead of separation and either Me or Others.

You are not your ego, and your ego is not you. It is your transportation either to or away from the island of maturity. Which direction will your ego take you? Are you headed to the island connected and focused on Us or into the storm or giant tsunami of a Me or Other controlled existence?

Namaste