Ego Introduction

I am in and out of Egoland all the time – which helps to explain how I've learned to recognise ego's little ways, and learned (over and over again!) that its claims to be helpful and useful are untrue and not to be trusted.

Ego claims to be the creator of interest, colour and stimulation in our lives, of variety and dynamism.

In the 1970s I lived for a time in West Berlin. Ego's claims to give life its liveliness reminds me of the contrasts that struck me then, between the drab grey East with its pungent reek of two-stroke and brown coal, its war-pocked tenements and half-empty shops, and the often lurid and camp bustle of West Berlin with its flashing neon, its sex shops and pavement cafes, its flea markets and ‘folk pubs’, and its atmosphere of perpetual party.

It felt ironic to me, even then, that what seemed to give the West its colour was the enormous billboards advertising Clint Eastwood’s latest Western, or cigarettes, or booze – not in themselves attractive features.

A further irony was that almost all the people of my own age I met at that time, in West Berlin, were (at that time) ‘believing’ Marxists of some description – either Maoist or Stalinist!

Ego likes to imply that life without it would be drab, boring, a living death even – whereas, once we get free of ego, even in glimpses, we find the taste and freedom of reality more enjoyable, unconditional, spacious and effortless than anything Egoland can offer – and all without the need for calculation or strategy, for weighing or balancing.

The lurid and over-emphatic impact of ego-driven stimuli on the psyche is like the effects of junk food on the palate. Ego-inspired thoughts and emotions release adrenaline (fear-related), which is addictive, like junk food, and also makes us hyperactive. Ego keeps us wanting more, unsatisfied, restless, off-centre – this is an exhausting and thankless way to live, and nobody would do it, if they could imagine an alternative!

There is nothing gentle or neutral about ego. Everything in Egoland is underlined – italicised – in bold - for emphasis. With lots of exclamations marks and CAPITAL LETTERS for EXTRA EMPHASIS !!!

EVERYTHING is marked URGENT! in Egoland. We are supposed to be harassed, stressed, over-burdened with duty and ‘responsibilities’, on a treadmill of boring, yet strenuous and thankless tasks.

All of this unreal, self-punishing pressure is based on fantasy and falsehood, backed up by fear.

We don't have to accept ego's claims to be necessary, life-enhancing, essential for our protection and success.  Reality is not our enemy - it is what we belong to and are nourished by, year after year.