A Word On '"Calcination"

 Calcination brings us to new awareness of the influence of the ego within us, and the process deflates the ego so we can discover more of our true reality, previously hidden by the ego's protections and defenses. In this stage we face a crisis of identity as our ego-based beliefs and false sense of self are transformed as if burned in an alchemist's fiery furnace.

Suffice it to say, most people avoid this process. Calcination incinerates the ego's defenses against the unknown. As our cherished beliefs and habits turn to ash and smoke, we may feel as if we're dying. And though this is not a physical death, it feels just as ominous and frightening. As we die to patterns we have outgrown, space is created for us to begin to realize more of our true reality.

We can't consciously make Calcination happen. It is merely what we go through at those times in which we feel powerless, confused, disheartened, and afraid. Every individual's reaction to a Calcination event differs—one person may sink into a depression and want to be left alone, while another may reject what's happening and fight fiercely to prevent change. There are others who might recognize that this event is actually an opportunity to let go of past conditioning, beliefs, and traumas, so they decide to surrender, without judgment or denial, to whatever they are experiencing...read more>>>...

How the Ego Forms the Matrix We Seek to Escape

 In a world where the quest for freedom often leads us to explore new philosophies, spiritual practices, and even technologies, we find ourselves in a paradox: the very thing we seek to escape is within us. The matrix we’re so desperate to transcend is not some external, oppressive system but the limited ego self we’ve constructed. Through the lens of self-realization and self-inquiry, we can begin to understand that this egoic matrix is the illusionary world that binds us, and our true liberation lies in seeing through it.

The concept of the matrix often conjures images of a simulated reality controlled by external forces, yet the real matrix is much closer to home. It’s the ego—the collection of thoughts, beliefs, and identities that we mistake for our true self. This egoic self is the lens through which we perceive the world, filtering reality through our fears, desires, and conditioning. It creates a false sense of separation, making us believe that we are individual entities navigating an external world, disconnected from the wholeness of existence.

The ego is adept at crafting stories, projecting them outwardly as reality. It convinces us that our thoughts are real, our identities fixed, and our separation from others and the universe inevitable. But what if the world we see merely reflects this internal matrix? What if the true journey is not about escaping an external force but dissolving the internal structures that keep us bound?...<<<Read More>>>...

The Ego

 In most spiritual circles, the ego gets a pretty bad rap. The reason for this is that the ego, to some extent, is the principle in our psyches that separates us from one another, while spirit is the principle that shows us that no such separation exists. Sometimes the ego is depicted as an almost demonic figure that keeps us from realizing our true nature. But at its most basic, the ego is simply a tool that helps us organize the various aspects of our personality so that we can function in the world. In this sense, the ego is simply a way for us to understand and attend to ourselves — at the same time as we understand and attend to the world around us. The ego is a tool that we use to navigate the world.

Perhaps, the problem is that the ego sometimes gets out of control. This happens when the higher self loses control of the psyche. The psyche then falls under the leadership of the ego, an entity that was never meant to lead. The ego is meant to be in the service of the higher self. When this relationship is functioning, the ego is a useful intermediary, representing the whole self but not thinking that it is the whole self. Then, it is almost as if the ego is the self playfully pretending to be the separate entity called “I.” Like an actor, the ego plays the roles that the world asks us to play in order to be part of the program. In this way, the ego can be a tool enabling us to be in the world but not of it.

As long as we are in touch with our higher self, our ego is not a threat. They are useful tools in the service of spirit. We keep our egos in check when we continually nurture our awareness of who we really are. Then our egos are free to serve without trying ineffectually to rule. It is healthy to have ego, but like all things in life, ego functions best when it is in balance and harmony with your whole self. (Daily OM)

What Happens When You Stop Believing the Ego

“The ego is only an illusion.” At first, this sentence might sound dismissive. It’s often repeated in spiritual circles—sometimes too casually, as if the ego were something that could simply be erased, as if it had no weight or influence.

But the ego feels very real. It reacts, fears, controls, gets offended, wants to prove itself. So how can it be “just” an illusion?

Because it seems real—but it’s not. Like a shadow, it appears, it takes shape, but it has no true substance.

The ego isn’t a real “thing”—it’s a mental construct we recreate again and again based on the past. The ego is a story—the story of “me.”

An inner voice that constantly tells you who you are, what you deserve, what you lack, what you must fix, gain, or protect.

As long as you believe that voice is you, the ego becomes your reality. But the moment you start observing it instead of believing it—it begins to unravel.

Its true nature is revealed: a constantly shifting, reactive illusion that only holds power when it’s not seen clearly....<<<Read More>>>...

You Are Not Who You Think You Are – Here’s Why

 First, I’ll start by saying who you are not (not really).

Who you are not is your superficial ego self, the masks you wear. Who you are not (not really) is your age (as the saying goes, age is just a number), position in society, occupation, the culture you belong to, beliefs, financial status, social status, matrimonial status, sexuality, the clothes you wear, the way you talk…

All these things, of course, have value, but they are just superficial identities (like masks). Putting too much value on any of them may cause breakdowns, high anxiety, pain, trauma or even death if their existence is threatened or lost.

Any great attachments to these things cause one to falsely identify (misidentify) oneself with who they truly really are: If you get the idea that this is who you really are then you’ll never know your true self, its dynamic nature, and how you can have real cause and effect over your life....<<<Read More>>>...

 

The Ego’s Final Stand or Humanity’s Awakening? A Critical Crossroad

 Today, many people sense an increasing tension between a world dominated by the individual ego and the awakening of collective consciousness.

This duality manifests in countless ways within society, raising the question:

Are we truly witnessing the reign of strong egos, or is the awakening of collective consciousness quietly unfolding in the background?

When looking at the current global situation, many feel that strong egos are taking center stage, while the awakening of collective consciousness has slowed down or been pushed into the background.

Wars, economic crises, political polarization, social conflicts, and the dominance of self-interest all create the impression that the ego has reached the height of its power.

Or could it be a temporary illusion – one that is actually part of the awakening process?...<<<Read More>>>...

How the Ego Forms the Matrix We Seek to Escape

In a world where the quest for freedom often leads us to explore new philosophies, spiritual practices, and even technologies, we find ourselves in a paradox: the very thing we seek to escape is within us. The matrix we’re so desperate to transcend is not some external, oppressive system but the limited ego self we’ve constructed. Through the lens of self-realization and self-inquiry, we can begin to understand that this egoic matrix is the illusionary world that binds us, and our true liberation lies in seeing through it.

The concept of the matrix often conjures images of a simulated reality controlled by external forces, yet the real matrix is much closer to home. It’s the ego—the collection of thoughts, beliefs, and identities that we mistake for our true self. This egoic self is the lens through which we perceive the world, filtering reality through our fears, desires, and conditioning. It creates a false sense of separation, making us believe that we are individual entities navigating an external world, disconnected from the wholeness of existence.

The ego is adept at crafting stories, projecting them outwardly as reality. It convinces us that our thoughts are real, our identities fixed, and our separation from others and the universe inevitable. But what if the world we see merely reflects this internal matrix? What if the true journey is not about escaping an external force but dissolving the internal structures that keep us bound?...<<<Read More>>>...

What is the Ego? Should it Be Destroyed?

 In almost every nook and cranny of the spiritual field, you’ll hear the ego spoken about with contempt and sometimes it is plain demonized.

Many people carry the belief that the ego needs to be destroyed, muzzled, or even killed.

But do we need to destroy the ego? What is the ego, really? And furthermore, what can you learn about your own ego?

The ego is basically your identity, or who you think you are.

In other words, your ego is usually constructed of a name, a personality, and a story. Within this personal story is a collection of memories, beliefs, ideas, and sensations about “who you are,” “where you came from,” “what you’re good and bad at,” “what you’ve experienced,” and on, and on, and on, ad infinitum.

In the words of renowned spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle,

Ego is no more than this: identification with form, which primarily means thought forms.When we identify with a thought or story in our head, the substance of the ego is born....<<<Read More>>>...

Food for Thought #505

 

How to Recognise a Spiritual Ego

 [Wake Up World]: Nice people often want to help others and spiritual people are no different, but as we begin to seek our own enlightenment, we find out very quickly from those that have gone before us that we can not and must not try to “help” others spiritually, until we have attained our own enlightenment, lest we hinder them.

We describe the process of self-realization and enlightenment as “waking up” because we have learnt that everything we may not have previously realised is already there.

We all function normally with our own perspective, born out of our own needs and cultivated by our actions and beliefs throughout our lives. If at some juncture, we begin considering our spiritual side, we soon realise that the boundaries around the ideas we have of ourselves are nothing more than imaginary fences that we have constructed in our psyche, to protect and maintain the idea of who we are in the eyes of others. We encapsulate ourselves as something and someone to present to and function within the world and usually end up making the mistake of believing that we are the act.

With attention these misconceptions are dismantled and ignited by the fires of our own awareness, resulting in our perspectives widening....<<<Read The Full Article Here>>>>...

How to Make the Best Choices in Life in Line with Your Soul

How you experience and enjoy your life depends, of course, on the choices you make. How often do you find yourself trying to figure out what’s the best choice? But what if at one level – that of the ego – choice is merely a complex illusion of conditioning? And beyond that, what if there’s a way of aligning with your soul that then delivers the best choices possible? It’s my observation in the Openhand work, then when people break through the illusion of choice that the ego creates, and when they align with the soul’s mainstream flow, life really takes off in the most magical of ways: you’re constantly blessed with miracles…

I put it to you that when one is in the false self ego, choices are actually being made by a complex configuration of conditioned behaviour patterns – a conglomeration of fixed neural pathways in the brain – which work a bit like a computer: based on logic, but also with emotion and karmic filters thrown into the mix. My main point being…

That in any given situation, when you’re in the ego, you are going to do exactly what you are going to do, and although other options and pathways may have been possible, based on your current configuration, it’s highly inevitable you’d make the choice you did.

Understanding and accepting that something like this may be going on, when you think and feel into it, can bring with it an enormous amount of peace: it means you can start to let go of struggle. Work to accept that life simply ‘happens’ by your inner configuration of consciousness – that you manifest, and draw to yourself, exactly what you need at this current place on your journey – which is how The Law of Attraction truly works. When you do accept this, it then changes the focus as to where we might now need to look, in order to arrive at the best choice (defined as the most aligned one)....<<<Read More>>>....

Surrendering the Ego

 [Daily OM]: Whenever a word is overused, it is most likely being misused, and over time, it begins to lose its meaningfulness. For example, we often refer to a fleeting feeling of depression or a period of confusion, as a dark night of the soul, but neither of these things qualifies as such. A dark night of the soul is a very specific experience that some people encounter on their spiritual journeys. There are people who never encounter a dark night of the soul, but others must endure this as part of the process of breaking through to the dawn of higher consciousness.

The dark night of the soul invites us to fully recognize the confines of our egos' identity. We may feel as if we are trapped in a prison that affords us no access to light or the outside. We are coming from a place of higher knowing, and we may have spent a lot of time and energy reaching toward the light of higher consciousness. This is why the dark night has such a quality of despair: We are suddenly shut off from what we thought we had realized and the emotional pain is very real. We may even begin to feel that it was all an illusion and that we are lost forever in this darkness. The more we struggle, the darker things get, until finally we surrender to our not knowing what to do, how to think, where to turn. It is from this place of losing our sense of ourselves as in control that the ego begins to crack or soften and the possibility of light entering becomes real.

Some of us will have to endure this process only once in our lives, while others may have to go through it many times. The great revelation of the dark night is the releasing of our old, false identity. We finally give up believing in this false self and thus become capable of owning and embracing the light.

Ego Death: 7 Terrifying and Illuminating Stages

[Wake Up World]: “Waking up is an endless losing what you think you know, like a wave of destruction that leaves nothing but what is true.” – Unmani

Death is a word that we humans usually associate with darkness, mourning, decay, and general creepiness.

We spend our entire lives running away from, avoiding, and denying the fact that we will someday physically die.

However, the death that I’m talking about in this article isn’t the typical kind of death we fear.

The death I’ll be referring to is the most beautiful, illuminating, awe-inspiring, expansive, enlightening, and paradigm-shattering experience you could ever go through.

This experience is known as “ego death,” and for every serious spiritual seeker, it is a pivotal part of the spiritual awakening journey....<<<Read More>>>...

 

How to Recognise a Spiritual Ego

[Wake Up World]: Nice people often want to help others and spiritual people are no different, but as we begin to seek our own enlightenment, we find out very quickly from those that have gone before us that we can not and must not try to “help” others spiritually, until we have attained our own enlightenment, lest we hinder them.

We describe the process of self-realization and enlightenment as “waking up” because we have learnt that everything we may not have previously realised is already there.

We all function normally with our own perspective, born out of our own needs and cultivated by our actions and beliefs throughout our lives. If at some juncture, we begin considering our spiritual side, we soon realise that the boundaries around the ideas we have of ourselves are nothing more than imaginary fences that we have constructed in our psyche, to protect and maintain the idea of who we are in the eyes of others. We encapsulate ourselves as something and someone to present to and function within the world and usually end up making the mistake of believing that we are the act.

With attention these misconceptions are dismantled and ignited by the fires of our own awareness, resulting in our perspectives widening....<<<Read The Full Article Here>>>>...

Warning Signs You’re Practicing Spiritual Materialism

[Wake Up World]: Originally coined by Buddhist meditation master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche in his book Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, spiritual materialism is what happens when we use spiritual concepts, practices, and tools to reinforce the false sense of self, the ego. As the ego is the source of all our suffering, bolstering the ego through spiritual practice is totally at odds with the whole point of the spiritual path.

As Trungpa writes,

"No matter what the practice or teaching, ego loves to wait in ambush to appropriate spirituality for its own survival and gain".

We need to be honest with ourselves and realize that we aren’t immune to spiritual materialism. As we all have an ego, its mission is to survive, no matter what it takes, because it is terrified of the prospect of non-existence. Yet being free of the ego is the very definition of enlightenment according to all major non-dualistic spiritual traditions...<<<Read The Full Article Here>>>...

Addiction in Our 3D World: The Role of the Shadow

[Wake Up World]: In order to better understand what the Shadow is, we need context and its context has to do with our journey from pure source consciousness into the realm of dense physicality, so saddle your broomstick ‘cause we’re going meta for this one.

Think of pure source consciousness as total unity with all that is; where there is no separation, nor differentiation between anything. All is one, thus, there is no “I” or separate self, there is only a self-generating energy field known as consciousness which all of creation sources from. This energy field both radiates outward and permeates through all layers of itself, animating the field of consciousness and exploring its varied expressions.

At that level of reality, there is no space or time, thus all is nonlocal and the center of the field is everywhere. It’s only when we enter the structure of Spacetime that there are concepts of relativity in order to navigate our relationship to everything else such as near and far, up and down, big and small, joy and grief, and so forth.

This is where dimensions and densities enter the scene.

A density is a specific bandwidth of frequency also known as a phase of consciousness. The “further away” from the state of pure source consciousness, the slower, more dense the bandwidth of frequency will manifest.

The difference between density and dimension can be visualized as an elevator at the top floor of a translucent building. The vertical drop down each level would be the descending in density. Each floor of the building is a different level, or density, of consciousness with its own unique learning and curriculum to fulfill.

Each level is also superimposed over one another so that they all occupy the same space; and all the rooms on each floor of the building would be the dimensions i.e. parallel realities, timelines, versions of reality that operate under different laws, and alternate universes.

However calling a level of consciousness a dimension is not inaccurate either, since dimensions can refer to many things including a specific bandwidth of frequency or phase of consciousness.

If all else fails think of densities as a perpetual coming of age movie, and dimensions as anything—literally anything.

So what does this all have to do with the Shadow?

The Shadow is a result of our fragmentation from “dropping” in density to our home here in the third dimension....<<<Read The Full Article Here>>>...

Nature of Existence is Non-existence

Illusiontoreality: Everything in existence has its own check and balance processes – a natural law that governs everything that exist, from the micro to the macro level, including the universe itself. It is like an in-build mechanism found in everything – whether be it tangible or intangible, animate or inanimate – all has the inherent nature to arise and cease by itself, moment after moment. Conditioned by its ceasing, it arises again. Conditioned by the arising, it ceases again, in continuum. This conditional principle is spread unconditionally throughout existence – not one is spared from it.

There is no wrongness in this movement of processes, neither is there possibility of things going wrong – for everything, from the minutest level, is taken care of in itself, moment after moment, in perfect harmony. How could it ever go wrong when anything that comes into existence perishes immediately? There is no chance for it to move further into any conflict or entanglement other than to cease instantaneously. If ever there is an entanglement, it will only be a perceived entanglement occurring between ego towards nature. Even the mind is subjected to perish – how else could it be possible for it to be entangled? The misconception of what things really are from the viewpoint of ego is the cause of the illusion of entanglement. What is ego? Misperception....read more>>>...

The Ego

Daily Om: In most spiritual circles, the ego gets a pretty bad rap. The reason for this is that the ego, to some extent, is the principle in our psyches that separates us from one another, while spirit is the principle that shows us that no such separation exists. Sometimes the ego is depicted as an almost demonic figure that keeps us from realizing our true nature.

But at its most basic, the ego is simply a tool that helps us organize the various aspects of our personality so that we can function in the world. In this sense, the ego is simply a way for us to understand and attend to ourselves at the same time as we understand and attend to the world around us. The ego is a tool that we use to navigate the world.

Perhaps the problem is that the ego sometimes gets out of control. This happens when the higher self loses control of the psyche. The psyche then falls under the leadership of the ego, an entity that was never meant to lead. The ego is meant to be definitively in the service of the higher self...read more>>>...

Serving The Higher Self

Daily Om: In most spiritual circles, the ego gets a pretty bad rap. The reason for this is that the ego, to some extent, is the principle in our psyches that separates us from one another, while spirit is the principle that shows us that no such separation exists.

Sometimes the ego is depicted as an almost demonic figure that keeps us from realizing our true nature. But at its most basic, the ego is simply a tool that helps us organize the various aspects of our personality so that we can function in the world.

In this sense, the ego is simply a way for us to understand and attend to ourselves at the same time as we understand and attend to the world around us. The ego is a tool that we use to navigate the world.

Perhaps the problem is that the ego sometimes gets out of control. This happens when the higher self loses control of the psyche. The psyche then falls under the leadership of the ego, an entity that was never meant to lead...read more>>>...

Surrendering the Ego

Daily Om: Whenever a word is overused, it is most likely being misused, and over time, it begins to lose its meaningfulness. For example, we often refer to a fleeting feeling of depression or a period of confusion, as a dark night of the soul, but neither of these things qualifies as such.

A dark night of the soul is a very specific experience that some people encounter on their spiritual journeys. There are people who never encounter a dark night of the soul, but others must endure this as part of the process of breaking through to the dawn of higher consciousness.

The dark night of the soul invites us to fully recognize the confines of our egos' identity. We may feel as if we are trapped in a prison that affords us no access to light or the outside. We are coming from a place of higher knowing, and we may have spent a lot of time and energy reaching toward the light of higher consciousness...read more>>>...