Ego & Society

Marlee dives into the ego-mind and explores how the ego has shaped our entire society and all of our systems and invites you to re-imagine a world that is instead driven by helping people and the planet.

Transcript

Welcome to the Shifting with Marley podcast.

I'm Marley.

Thank you for joining me wherever you are.

All that I ask of you,

The listener,

Is to have an open mind and an open heart.

And in return,

I offer you myself.

Hello,

And thank you for being here today.

I want to talk about the ego.

And it's something I'll definitely come back to many,

Many times in this podcast.

But today I want to talk about how the ego drives our lives and affects society.

And I want to preface this by saying that,

You know,

I'm not the expert on the ego and getting you to be able to understand what the ego is and how to recognize it.

I learned it by reading two books that are really profound,

But I highly recommend that you read.

They're both life changing books.

The first is Untethered Soul by Michael Singer.

And the second is A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle.

And both of them dive into the ego and how to recognize it and how to separate yourself from it and how to basically live more in alignment with who you truly are,

Which is your soul,

Right?

So how to live more in alignment with your soul instead of the ego.

But I'll just here now give you a few basics so you understand what I'm talking about in regards to like society.

So we are spiritual beings having a human experience.

It's important to understand that and recognize that first before we dive into discussions on the ego.

We are souls or consciousness having a human experience.

And that human experience comes with the ego.

It is very inherently human.

And what the ego is,

It's partly the thoughts that are running 24-7 in your head.

If you really,

Really try to notice your thoughts,

You'll notice that they don't stop.

So that's the ego,

Right?

You are not your thoughts.

You are what is hearing your thoughts.

And that's the big distinction.

You are the awareness that is in there that is listening to this incessant chatter in your mind,

Right?

The chatter is not who you are.

You are the one listening to it.

But I think we often,

Most of the time,

Identify with our thoughts.

We identify as that being who we are and we're very driven by our thoughts.

And we let the way we think and our thoughts help us make decisions and process emotions and all of that.

But we are the consciousness,

The awareness,

The being that is in there experiencing the world.

And the ego is like the cloud through which you experience it.

So recognizing that,

The keys,

The key to evolving is awareness and recognition of the ego and that it is not you.

And that is not who you are at your core.

That's not your soul.

So the simplest act of recognition and awareness of the thoughts in your head and separating yourself a little bit,

Dropping back behind those thoughts,

Recognizing that you have awareness of them,

But not letting those thoughts and incessant chatter dominate your existence or drive your actions or make decisions for you.

But instead living more in alignment with your soul,

Which is kind of behind your ego.

So it's a really difficult concept to explain,

Especially in a short time.

And that's why I recommend reading those two books because those two books are like totally dedicated to getting you to recognize it,

Understand what we mean when we talk about the ego and then being able to separate yourself from it.

But just for the sake of this podcast,

Let's say we're all on the same page with what the ego is.

And we recognize that we have the capability of separating from it.

And I think it's important to note that the goal is never to shut off your mind or to shut off your thoughts because that's impossible.

And anyone that tells you just stop thinking,

Right?

That's not what the goal is.

That's not realistic.

In my opinion,

That's not possible.

But what it is,

Is separating yourself from it,

Becoming partners with your ego instead of letting it lead the way.

And that's the goal.

The goal is not to like transcend or to squash your ego or to get rid of it because again,

That's all impossible.

But just with the mere fact of recognition,

Acceptance and awareness,

You then can live more in alignment with your soul.

And that's the goal here.

So what I want to talk about today,

That's not really what I want to talk about.

What I want to talk about is how we have been living,

The majority of us have been living driven by our ego up until this point,

Right?

Only a few people have been able to really separate themselves from it.

And first of all,

Let's make that more,

You know,

The norm to have to have us walk around not driven by our egos.

But what I want to talk about is how we have built our societies and our systems and our structures from the ego.

The ego has penetrated all of our systems and structures.

The ego governs how we live in society.

And I argue and invite you to consider that the time for all of that is over.

It doesn't work for us anymore.

It's not sustainable going into the future and it's time to restructure our society,

Come up with new systems,

New ways of being that are not driven by the ego.

Let me explain.

So a couple,

Just a few examples of systems that are driven by the ego,

Okay,

Or ways to think about it.

Let's start with capitalism,

Right?

Capitalism and the economy.

A huge,

Huge part of how we structure society today.

Capitalism is inherently an egoic principle because capitalism is about endless growth,

Survival of the fittest,

More and more and more material things,

Right?

It's about money.

It's about who has it and who doesn't,

Right?

Like,

That's all what capitalism is about.

That is all ego principles.

The medical industry.

The medical industry is driven and measured by profit as it stands right now,

Not by how many people it can help,

Right?

But even though that's the point of the medical industry technically to help and cure people,

But inherently they are driven by profit,

Not people.

That is the ego.

The police as it stands now,

Right,

The police as a whole,

I'm talking like a larger overarching,

Larger picture here.

Police,

The whole system is based on fear and you don't want to do anything wrong for fear of the police,

Right?

It's about power.

It's about judgment.

It's about superiority.

Those are all ego concepts.

Those are all ego principles.

The military,

The same thing.

It's about power.

It's about us versus them.

It's about strength.

That's the ego talking.

Our entertainment industry even,

Right?

I mean that is all ego.

It's about vanity.

It's about wealth.

It's about appearance.

It's about gossip.

It's about judgment and that is the ego.

So I argue that we can't sustain these systems as they are because we can no longer sustain endless growth.

We can no longer sustain fear-based systems.

We can no longer sustain materialism on a planet that has fixed resources.

We can no longer sustain systems that prioritize profit over people.

And I think the way that we do this is we start with ourselves.

We start with our own lives.

We start by changing our self and if enough of us do it,

Then we have the power to change the systems and develop new systems that prioritize people over profits.

So I invite you to think about the simple act of recognizing the ego in your own life and in your own mind and reading these books that I mentioned,

Untethered Soul and A New Earth,

And having the awareness of your ego and learning not to be driven by it,

Learning not to make decisions by it,

Becoming more in alignment with your soul.

I argue that is the path to change.

Start with our own lives and the rest will follow because if we have a population that is no longer driven by ego,

We will reject the norm just inherently,

Naturally,

Right?

We will reject these systems that don't work for us and we will demand as this population that is not driven by ego to have systems that are in alignment with that.

So yes,

We have a lot to do.

We have a lot to accomplish.

There's so much in society that's wrong,

But if we start with ourselves,

Then I think we have a chance.

And if it's as simple as on a day-to-day basis,

Constantly recognizing and being aware of your thoughts and your ego and making decisions from your soul instead of your mind and the ego,

Then isn't that worth doing?

Whew,

And we have to start on the individual level.

To make collective change,

We have to start on the individual level.

Tackle your own mind.

You are not your thoughts.

You are the awareness behind your thoughts.

Once we have enough on the individual level,

Then we as a collective have learned to partner with our egos instead of being driven by it.

We can rebuild our society in our own image once we've,

As a collective,

Gotten there.

Imagine it.

A world that is set up to prioritize people and the planet over money,

Over profits.

Can you even picture it?

I think we have to picture it.

I think we have to imagine it.

I think we have to set that intention.

We have to will it into existence.

We have to realize we have the power to do this.

Another world is possible,

And it's up to us.

We are spiritual beings having a human experience,

And we have the power to shape our world.

We have the power to set up systems that are judged by how much they help people,

About how much they respect the earth,

Over money and profits.

We can do that.

They prioritize equality.

The success is determined by respect for people on the planet.

I mean,

That is what we're fighting for here.

And this is like,

We want this to permeate every level of society.

And we have the power to do that.

Let's take back control.

Just because things have been this way up until this point does not mean we have to accept it and does not mean that is how it has to be into the future.

So let's do it.

Let's do the work.

Let's evolve.

Let's come together and let's create a better world.

You have the power.

I'm right there with you.

Let's do it.

Reviews

Awesome! Going to look up your podcast now. ✌💙🙏

That was amazing Marlee! I think I really learnt something from this podcast :) and you’re right! Now is the time for change and we need to create a world where people are more important than anything material!!