A moment with Boots

I do a lot of reading. I recently picked up “A New Earth” by Eckhart Tolle. A friend of mine tried to get me interested in the book back when they started the live broadcast via internet with Oprah pertaining to this book. If you just bought the book yourself and want to hear what Eckhart and Oprah had to say those programs are still saved on Oprah’s webpage. The broadcasts are a great tool to better understand what Tolle is trying to explain in his book.
Ok where was I oh yes, I am reading this book to broaden my mind and find out how my ego-based consciousness is dysfunctional and is destroying my life. I think what struck me the most was the chapter explaining how we talk about other people to make our ego feel superior. The minute we utter jerk, asshole, or any negative description of another being we fed the ego. When we state that we are not going to join in on the nay saying and we are above all that; again we fed our ego with being superior. When we buy big houses, fancy cars, new clothes, and cosmetic surgeries for our bodies again we are feeding the ego stating that we are superior. When we say there is only one God (our God) and there are no other religions again we are fed the ego. When we say our group is the only group again with the ego. When will this stop?
Guess what? You are not your ego. Your ego is a dysfunction of old messages that you have been brought up with taught to you from a young age. The ego is a coping mechanism to make you forget your flaws and feel better about yourself. For every name you call someone else, for every flaw or negative thing you see in someone else is something you really don’t like about yourself. When you can point this out in someone else it makes your flaw seems smaller or almost disappear. But it is still there, it didn’t go anywhere, you just pushed it down into that big dark hole and your false sense of self esteem gets a little boost. Only problem with that is it will never be enough and you will have to continue with your dysfunctional behavior in order to keep your ego feeling good. You do not need to put other people down to make yourself superior. You do not need to distance yourself from others who are playing the negative name games. You just need to realize that they are still using dysfunctional tools to cope with their lack of self esteem.
Your emotions with your ego in tow are making decisions for your life! What a bumpy roller coaster ride that can be. One day your ego is up there on top of the world and boom someone says or does something that rips the mat right out from under your feet. There you are, laying on the dusty dirty floor, your ego is pissed off now. How dare you dethrone me, get my butt back up on that pedestal that you call life. So your emotions are boiling, you cannot think straight, and you make a decision based on your emotions at that time. I don’t know about you, but I make lousy decisions when I am mad. You know, you want to beat someone’s brains out or quit a job because of a situation that never seems fair. I’ve done it, well, I haven’t beaten anyone’s brains out, but I have thought about it a few times. But I have walked out and quit jobs that made my blood boil. Looking back, I wish that I had just taken some time and let myself calm down. But my emotions took over my ego, and my ego said, “I will fix them, I will quit”. Well that didn’t fix anyone or anything, it just left me without a job. And the places that I quit from could have cared less because they had just as many people coming in to take that position as they had leaving. Emotions and the ego are an ugly mix.
Stop the Madness. You are not your house. You are not your car. You are not your job. So who are you and what are you without those items? You would still be Joe, Bob, Jane, or Beth, but even your name is not who you are; it is a label that you were given at birth. Just like your job title is a label, and your income level is a label, the groups you belong to is a label…and so on. Who would you be and where would you be if you were no longer chasing or living up to these labels that society has put on you?
I will tell you who and where you would be. You would be a free person. You would finally chase the dreams that are in your heart. You would no longer be getting a new car or putting in a pool because your neighbor just did. Your material possessions would not own you and you wouldn’t have to kill yourself physically working two jobs or hellacious overtime in order to live a certain lifestyle. Your lifestyle would be your own. You would be at peace at all times. Negative words from other people wouldn’t bother you at all. You would no longer be influenced or run by your ego. Isn’t it great the thought of not having to live up to someone or societies expectations?
I don’t know about you, but I have found this book “A New Earth” about my ego quite illuminating. From reading this book, I find myself being more alert of my feelings towards other people. I am also realizing that I no longer need to keep up with the “Jones” so to speak when it comes to new items around the house or clothes that I wear; even in small ways that I wasn’t aware of. I am not my ego, and I will do my very best to keep my dysfunctional ego from taking over and ruining my life. I want to be free. What about you?