Monday, February 7, 2011

Ego

Ego is like a dog that refuses to let go of his bone.

Ego is like a bored upper class bitch. "I want this. I want that.
I’m desperate for some fun." Nothing is good enough.

Ego is like an inner taskmaster, or perhaps, an inner dance teacher.
She is so hard to please.

Ego is like a very, very prominent scholar, a pompous piece of shit.

Ego has so many different guises.

Ego wants to have the best seat. Ego wants to win and to be right.
Ego wants to have the last laugh. Ego wants to be a moral roll model.

Many people don’t know that they can observe their own ego in action.
In fact, they don’t even know that they have an ego.
They believe that their ego is their true self.

Anyway, you can observe your ego. You can, at least sometimes, see clearly how stupid and selfish you are. This part of you, which is observing your selfishness, is this part, also a part of ego, or is this a separate entity? If so, should this part also have a name? Is this observing self the true self? What do you think?

Ego is pulling the strings. Ego makes you say and do things you’ll later regret. What do you do when your ego is just too much, when he is about to ruin your life?

You can’t lock him up in the basement. You can’t send him to a mental hospital and forget about him. You can’t speak to him, with a soft voice, like a social worker
to make him change his ways. It doesn’t work. He won’t listen.

Here is a piece of good advice. Let him be. Don’t try to change him. Accept him for what he is. He will calm down and go back to bed soon, sulking. If he is very stupid, you can use another strategy: try to make him even a more stupid. I’m not kidding. Make him into the most selfish jerk you can imagine, like Donald Duck, Oliver Hardy.

I have this idea from Russ Harris book the Happiness Trap. And it works, sometimes.

Ego will, of course, continue to be as stupid as always, but he will loose some of his power when you are able to laugh at yourself, goodheartedly, or if you are able to observe your self, when you are able to see for yourself that you are not your ego.

Sometimes, though, it is very important to listen to your ego. The ego cannot always be dismissed. Sometimes he is right. If you don’t listen to your ego when he is right, you will also create problems for yourself. The important point is that your ego is your servant, not your master.