Member-only story
The Danger of Calling the Ego the Enemy
And how to transcend it
The spiritual community uses the term “ego” to define the individual, usually when it is at its most selfish and self-centered. Colloquially, ego is basically thought of as self-esteem and self-belief. Then there’s the Freudian definition which is merely the self that jostles between the id’s impulsivity and the superego’s moral correctness.
Spirituality is the field where people give ego a bad reputation. Not only is the ego seen as self-aggrandizing, it is the very thing that prevents one from connecting with others. It wants to be superior to others, it criticizes others who don’t match up to the ego’s standards and feels threatens when others surpass it.
Eckhart Tolle himself called the ego, “a dysfunctional relationship with the present moment.”
So it seems pretty clear that the ego is some sort of awful trait that we should get rid of because it doesn’t do us humans any favors and is the thing causes us all sorts of problems, right? From a certain perspective, you could say yes.
After all, so many spiritual teachers talk about how the ego is the hindrance to peace of mind and even enlightenment. How could it be anything other than bad? Because calling the ego “bad” is the ego in action. Allow me to explain.
