What is the ego?🔗

The ego is nothing but your sense of 'self ', the collection of ideas and concepts that you have about yourself. Be very clear: the ego is nothing but a collection of ideas! It is an imaginary thing. The ego doesn't even have a real existence. Yet it is this ego which is controlling your life!

It is the ego which creates a sense of separateness in you.

At birth, it separates you from your mother. Until the moment of birth there is no ego, no boundary. You are simply a part of your mother. At the moment of birth, when the umbilical cord is cut, you sense your own boundary for the first time.

In the very first year after birth, the ego builds your picture of yourself and the world.

The ego is responsible for your sense of 'me' and 'mine'.

Throughout your life, the ego puts you into the position of 'me versus them'. It separates you from your parents, from friends and strangers, from nature, from all of Existence.

Whenever you utter the word 'I', you are breaking away from Existence. You cannot really break away, because you are an intrinsic part of Existence – but in your mind you break away. You create for yourself a world in which you are separate from all. This world exists only in your mind – it is just a mental concept - but you allow this concept to rule all your actions.

You have always heard people say, The ego is the root of all our misery. Why?

Because the ego thrives on hostility, on conflict. Any environment which creates a sense of isolation is the survival ground for the ego.

The ego may be a product of your own imagination, but it is a cunning animal!

To stay alive, the ego creates a distorted version of reality in which all things are in a state of disharmony.

Look at your own life.

Whenever you experience pain, anger, jealousy, it is always the result of feeling separate from someone else, of feeling alone, of feeling cheated. In times of misery, you always experience yourself as being all alone. In times of joy, you feel naturally connected with everyone and everything around you. When you are joyful, happy, laughing – these are the times when your ego is at its weakest.

In your present life, you may experience these moments temporarily. But meditation is going to take you to a permanent state of bliss. Meditation is the process of falling in tune with the whole of Existence. In meditation, there is simply no place for separateness, no place for the ego.

Once you sense the lasting harmony of everything, once you sense the deep interconnectedness of all of Existence, what will be the need for maintaining the ego? The ego is your armour against the world. The ego is your shield in times of war. If everything is peaceful, if everything is harmonious – then where is the need for armour, a shield?

That's why you find it so difficult to meditate. Meditation is such a simple thing! It is just a matter of sitting silently and watching your breath. Actually there is no need to teach or learn meditation. Meditation should simply happen.

To sit still even for a few minutes is to get a glimpse of reality. Just for a few seconds, if you can sit silently, calm your racing thoughts, just be – that will be enough to convince you of the truth. And once the truth is known, where is the place for your ego? The ego will have to be dropped. You will drop it naturally.

That's why the ego fights meditation so hard. Meditation is nothing short of the death of ego!

So the biggest problem to watch out for is the strong resistance by ego. When you are meditating, the ego will raise a thousand questions.

Doubt is the most deadly weapon that the ego has!

The ego will continuously create doubts and questions in your mind.

In the beginning it will make you worry,

Can I really meditate?

Can I sit for so many hours with my bad back?

Is this path really for me?

What if I get drawn too deeply in?

What will happen to my family?

Will my friends call me crazy?

Am I really crazy?

If you are working with a master, it will raise doubts against the master!

Is the master really authentic?

Does he know which technique is right for me?

What is his purpose in teaching me meditation?

Is this some kind of hypnosis?

So if you find these kinds of questions arising, don't bother. Simply drop the questions and continue with the meditation. Don't feel guilty about having these questions! These questions arise naturally in everyone's mind.

And don't try to struggle with these questions. Don't make the mistake of struggling with the ego! Ego is just something imaginary; it is nothing but the lack of awareness; it has no positive existence. Just like darkness is a state of no-light, ego is a state of no-awareness.

If you are in a dark room, can you fight the darkness and push it out to make the room bright? Does it make sense to struggle against the darkness? In fact, your solution has nothing to do with the darkness. You have to simply bring in a lamp and the darkness will disappear on its own! In the same way, don't waste your energy fighting with the ego. Focus on bringing awareness into your meditation. By and by, the questions will drop naturally.

The biggest spokesperson of the ego is the mind.

Just like the body, the mind too should be an instrument in your hands.

The mind is a wonderful instrument, tremendously powerful. It is a marvel of creativity. It is a masterpiece of design. It is also a social necessity. Without the mind, we would not survive in this world.

But we forget that the mind is only an instrument. Instead, we ourselves become an instrument of the mind! We are totally controlled by our mind.

The great trick that the mind plays on us to separate us from reality is the use of language, of words.

Words are what separate us from reality. The moment we perceive something, we try to verbalize it. When you see a flower, you tell yourself, This is a flower. We absorb all of life though words, through abstract concepts. But remember: words are not the experience!

The word flower is not the flower, the word love is not love, the word enlightenment is not enlightenment. Words form a barrier between you and reality.

Meditation has no need for words. Meditation is the direct experience of reality.

But the mind continues on this constant chatter of words. The mind doesn't let you relax for a single moment. The mind is constantly creating ideas, concepts, opinions for you. It uses words to distort reality.

How do you handle the mind?

Just like I said about the ego – don't fight with the mind also. You cannot achieve anything by struggling against your mind. In fact, you cannot even struggle – because even struggling is a function of the mind! So it will be one part of your mind struggling against the other. Instead, simply become a witness to the functioning of your mind.

This is not going to be easy. Especially on this path, the mind is a very dangerous companion! Initially, it will create all sorts of fears and doubts in your mind. When you start trying to witness your thoughts, it will convince you that you are actually witnessing. But if the mind tells you that, it means the mind is at work. If you are actually witnessing, there will be no opinions, no judgment, not even the idea, These are thoughts. I am witnessing them.

But be very clear: the mind is not your enemy. There is nothing wrong with thinking. It is just a process like any other. Don't put yourself into a fighting position. Just be an observer of the mind, an observer of your thoughts. Enjoy the play of your mind!

As you start watching your thoughts, you will see that they start flowing more and more slowly. As your awareness becomes deeper, you become aware of gaps in the flow. A gap that you experience like a flash – you glimpse it, then it vanishes; a gap in which you experience a beautiful silence. By and by, the gaps start happening more frequently. Don't become attached even to this experience! Don't wait for the gaps. When the gaps become wider, you will be able to see with intense clarity – not just the outer world, but the inner world as well.

This is the experience of no-mind.

Don't think that all this is too much for you!

When you practice with sincerity, with totality, it will happen.

How to enjoy meditation!