Ego: An Anti-Evolutionary Force (Andrew Cohen's Quote of the Week)

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Quote of the week Weekly quotes from the teachings of Andrew Cohen

 

Ego: An Anti-Evolutionary Force

 

What is ego? In an enlightenment context, the word ego refers to a

deeply ingrained, unconscious, compulsive, and mechanical need to remain

separate and superior at all times, in all places, under all

circumstances. Ego is expressed as an irrational refusal to say yes to

life, to love, and to God--to an unconditionally positive relationship

to the human experience.

 

The true face of ego is rarely seen for what it is except at those brief

moments when you have recognized something as being absolutely positive,

wholesome, and good, and are compelled to respond, to say a wholehearted

yes to that which you have recognized. It is only in those moments that

you come face to face with the force of a powerful inertia within you

that blindly resists, defies, and denies that which is radically

positive. This is what ego is: that immovable stance, deep in the human

heart and mind, that irrationally resists any call from within or

without to embrace the greatest goodness. When we aspire to evolve at

the level of consciousness, to live a spiritual life, to become an

enlightened person, we open our hearts to the thrilling possibility of

something so inconceivably glorious that it's just too positive for most

of us to bear. And it is only when we dare to even consider saying yes

to this highest good that we will experience this kind of profound

confrontation with our own self--both with the anti-evolutionary force

that exists in all of us, and with our normally untapped potential for

extraordinary developmental leaps.

 

Andrew Cohen