Most people have a negative connotation of ego. It implies a sense of self-importance that most often come at the expense of others. When you describe someone being egoistic, there is even a suggestion of someone being selfish and preoccupied by oneself. Though the word ego plays the most important in the human psyche and is widely studied in spirituality studies, there is an irony. When we are asked to examine our ego, a lot of us will shy away from the word fearing that we will be perceived as self-centred people who do not care about the well-being of others.
This is because we do not have the right understanding of the word ego in spirituality. Here ego means our innate identification with our self and our thoughts. With its roots in Latin, ego literally means "I". We are all susceptible to this identification as we believe that we are the "I" in this body with this mind. The letting go of this ego can only happen when we can give up such identification. This is not to say that we need to vanish form the surface of the Earth before we can transcend our ego. But we need to develop a deeper understanding that we are beyond just "me" and "my thoughts". With attachment to "me" and "my thoughts", there will always be separation and judgement which bind us to this dualistic world. Being humans, this is a phenomenon that we cannot escape. But is this really a Catch 22? It will not be when we go deeper into our awareness and can see there is a much bigger "I" beyond this human body, in which there is only infinite wisdom, light and abundance.
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