Hi Firekeeper/Roxyart,
I think I would tend to support Firekeeper on this issue of the ego really. While we are in physicality don't we need the ego to help us function in the world? Nothing exists without useful purpose and we can I would have thought learn much from the presence of our own ego.
There are texts and teachers out there that talk about the necessity of killing the ego or destroying it. I think perhaps it would as firekeeper suggests be better to acknowledge that only death kills the ego. Does even the achieving of the state of enlightenment kill the ego? Or just tame it and nullify it?
There was a book I seem to recall called 'Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism' that suggested that the ego loves spiritual practice. It will sit there feeling oh-so superior because you do meditation and thus it is obviously far more spiritually advanced than other people. Or you do Reiki and so you are much more linked up to the cosmos/god/the universe than anyone else. The ego loves spiritual practice and will use this as it uses everything to promote its own continued existence. Spiritual advancement in any form is simply the getting to the know the true nature of everything, including the self and thus the ego and so whilst the ego might perceive meditation as a threat to its existence, it is nothing of the sort really.
Having said that, I think the only way to overcome the ego is to love it and take it on board as a valuable part of who we are, where we are now. The ego needs taming I think rather than destroying. Anyway, that is my few thoughts on this issue.
Blessings,
Steve
