What is the spiritual ego?

What is the spiritual ego?

Quite simply said: as long as you do not perceive from  unity consciousness, you live from the perspective of the ego. And unity not as a thought/idea, but as an experienced, real experience of the fact that everything is one. The perspective of the ego is separation. I am a separate individual in a world, so I am to/separated from the world. The spiritual ego is put simply: use spiritual concepts/ideas/truths to maintain the separation, but pretend to be”far developed” or in the most pronounced case:”one would already be enlightened”.

Right in front: everyone who deals with spirituality has a spiritual ego…more or less pronounced, more or less obvious. Because the ego uses all areas to maintain the separation. He listens to our conversations, reads every spiritual book, sits with us in retreat and draws conclusions that serve him. There are also many teachers/books/teachings in the esoteric field that nourish the spiritual ego. It is simply helpful to see this through and to recognize it in oneself. Of the features listed, some will apply to you, others will not.

This is how you recognize the spiritual ego in yourself:

• You feel superior or better than others
• You always secretly measure”how far you are” in your development, in comparison to others
• You think you have to say”yes and amen” to everything because a good person does it that way.
• You set no limits and can’t say no
• You suppress negative feelings because these are “unspiritual
• You believe to follow the best teacher/path/teaching or to be part of the best spiritual group (sangha), which often also has an absolute claim (can also be a diet or healing method).
• You think you’re an old soul You want to be special
• You want to be seen
• You want to retreat from the world and have nothing to do with “normal daily life”
• You judge yourself and others for “unspiritual” behavior
• There is hidden arrogance in you, better knowledge and comparisons
• You have a desire for extrasensory abilities (siddhies), are proud of your own and/or admire them in others.
• You’re impressed with healing abilities or manifestation skills.
• You do good to be a good person
• You use spiritual practice/meditation/yoga/sattvic pure lifestyle to feel better, superior or to attain perfection.
• You think you are descended from another/better/special planet and only landed here on earth by chance/error.
• You’re compulsively attending classes/retreats non-stop
• You hide negative behaviors (shadows) because they are “unspiritual”
• There is a separation between everyday life and spirituality in your experience
• You have precise ideas of perfection, holiness and God You believe in the concept of good and evil, God and devil.
• You think you are enlightened and superior to all others

Recognition is therefore an important first step. DO NOT condemn yourself for it or reject what you know! It only feeds the ego and comes from the ego itself! Meet everything with openness, acceptance and unconditional love. Find the level in you that looks neutral/open/lovingly at EVERYTHING it sees (in you and in the world), but is connected and includes everything.

Do the following exercise:

1. breathe in and out deeply a few times following your breath
2. Now center yourself in your heart and breathe in and out love until your heart feels soft, open and loving. It is important that you feel this and not just a mental thought process. If this step is difficult for you, stick with it and practice before you go to the next step
3. focus your attention now on a behavior of your spiritual ego that you became aware of
4. look at this behavior from your open, loving heart and keep breathing love in and out and take this behavior more and more into your heart until it dissolves itself (you cannot force or manipulate it, it happens by itself and must not contain”wanting to go away”).

What more can you do:

1. Practice devotion, humility and service! And that’s everything you’re confronted with every day. This is only possible with openness.

2. Subordinate to the “Whole of life”

3. Release all judgments! There is no better or worse.

4. Uncover your shadows and integrate them.

5. Make the intention, even if you have no idea how this works, to want to recognize unity in everything. The clear intention is the most important thing.

6. beware of analyzing the spiritual ego of others, stay completely with yourself!