Facts About Shedding The Ego

So what is this thing called the ego?

What is it?

Can we see it?

Can we not see it?

Is it visible?

Why in the East do they say it's so important to get rid of it,

When in the West they say you need it?

Let's dive into these things.

My name is Douglas Gromins.

Thanks again for joining me.

This would be a good talk.

So grab a drink and sit back and I'll discuss what I know and what I've been able to comprehend and take in in my own journey about this thing we call the ego.

So to start with,

I could describe the ego as basically something that is like a protective layer in a sense,

And it also amplifies the original truth.

So like if I said,

I'm a surfer,

And that's not being an egotistical statement,

That's just a statement saying this is what I do.

But if I say,

I'm a great surfer,

Then the ego comes in,

Saying this word great,

This verb describing what kind of surfer I am,

Is actually stretching or trying to make me look good.

So that is in a sense,

A form of ego.

And this starts at a very young age.

In fact,

Basically,

Probably around the age of five or six,

We start developing subtle egos.

And ego is also related to your personality.

The personality is false.

It's something that's given to you by everyone else you come in contact and you're influenced by.

So in a way,

It's a vicious circle.

One person learns something from another person.

They like that,

Say,

Hey,

That might make me look good,

That might boost my persona myself.

And the word personality comes from the word persona,

Which means to wear a mask,

A voice behind the mask.

It goes all the way back to Shakespeare's days and maybe even farther back than that.

But the meaning of personality is basically that it's not really you.

It's something you're putting on as an act to make yourself feel better or look better or to hide insecurities or anything like that.

Now we say all that in a negative tone,

But really it's not in a negative tone because if you understand the ego and its ways,

In the West,

It's better to have an ego up to a certain age,

Up until you're trying to develop your spiritual body.

And we'll get into that in just a second.

But up until you want to get into your spiritual body,

Then you don't really need an ego.

It actually helps you grow because,

Like I said,

It's a protective barrier.

It's an eggshell,

Basically,

Keeping you safe from the outside forces that would otherwise make you not get a good job or not get a beautiful wife or a handsome husband.

So everybody's running around nilly-willy in the West,

Knowing or thinking that the ego is a good thing.

And it is,

To a certain point.

Like I said,

Until you want to grow the spiritual body.

So the bodies go like this.

We have four bodies that we initially work on.

And then there are actually three more that you work on after you've gotten your spiritual body matured.

But basically the physical body,

Right,

Your physical body,

Your emotional body,

Your intellectual body,

And then your spiritual body.

So when you've developed fully into your physical body and your emotional well-being is intact and healthy,

Which means you have no hangups when it comes to loving people or any codependency issues,

All get resolved before a certain age of 14 years old.

So then that gives your body and your intellectual body seven years to develop and that will help you to,

Like I said,

Gain a career or become a scientist or a doctor or something like that.

I mean,

Think about this.

I mean,

Would you want to get operated on a doctor that didn't have confidence in his own self or think that he might be the best heart surgeon in the world?

I mean,

That's probably the guy you want to be working on you is the one who basically has a little bit of an ego and thinks that he can perform heart surgery better than anybody else.

But maybe that's a little bit of identity too,

But I'm just trying to give you an example as to what the ego is and now we can talk about how to get rid of it if that's what you're ready to do in life.

I personally never worked on shedding the ego,

But something happened to me at a younger age in life which kind of stopped me from having a solid,

Crystallized ego anyway.

I had a diving accident and I lost all my front teeth and had to have a bridge put in,

A temporary bridge for a while which is ugly in hell.

And I wasn't able to smile or laugh without being subconscious about how I looked in front of other people.

And so this gave me a means of avoiding having a serious type of ego issue later on in life.

Instead,

I just basically functioned on growing the four bodies,

Helping the four bodies to become mature sexually,

Emotionally,

Intellectually.

Every aspect of the four bodies I just grew and grew and grew and developed and especially the spiritual body,

I put so much into it.

So much awareness and love and compassion and understanding and all these beautiful things that help the spiritual body to grow.

And what happens is when you've grown so much,

You break the eggshell.

So the ego,

The eggshell,

This thing that says,

I am,

Anytime anything that says,

I am,

I am this or I am that,

That's the ego expressing itself.

So like I said,

What I did was I just meditated and meditated and practiced awareness and everything I did on a 24-hour basis.

I even meditated at night a lot of times.

All the way through the night you can meditate.

You actually go to sleep meditating and then you actually wake up meditating.

So that's a very beautiful thing to happen.

But I didn't practice anything,

Any ego clashing techniques.

I just allowed the four bodies to grow.

And by doing so,

The ego snapped like a shell.

And then I said,

Okay,

I don't need the shell anymore.

And that was the day that I was actually able to realize that I got rid of the I in my life.

Anytime I said,

I am this or I am that,

I looked at it and I could see it and I could see that it was the ego actually trying to come in the back door.

I mean,

If I say,

I'm enlightened,

You got to be super careful saying those kinds of things because the I is a trick phrase.

And what it is,

Is that a subtle religious or spiritual ego is even harder to get rid of.

And I think that's what's happened with a lot of spiritual leaders is that they start getting big heads and subtle spiritual egos.

And what happens is that if you get a spiritual ego,

It's kind of like this.

Yeah,

You're enlightened.

And let's say enlightenment was basically you were like a pail and you were dipped into the well and you're full of water.

That water is God,

Godliness.

And as long as that water stays full and you're pale,

Then you maintain your enlightenment.

But what happens is there's holes drilled into it.

Every time you say,

I am this or I am a great spiritual leader or hey,

I know this or I know more than you do or anything like that,

That's a form of subtle ego,

Spiritual ego.

And it pops holes in that pail and all the water spills out.

And then even if you try to fill it back up by meditating again and going and re-centering yourself,

The ego with all the holes in the pail just continues to drain out and drain out and it's never completely full like it used to be.

So what do we do in that case?

Really we have to learn and comprehend that you're now,

When you become enlightened,

You now are functioning from a center,

From an inward center,

Not the mind center,

Not the heart center,

But close to it.

The heart is much closer to the center than the mind is.

But you're living from this loving center.

And when you live with love in your heart and vibrating love energy all the time,

The ego has no way to get in.

It has no entry point.

So the ego basically stays on the periphery where the mind is also.

The mind exists on the periphery of your being too.

And that's why it takes longer to react to a situation when a crisis happens.

You know,

The mind takes a few seconds and sometimes you don't have a few seconds.

So the consciousness can actually step in and help you to move and act and do what you got to do before the mind even has a chance to think about it.

So if you're operating from an aware consciousness,

A loving,

Vibrating energy that comes from your center and is pouring out all the time,

If you're practicing this awareness,

Then you'll catch the ego trying to come in the back door.

You'll continually catch it.

Like I said,

If I say,

Wow,

I searched really good today,

I don't know if that's really an egotistical statement.

But if you add the I in there,

Then yeah,

It could be an egotistical statement.

But in Eastern theology,

They are told from a very young age that the ego is a bad thing.

That you should never develop an ego,

Never develop it.

Because I guess in their eyes,

You know,

They felt like,

You know,

If they don't have it,

It'd be easier to get rid of it or have it,

It's easier to have it not come at all than to have it and then to try to get rid of it.

But in the West,

We've learned and realized that basically what happens is that your ego becomes hardened,

It becomes crystallized,

You know,

At the age of about 21,

Between 21 and 28 years old.

And you may feel like I am very strong,

Or I am very beautiful,

Or I am this or I am that.

These are just reflections of what you think you are.

And like I said,

That's all good and fine.

It's actually good for your soul to feel strong and healthy and maybe beautiful and all these other things.

Self-esteem is a very,

Very important thing to have in life,

Especially when you're looking for a mate.

The only problem is,

Like I said,

When you start diving into the spiritual body and trying to grow spiritual body,

Then it kind of bunts heads with the other three bodies.

But basically,

It has to butt heads,

It has to be this way,

You have to break the shell,

Because the shell also ties you down to gravity.

It ties the first four chakras down with gravity.

And if you want to go beyond the heart chakra,

Because there is a beyond the heart chakra,

Then you have to basically get rid of the weight.

You have to get rid of anything that ties you down and says,

I am this,

I am that.

Because what's about to be given to you is so great and so expansive that if you have that shell,

It'll block and it'll block the new from coming in.

So that's why we have to get rid of the egos,

Basically,

Is because we have to open up and be receptive to what's about to be given to us.

So down the road of life,

If you make it to the fourth body,

The spiritual body,

And you become enlightened,

Remember the best thing you can do is just forget about it.

That's why Rinzai said,

You know,

What do you do before and after enlightened egos,

Chop wood and carry water.

You know,

Basically,

You know,

So you don't grab an ego and think that,

Hey,

I'm special.

And it can happen very easily.

You will think that you are different from everybody else,

You're above everybody else or whatever.

It's a trap of the ego.

So and that can put those holes in the bucket we were talking about.

And then you're back to basically living the commoners life again.

I mean,

For a short moment,

You were an emperor.

You weren't a beggar anymore.

Because in this life,

There are two types of people.

There are beggars and there's emperors.

Everybody is begging for enlightenment,

Except for those that have it.

And they are the emperors.

So as you go growing spiritually and you get into deeper meditation and deeper awareness and you feel that the gift is given and you one day even become enlightened,

Just don't ever think that you're special.

Like I said,

Just don't ever think that you're different from everybody else.

Basically,

By keeping yourself centered and being aware.

It's a 24 hour thing about this awareness thing is you got to always catch that ego trying to come in the back door.

Anyway,

Keep these things in mind.

I'm sure that if you do and listen to what I'm telling you to do is that you'll be able to grow spiritually and get rid of that ego shell.

Like I said,

After the four bodies are fully mature,

You have no need for it anymore.

You can get rid of it.

And when people pay you compliments and stuff like that,

You can just smile at them within and just say,

Okay,

Let it go.

Just drop it.

Let it go and drop it.

Beautiful compliment.

Thank you.

You got to go and drop it.

Don't let that ego come in the back door.

Anyway,

I guess I've carried on quite enough tonight.

So namaste my friends.

If you like this recording,

Put one of those five star remarks down there.

Anyway,

Thank you for your time and your patience from around the world.

This is Douglas Gromins.

I'm glad you guys joined me and were able to listen to this whole track.

Take care of yourselves now.

Bye bye.