separation

In this series of talks we have been looking at many facets of the ego: this complex psychological structure in the mind which constitutes our sense of self. But there is one aspect of the ego which is fundamental. It is the very foundation of the whole house of cards. Without it, none of the other aspects of the ego can survive. And this, the very root of the ego structure, is the sense of separation. A sense that there is a boundary to me, to the ‘I’. There’s some place where I end, and beyond it everything else in existence is not me, is separate from me.

This great separation is at the very core of the ego. It is a feeling but it is also an idea, a concept. Where did it come from? Who knows: perhaps when the umbilical cord was cut at birth, perhaps later as our thinking mind began to develop with concepts, with words, with thoughts that divide the universe up into this and that, into me and you, into separate parts. And with this sense of separation comes a great feeling of being incomplete, of no longer being whole. And the spiritual journey is all about returning to that feeling of being whole. And it is the feeling also of not being separate, of there being no division, no boundary, no end to the self, and no beginning either.

This relaxation into the great ocean of existence is the fundamental process of the spiritual path. And with that relaxation, with that ending of the sense of separation, the ego is finished for sure. For ultimately, the ego is nothing but that feeling of being separate and of being incomplete.