The confusion about living without ego

On a popular level, there are phrases that are often highlighted especially in the field of so-called "spirituality". Confusion reigns, value judgments made lightly, conclusions outside of reality and a myriad of ideas and opinions that have no foundation. Phrases such as, "that person has a lot of ego", in the spiritual path one must "annihilate the ego", such or such a teacher has a "great ego", that other guru is so humble that "he has no ego", or "to have no ego or to get rid of it, one must not have possessions or material goods", and so on, in an innumerable way of giving free opinions.

In the territory of philosophy, psychology, religion and the understanding of spirituality, the definitions of the ego are triggered. However, as I point out, it is circulating in the areas of orientalism in the West that the ego has to be "liquidated".

What a sad way to impoverish our individual reality and create problems for our existence! If anything, we should understand ourselves, the world around us, and try to transmute the imperfection and limitations that can constitute our self.

You can't live without ego

Let's see then. Without ego one cannot live, for without ego there would be no individual existence. According to Eastern traditions and Western mysticism, it is possible to live using the ego as is obvious and to live without becoming fully identified with it.

I think Ken Wilber's words can be very enlightening on this subject:

"One has the curious idea that the wise, mystics, sincere seekers of the Truth have no carnal needs or desires and spend their lives smiling and from the waist down they are dead.

I find it regrettable that it is believed that the wise do not have problems with things that concern everyone, such as money, food, sex, and as if mysticism or spirituality did not serve so much to live life to the fullest as to repress it."

From ego to broadening of consciousness

Learning does not consist in annihilating the ego, destroying it, eliminating it, living without it, which would lead not to wisdom but to a chaotic state of psychosis by denying the psychophysical reality of the individual; Rather, the intelligent tendency is to accept it, to seek refinement in order to get out of identification with the gross, the passing and the impermanent and to know how to broaden the spectrum of consciousness and extend it towards the Whole, thus coming out of the fragmentation of the self or ego, which ultimately makes the sage realize that it is not the highest thing in existence.

It is a proven fact that a path to Liberation requires a strong and powerful ego and the conviction to transcend it, which requires vigor, courage, intelligence and desire for freedom. I can assure you from very close experiences with highly regarded teachers that their egos were and are overwhelmingly absorbent and diamond.

It is also good that we know how to differentiate the abuse and exploitation of power that many in the name of "spirituality" use to subdue many others, under the excuse of annihilating their ego and thus burning their karma. We must not fall into these emotional traps which, after all, are the cause of this great confusion, feeding it incessantly.

If, on the other hand, the ego is weak and sickly, the lack of identity with oneself will only make one think about how to strengthen it, which will inevitably help one to think more about oneself and not about any kind of detachment, which would cause great anxiety and restlessness.

The conscience-witness

The ego as such is limited and unique and exclusive identification with it leads to a dead end.

This is where wisdom appears to lead us through meditation to the Witness-Consciousness, which sees the ego but does not identify with it, in the words of the philosopher Salvador Paniker.

"The purpose is not in the ego. The ultimate goal is the expansion of consciousness using the ego to experience a deeper dimension that overwhelms personal experience."

The ego with wisdom

One cannot live without ego, but one can submerge oneself in an unknown state that supposedly takes one beyond the ego. There are desires that bind and desires that liberate. The desire for refinement and knowledge of the ego and learning to transcend it is to live with wisdom.