Destroy the Ego? Why?

If you’ve wandered through any spiritual or new age works either recent or reportedly ancient, you may have encountered the concept of ego destruction.  As with many other ancient concepts or ideas, I cannot help but wonder if this is yet another epic misinterpretation.  Forgive me, as I mean no disrespect to any person, faith or practice as I write.  I merely wish to paint the picture of an alternative perspective and one that I think is sorely needed for much greater understanding.  In my book,  Exploring the Conscious Self for Growth and Understanding, I explored the ego and consciousness and came to the beginnings of some conclusions as follows: 

From my exploration into the topic of consciousness, the ego as the veil, I begin to come to the conclusion that the life we experience here on Earth is the result of a conscious individuation from the Cosmic Mind or One Mind in the form of ego for the purpose of a physical experience in an individuated focal point of existence in a specific time.  The ego is the veil that separates humanity from the Cosmic Mind or that, to us, which is unconscious or simply, not yet known.  The veil does not separate us from our Source or sever the connection to that Cosmic Mind but rather obscures it through the existence of the ego.  We remain part of the entirety of the cosmos, our cells, molecules and particles gathered as a density intentionally collected in a point of focus here in this now as are all entities in existence within this frame or dimension.

The ego exists as learned scholars and wise spiritual teachers will in unison agree.  Where they all may diverge is on the purpose of the ego and understanding its related consciousness.  In my dissertation, I posit that it is because of the ego that we have individuated from the One Mind or Cosmic Consciousness and this intentionally formed the veil between the physical conscious world and the world of unconsciousness, ether or the ethereal realms of the spirit.  It is through the process of choosing individual experience that seems to separate us from our Source at a purely physical or conscious level.  We did so in order to experience creating and the receiving of the gift and the use of free will from whatever Source or Force in this universe that created us.  As a unified whole, we still exist, I think, as everything in creation is interconnected as well as interdependent.  Others are beginning to join this body of thought.  (117)

In another of my works, So It’s Over, Now What, I explored another concept I wish to share with you, Malware:

Part of the brain’s simulation process is taking in data from the outside and bumping it up against the various memories we have stored within our minds.  By comparing the data the mind makes assumptions about the data it has perceived, runs its simulations, comes up with assessments or conclusions, which then trigger various biological processes which can help keep us safe.  Without memory and the ability to recall it, we might forget about that time fire burned our fingers and reach blindly into a flame without any caution.  One of the challenges with memories is that they are not always exact and we sometimes store the memories of our resulting judgments from our mind’s simulation processes negatively.  If we emotionally charge events such as those that are painful to us, those memories will be a bit easier to find during our mind’s simulation processes.  The problem with the mind’s simulation processes it that the mind automatically assumes the data it takes in is correct, especially if within the memory it finds a similar painful outcome to a process.  A painful memory may be distorted over time.  Such memories may cause us to become triggered over an emotional landmine (read, unhealed psychological wound) that was based on an assumption not validated.

I refer to this as malware or a virus being introduced into our mental processing system.  With malware or a virus in place in our mental processes, we may jump to conclusions without accurate data and decide that vengeance or revenge is the appropriate course of action given the data the mind has taken in, simulated, judged through the filters of all kinds of psychologically tainted experiences and then resulting in illusory emotion that seem real making someone feel a dire urge to strike out to preserve the ego or the body.

If your operating system is not in perfect health, you’ve let your emotional landmine blow somebody up but primarily, it’s you also that is hurt the worst by the blast because you were unaware of the psychological virus or malware unconsciously installed somewhere in your memory or emotions attached to a memory in your thought processing system. (47)

So, in two separate explorations shared, I’ve outlined a concept of the ego as that part of our Consciousness (Big “C” – Cosmic Consciousness) that has pointed its focus in this physical reality.  I’ve also introduced the concept of malware in regard to the mental operating systems via beliefs and psychology in two of my separate works quoted above.  Now think for just a moment.  If we were to destroy the ego in an effort to spiritually advance, would we still be here in this third-dimensional reality?  I don’t know the answer to that and I don’t know how we get to the answer of that.  If you were to take a person and destroy their ego in quite literal terms, where would the “I” of them go?  They’d still be here which means their individuation still exists and then, so would their ego.  What I put forth is the idea that it is not bad to have an ego, it is not wrong to think in terms of “I” and it is not wrong to be an “I” in this frame.  You can still progress in this frame spiritually by maintaining the “I” or the “Ego” or any of its component parts or aspects of consciousness.  My explorations have led me to a path of consideration that it is actually not "the ego that must be destroyed in order for humanity to be awakened" but that it is the malware that must be discovered, rooted out or otherwise healed in order for an individual here in this frame with an “I” focus (what other focus can individuated consciousness have here in this frame?) to grow into greater awareness and improve health and well-being.

It is not the ego that must be destroyed or any part of your being that you should dislike or seek to destroy.  In fact, it is the opposite.  The “I” that is you is perfect in design.  What is imperfect (or really, rather the challenge) is what you have within the concept of “I” that isn’t necessarily what you came here with, “Malware” in your mental operating processes.  Now, I think in some cases that there is past-life residue that can permeate the “I” but even that is separate from the “I” that is you or the Ego.  Even with malware operating in your consciousness, you can still step outside of it and observe it in action and experience the vast peaceful connectedness of the Cosmic Consciousness as Eckhart Tolle outlines in his work, The Power of Now.  I think that we exist exactly as we are meant to.  Our consciousness is never not connected (forgive me the double negative) to the Cosmic Consciousness but that we just have an individuated focus for the purpose of gaining experience.  To me, this logically explains the variations of perception and belief from human to human.  To me this logically unites many theories in a way that I can understand and that build a logical and necessary framework for me of complete compassion for every individuated aspect of consciousness here existing in the physical at this time.

So, the Ego is a part of you.  To want to destroy a part of yourself, I think, is one of the most harmful concepts in existence.  To understand any virus or malware existing within your mental operating system so that you can heal it and unite fragmented aspects of your consciousness into a loving, accepting, understanding and compassionate wholeness makes much more sense to me than destroying or surrendering the ego.  You cannot be other than who you are.  The true self is always there no matter what mental virus or malware has seeped into your consciousness.  The true self can always observe, experience, understand, learn and grow even with the malware.  Discovering the psychological wounds that are the "malware" and striving to transcend them brings greater understanding and a deeper sense of connectedness and awareness.  You don’t have to destroy any part of you for that.  You need only be open to understanding the framework within which you operate.  Trust in your truest nature it is there right along with the “I” and the “We” of individuated as well as united Consciousness.

© 2014 Rev. Dr. J.L. Harter

Rev. J.L. Harter, PhD, M.Msc., B.Msc., Author, Blogger, and Spiritual Counselor, Editor of the JMCC.  See Bio section for more information.

Beyond the Sun's Light: Finding Conscious Understanding

Funny thoughts of late have I held for reasons I don’t know if I care to explore.  There are so many thoughts converging and feelings surfacing in this moment that I’m not sure where to begin.  I wanted awareness and I wanted understanding and I find it near comical the effect it has had on my vision.  I see things now so differently.  At first the sights in my new found vision hurt me to my core.  It hurt my heart to see what humanity does to itself, all of the pain and all of the striving to be better than even in the negative.  Oh it sent my mind spinning and my world swirling right straight back into the heart of me.  And there I sat so very quietly.  Long years spent thinking and searching for meaning and understanding only to find pain?  I knew that could not be the reason and something within me drove me further within.

I see so much now in this world.  I see sociopathic behaviors in companies, narcissistic behaviors in humans, antagonistic behaviors in those harmed by their own psychology and the wake of additional collateral damage left to flounder in a sea of not knowing, seemingly lost.  Was I better off before?  I questioned that.  I really did.  For what did understanding bring me now but to see how much humanity suffers with intent.  Yes, I said Intent with a capital “I.”  It took many years for the horizons to broaden ever wider and to contend with the emotions and feelings my new vision brought me. 

Reconciliation could not be had while working from within a framework I was given and unconsciously held on to.  I was working from the premise of malware so deeply installed within my own human operating system that I made myself such a victim of this world.  I couldn’t admit it but I felt it.  It crushed me and I unconsciously sought out lesson after life lesson to reinforce what I was learning.  But I wasn't getting the lesson so I fought back harder and longer and walked off eventually in dire frustration creating silence and distance while thinking I was stepping off the battlefield.  I was not.  The battle had only begun and I waged it well.  Unfortunately, no wait...fortunately, I waged that battle against myself.  The battle was an illusion born of delusion and mistaken belief held for so long it seemed real.  It wasn't real.  It was never real.  Breathe.

Perhaps it was actually growth that brought me to that point.  When I reached that point and the pain grew deep enough I had to stop all thought, all feeling and then begin to reach within for the truth.  Brilliant teachers from all parts of humanity helped me to understand that belief can be a deadly thing to our emotional states, our relationship with ourselves, our relationships with others, our relationship with this world and reality as well as our relationship to the Cosmic One in which we are all an intrinsic part.  I did not understand that it was belief alone that created the opacity of the filters through which I once viewed this world and life here within it.  From ground zero, you cannot see the Whole.  From 10 feet up, you cannot see the Whole and from 1,000 and 100,000 feet you cannot see the Whole.  You have to get yourself entirely outside of the framework you think you know in order to see the Truth.  And even when you see it at first you will not want it.  You won’t at first understand it.  Our consciousness is beyond our description and is more than the limited striations of psychology or any other “ology” that exists to define it.  We must learn to find our own resonance and the Source of that resonance and feel our way through the muck and mire of an unaware and zombie-like state of a life lived asleep.  We must awaken gently with a blessed curiosity that does not prejudge an outcome of our exploration other than knowing we are capable of not only seeing and feeling the Truth but being It.

In a naturally and intentionally altered state of consciousness, I saw the world at last and I felt humanity in its entirety and with everything in me to the level of the tiniest cell within I knew the precious nature of existence.  I was shocked and astounded at my own capacity then for not only understanding but love…a love so profound and purely endless these words are really useless in conveying the depths.  We are here in this world of dichotomy for learning.  When we awaken to the Truth, the definitive Truth that can only be intuitively felt, we relax a little and the former pain of our first awakening visions begin to subside, we come to find peace and resonance with life as it is.  We find no need to change or control what is and therein lies our freedom should we wish to take it.  We can take it.  We just have to want it.

So, the point again, where was it? Yes, there it is…feel it…close your eyes for a moment and breathe in the first fiery rays of morning sometime or the last scarlet golden rays of the day as night brings a blanket of stars into view.  Know that this understanding of the Whole of our Consciousness is not unlike the sky.  Every single day we look up and we see gray or blue and white but we don’t see what is really there when the sun is up do we?  The stars are there day and night; different positions maybe as we move on our little planet in our beautiful Milky way Galaxy.  The stars are always there behind the blue, behind the clouds, behind the blinding rays of the sun.  The truth, the Truth is like that too.  It’s always there…like the heart beat of eternity…when you hear it and your own heartbeat resonates in tune with the cadence of the heartbeat of the Source of all Consciousness, then you know you have found what you were looking for.  You know you never lost anything and you know some part of you was always Home even if you forgot and even if you still struggle to remember consistently.

I wish for you a blessed journey precious ones.  Enjoy your lives; the good times and bad times equally and with a grand and yet relentless curiosity.  Seek to understand what it is you are learning and you will begin to understand the amazing wonder that you are as a glorious part of this beautiful and powerful Sentient Conscious Whole.  In love and light, may the peace and stillness carry you and comfort you always and in all ways.  And So, It Is.

  © J.L. Harter (photo and words)

Rev. J.L. Harter, PhD, M.Msc., B.Msc., Author, Blogger, and Spiritual Counselor, Editor of the JMCC.  See Bio section for more information.

Frequency of Connected Consciousness

I don’t have studied works for you today.  Today I have something all together different.  An observation, perhaps and I’m not quite sure where it is going.  As I sit here beside the open window, I hear the wind rustling through the tree leaves and I see the pale light of a just rising sun beginning to etch all of my world in a fine gold and silvery light.  Consciousness in tact, as always and ever it is, I observe the things in my world just now.

The breeze is strong enough to tickle the wind chimes outside my front door into motion sending out a beautiful tinkling.  The air not quite crisp but cool sends waves of sound that include the chirping of birds, the vehicles on the freeway a half block away already en route to some physical destination and the sound of that something I can’t quite put my finger on.  The former, I’m certain are generated physically from my perception of the physical world.  The latter, I’m not sure anyone hears but me sometimes.  I’m not sure how to define this frequency, vibration or sound I perceive at times.  It varies in pitch or tone.  Sometimes it is steady and sometimes only just there a moment.  Sometimes it isn’t there at all.  When I find the tone generators online, they produce a near similar effect with one thing missing, the feeling that naturally accompanies what I hear.  It isn’t there all the time but when it is, it flicks on like a light switch and its pulse is strong enough to disrupt all thought and action.  It is strong enough for me to feel its accompanying vibration from inside out and yet another… a feeling, non-physical, I cannot define.

The sensation of sound, vibration or frequency (or all 3 as the case may very well be), is typically preceded by an invisible barrier that seems to enshroud my being temporarily.  I liken it to an absence or distancing of perception.  It is the best way I can think to define it.  What is this, or It’s back, I often say to myself when I encounter it off on and on throughout my days and weeks now.  What is this sound, frequency or vibration that it is I am hearing?  Sometimes, at work, I’ll be mid-sentence and the energy flicks on and I’ll notice a sensation about the ears or maybe it’s the hair on the back of my neck standing up, I’m still not sure.  I feel things around me and as crazy as that sounds, it brings me a great sense of peace.  There is a knowing in the feeling…that I am not alone.  It is so very hard to understand until you’ve experienced it and you’ve noticed the difference between tinnitus and this sensation or a barometric pressure change and this shift in perception.  This is non-physical, this sensation.  Again, it is a bit hard to adequately explain.  But I wonder even more, what is it for?  Why am I experiencing it at all?

Some very quick searches for information have left me with an explanation that this perception, this thing that I am experiencing is merely the Aum or Ascension Symptoms.  I think I could find more solace in the meaning behind the Aum in, “The Sound of the Center of the Universe.”  Is it really even a sound if I’m hearing it inside of me?  This thing, whatever it is, has a steady-state frequency that gives off a sense of awakening and it isn’t always the same tone.  Sometimes the hertz are well up into 5 digits and beyond and are joined by harmonizing tones.  With all due respect for the perspective of others, I don’t “believe” in ascension symptoms that run the gamut of every symptom normally attributed to stress, menopause or the common cold.  I see no evidence to support it so see that as a hypothesis not yet tested.  Another reason I don’t share the belief in the concept of ascension symptoms is that I know that we are already awake and a part of us so very Consciously (Big “C”) aware.  You can blame your anxiety and bad days on a thing but I can’t.  I can see there is nothing to blame in this universe.  If I feel a certain way, there is an experience I intentionally sought.  If I hadn’t, it would not be.  I have enough self-case studies in my time from a variety of topics to support this contention at least in enough areas to convince my self.

I was once merely an observer of physical life but something changed many years ago following my NDE (Near Death Experience) and then deepened in the years leading up to my Big C Consciousness awakening following a surgery and some of the most intense life lessons I’ve ever contended with and that awakening continues.  I don’t see it as an ascension, I see it as remembrance of who and what I truly am.  And each will come to this conclusion in his or her own time.  There is a knowing that accompanies this feeling and even the non-physically perceived sound that I have wondered about all of these years.  There is a part of me that knows what this frequency or vibration is and why it seems I “hear” it.  In a very simple way, with intent, I am merely remembering…remembering home.  Home is not a place that we try to put into the constructs of our third-dimensional framework.  Rather home is a state of being, a state of remembering the connected nature of all things and not only remembering but also feeling the connected nature of all things.  There is nothing more beautiful in this world.  That feeling to me connects directly with the feelings evoked by watching a beautiful fiery pink, silvery gold and orange sunrise over the mountain tops framed in low-lying clouds or even the same colors, ever more vibrant as the sun sinks slowly into the powerful ocean.  If you’ve not felt these things and their accompanying vibrations then my words won’t do them justice by any measure…for there is no measure or words I have to truly define the powerful beauty of the experience. 

I cannot prove my experience with this non-physical perception or feeling may be a better word.  I think that others share this experience I am trying to define who have found themselves in a similar state of feeling the Consciously Connected nature of all things that leaves them in awe, blissful and filled with compassionate love and deeper understanding.  If you have encountered this feeling or something similar to what I have been trying to articulate here, I would very much like to hear about your perspectives or experiences.  Write me, if you’d like to share.  Jaiehart@gmail.com.

Blessings of Love and Greater Awareness in the Wholeness of your Beautiful Being!

Rev. J.L. Harter, PhD, M.Msc., B.Msc., Author, Blogger, and Spiritual Counselor, Editor of the JMCC.  See Bio section for more information.

© 2014 Rev. J.L. Harter, PhD