One analogy: your body is the car, the driver is your ego, your consciousness is the passenger, observing the journey as it unfolds. You consciousness knows where it wants to go; the driver, however, is erratic, speeding, showing off. After many wrong turns and traffic violations, the destination draws nearer, the driver has settled in and no longer feels the need to rush; the passenger is now contented and finds joy in the passing scenery.
How does Google Gemini Imagen 3.0 see ego and consciousness? An definite east-west split here!
Whilst we need to separate out the ego from consciousness, the ego is not ethically bad per se, it just has a tendency to boastfulness, cutting corners with the truth, and focused on acquisition of material goods. Some of which are needed for a comfortable life, but others, more luxurious than necessary, being used as status symbols.
The ego is an important aspect to our personalities. It's a suit-and-mask ensemble worn by the biological self. needed for establishing our place in the pecking order. It is needed for mating; it is needed for getting on financially. Ego is primarily motivated by our need for status. This is natural; we are, after all, mammals, and hierarchy is inherent in mammalian groups.
Meanwhile, our consciousness is there in background, observing and feeling. Cringing at times at what the ego is up to. Representing nobler sentiments.
Your consciousness is the real you; your ego but an artifact you forge. It is the suit of armour your biological self dons to protect you against the buffeting you'll get from society, at school, at work, socially. Ego can lead you to acts of folly, but also to build a positive public persona. Whoever regularly speaks publicly will know that. (My ego was delighted that six people who left an opinion on our webinar today all gave five stars – and my ego is keen to share that fact with you.)
But in general, the older one gets, the need for the ego recedes. Materially comfortable, folk who are still chasing ever-greater fortunes to live in ever-greater luxury as they approach old age are the spiritually hollow.
The maturing of the soul over this lifetime is an important aim. Yet I'd argue that one lifetime is nowhere near enough for this process to reach fruition. If you can accept the idea that our biological selves are only containers for our immortal consciousness, then it's possible to envisage the process of spiritual evolution as spanning many lifetimes (in this regard, I am more aligned in my thinking about reincarnation with Hinduism than with Buddhism). This places my view of time as traditionally linear; the arc of progress from imperfect past towards a perfect future, in incremental improvements.
And finally an intuition that came to me on a walk a few days ago:
{{ Never show off what you know. Share what you know. }}
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