Hey,
This is Ish,
And in today's talk,
I'll be going over how to let go of the spiritual ego.
And specifically,
I'll be going over what the spiritual ego is and how it's formed,
And three common characteristics of the spiritual ego,
And some practical tips that you can reflect upon and also implement to let go of this mask.
So,
It is pretty humorous to notice that on the spiritual journey,
There's an intermediate stage,
If you will,
Where the ego changes clothes.
Now,
From an ultimate perspective,
There aren't any stages or measurements,
Things just are,
But it is something that you can notice as a roadblock or a plateau that you may experience,
Where you go from initially being very open-minded as a new person on a spiritual path,
And then you start to form a spiritual identity as you gain more confidence in whatever practice you're taking on,
And you're starting to see the fruits of your practice.
And this stage can be quite annoying to other people.
It's not entirely bad,
Because you're taking on positive habits,
Such as meditation,
Or changing your lifestyle up,
Or practicing giving to others when it wasn't a habit before,
But you can tend to be a bit preachy or dogmatic in this particular stage.
So,
You can usually spot this when you see someone constantly talking about their very powerful meditative experiences or kundalini experiences,
And your identity really gets caught up in this.
You may feel the need to constantly tell other people why your particular practice is beneficial and why they should practice it,
Or give unsolicited advice,
Or you may become overly rigid or stern in practicing the ethical component of your spiritual practice,
Because all contemplative traditions have a certain ethical component in it.
So,
For example,
In Christianity,
You have ten commandments.
In yoga,
You have the yamas and niyamas.
In Buddhism,
You have the precepts.
And you can tend to clamp on a bit too tightly on being ethical,
And there's an overall sense of strain.
So,
There's a constant push or uneasiness about your overall way of being.
And I know for me,
There was a period where I was constantly pushing myself.
I was,
You know,
Sitting for meditation for hours a day,
And trying to get somewhere with it,
And really reading about it all the time,
And talking about it,
And I was just kind of obsessed.
And it wasn't a peaceful kind of embodiment for me,
But more of a tense,
Striving mind.
And eventually,
As you keep going on your journey of letting go of experiencing more ease,
There'll tend to be a mellowing out process.
And you start to become like whatever you were like before starting the practice,
But a softer and kinder and more compassionate version of this.
So,
This is why you'll notice in spirituality,
There's a whole variety of different temperaments in spiritual masters.
There are some commonalities that you can notice from their practice,
Such as a lot of peace,
Or equanimity,
Or joy,
And mindfulness.
But at the same time,
There are some that are more quiet and analytical,
Like,
Say,
Some Burmese meditation masters.
There are also some crazy,
Playful,
Troublemaker,
Extroverted types.
I know,
I'm definitely in that category.
And certain Zen masters like EQ really embody that.
So,
This image of this ideal meditator,
Whatever it may look like for you,
Whether it could be some highly introverted and quiet person,
Doesn't talk to anyone,
Is always meditating,
That kind of fades away.
And you again,
Chill out,
And you become whatever you were like before starting the practice.
So,
This tightness of being just fades away.
And with this mellowing out process,
You start to think,
Why did I take this practice so seriously?
And this happens due to the letting go process,
Like I mentioned.
And if you start to look and look for examples of this and study spiritual teachers who have been practicing for a while,
And usually the elderly spiritual teachers,
You can see that they embody this humble wisdom about them.
They start to blend in with the environment,
They don't really stand out or they're not overly excited.
And they tend to cool out a little bit.
At the same time,
They're also very approachable and genuine.
And that is something that we're trying to lean towards in our practice of letting go of these rigid walls and this mask that the spiritual ego puts on us.
So,
Now let's talk about some facets of the spiritual ego,
And some practical advice and solutions.
And these are different things that I found helpful in my journey to start to peel back and dissolve this mask of perfection that the spiritual ego creates.
So,
The first roadblock you'll notice is chasing perfection.
So,
It is easy to read spiritual texts and look at this certain ideal of what a meditator looks like.
And it can be very easy to fall into this trap of trying to live up to this ideal and conduct yourself in an impeccable manner with no faults or mistakes.
And I think one thing that's really helpful here is to start to recognize the humanity in all of us.
We all have faults,
We've all made mistakes that we may not be proud of.
And when we start to embrace this,
We let go of this mask of perfection that we can put around ourselves.
That also creates a divide between ourselves and others.
And it is when we start to develop pride around our practice,
It can be really easy to fall into a comparison game where we're constantly comparing ourselves to others or ourselves.
And when we start to let go and have compassion for ourselves,
By actually practicing various compassion practices and recognizing how we all make mistakes,
Then we start to let go of this mask of comparison,
Of perfection,
And we start to loosen up a bit.
The next facet of the spiritual ego is wanting to play the role of a spiritual guru.
And here we can contemplate impermanence and also start to let go more and become more natural.
So we start to recognize that life is short and will end one day.
So there's really no point to try to gain more fame or success of being this hotshot spiritual guru or teacher.
And instead,
We start to let go of wanting to be this image.
And we can also borrow from a Taoist wisdom where in the Tao Te Ching,
Sage Lao Tzu says that end sagacity and people will benefit tenfold.
So when we start to let go of being this preachy kind of guru or trying to impose this ideal onto others,
We start to let go of that and we become more natural.
We then also end the comparing mind and we're free to just act as we are naturally.
And it is funny that this whole process comes full circle where in the beginning of your practice,
You're very natural because you have what is called a beginner's mind.
Then as you progress on your spiritual path,
You run into this intermediate plateau,
If you will,
Where again,
You play this role of the spiritual teacher or guru or seeker,
Whatever it is.
And you close your mind off from possibilities.
And you let go of this natural spontaneity and expression.
But then eventually,
We start to let go of that as well.
And we kind of come back full circle,
Where we retain this beginner's mind where we can be confident saying that we don't know everything.
We don't have all the answers.
And that's okay.
Now,
The last way the spiritual ego manifests is having this identity of a spiritual seeker or yogi,
Where you're constantly practicing,
Talking about it,
That's your identity now.
And one piece of advice that helps is to realize that as you continue to practice,
You can also let go more and realize that everything is okay right now.
So here we borrow from the wisdom of Zen Master Dogen,
Who once said that practice and enlightenment are the same.
So there's an inherent okayness in the moment,
There isn't a future to strive for.
And part of practice is while we still practice,
It is not to get anywhere,
But it is the expression or embodiment of what already is.
And you'll gradually start to recognize this.
As you begin to reduce your desires,
Various afflictions of the mind,
Practicing contentment here now,
And also just resting in this okayness or presence,
Which is here right now.
And the more we begin to access this and drop into this,
The more this naturalness starts to happen,
Take over.
And this striving mind,
Wanting to be somewhere else,
Begins to let go more and more.
So I hope you found this talk helpful.
Thank you for listening today.
