How Big is Your Ego - Part 4

In this part 4 of the mini-series of 'how big is your ego?' we continue to dive into the more elements of life, that the ego uses to create an false image or identity for ourselves.  

In a world that is increasingly materialistic and externally focused, it is not so easy to stay aware of our true invisible, eternal, spiritual identity.  You can’t see, hear it, smell it, or sell it!

So most people, even if they believe they have a soul, do not experience that they are a soul, and that everything else we perceive with our senses, is just constantly rearranging molecules and particles.   The soul cannot own one single molecule.  Not one!  Let that sink in. 

Yet the ego, blind to the real self, seeks desperately to create a false self, in order to order to feel safe in this constantly changing molecule soup! 

We do this through our looks, and possessions, through our nationality and relationships, through knowledge and skills, and it does it through increasingly through social media. 

So today we will explore the many ways social media effects our consciousness and especially how it builds and breaks our egos.  

One of the most radical changes that anyone alive is living through right now, is the rise of social media.  If we were to watch a documentary about our era, 100 years in the future.  It would probably say something like, the humans at that time were not aware that their society was on the precipice of disaster, because they were too busy watching tiktok dances. 

Most of us know first-hand just how addictive social media can be.   If our ego was a monster with ten heads, each one of them could be feeding off a different aspect of social media. 

It’s hard to say anything new about this topic, because it is so current and relevant to everyone’s experience.  But it is worth reminding ourselves, that feeding the ego is not just a harmless thing that everyone is indulging in, so it doesn’t matter. Ego fuels our social media addiction and can create a deep sense of depression, envy, loneliness, laziness.  It keeps our minds endlessly occupied and far from awareness of the soul and a life of purpose.  Of course, on the other hand it is useful tool for inspiration, motivation, education and for creativity, to name a few things.  But let’s take a look at some of the ways, we can be reinforcing our egos each time we browse or scroll.

One of the big illusions the ego sells us, is that there is such a thing as perfect lifestyle, which will give us an experience of perfect happiness. 

The ego stays alive by using social media to feed you endless content with which to compare yourself to others.  Bodies, homes, gardens, children, husbands, hobbies, holidays, the endless feed of curated images, creates endless desires for more and more.  Or if you’ve given up on life, you can compare yourself with rude, poor, ugly, dysfunctional people and at least feel better about yourself. Most people’s vision boards don’t really come from their deepest inner vision for their destiny but from constantly being bombarded with lifestyle porn. 

Any feeling of envy, dissatisfaction, restlessness, basically any time I’m triggered by seeing the wealth, possessions, relationships, lifestyles, appearances of others, is a clear sign that my ego is operation in my consciousness.  Trying to convince me that any of this stuff has anything to do happiness.  The fact that you can use your consciousness to manifest all those things for yourself, still does not mean it has anything to do with happiness.  

If we are really looking for a radical awakening, for the whole of humanity to move into a whole new spiritual era, we can’t be halfhearted in questioning reality.

1000’s of people lose their homes, their possessions, lose their bodies, lose their relatives in an instant.  Have they lost anything of value?   From the perspective of the soul, everything is happening as it should, the soul is eternal and has constant access to its original nature of love, peace, bliss, freedom, at every moment.  All souls are always connected.  At every moment the soul can feel exactly what ego has convinced us can only be felt by achievements in the physical dimension.  Everything we call ours are just temporary costumes, props and scenery.  Everyone we call ours, is just another actor playing their temporary parts. 

Behind the scenes, in the spiritual dimension, our connection to each other is deeper, more real and more profound than anything we can imagine.  This reality has to be contemplated and understood, until, the answer to the question, has anyone lost anything of value, comes automatically and sincerely.  No, nothing is gained or lost in the material world.  It is just the games of the ego.  An illusion.

Social media magnifies that illusion.  So, when we open that door to pandoras box, we need to keep our wits about us. 

I’m certainly not tempting fate by having ego that I myself constantly experience this state of knowing there is nothing to lose or gain.  But I’ve glimpsed it, I know how powerful it is, I believe it essential and inevitable for this awakening to happen to all us.  So, I’m just here to remind myself and anyone listening of this higher perspective. 

Anyone who has died and come back, says exactly the same.  Nothing material matters, all is happening as it is meant to be happening, and we don’t lose anyone, because we are souls and eternally connected. 

And many people who have experienced those sort of extreme personal disasters and great losses, do at some point, have a spiritual breakthrough of some kind and say, in retrospect, it did teach them, make them rethink their whole life, evaluate their priorities and that as a result, are in fact happier.   

So, that was a bit of a rant.  But back to social media and the ego. 

Of course likes, comments, having followers, being an influencer, and then the opportunities, connections, sponsorships, wealth and more that could possibly come from that are hugely attractive for the ego.

If we go back to the image of the ego being like a castle we build to feel secure and to show the world that we are someone, social media promises to transform that castle of bricks into one of gold in the blink of the eye.  It’s called going viral! 

I enrolled probably about a year ago in a course on every aspect of video creation.  I didn’t get far into, but they send me very frequent emails.  Recently almost everyone of these emails, had a headline about getting 100,000 subscribers in a short amount of time, with some approach or other.   And every time I saw these email headlines,  I felt this twinge of discomfort, a sort of mixture of envy, excitement, desire, repulsion.  I was tempted to spam list the emails.  But I reflected on why it was so triggering and how much ego was involved in my own motives for being a content creator. 

It's not that I plan to eliminate the ego by going full hermit mode.  I’m also aware that life has a merciful mechanism that pops our balloons if they are rising too high with ego.  But, I do try to stay aware of the ego’s need to feed, off anything which looks like progress, on this material plane.  The only real progress is to wake up. 

The last aspect that I would like to touch on, is the addictive element of social media.  The endless scrolling, the mind and its feeding frenzy.  Another story, another joke, another bit of news, another make-over, glow up, down-size, renovation, transformation.  Another insight, another cute animal, another thift haul, another prophecy, another useful product, another time saving hack, another holiday destination, No wonder,  we have trouble meditating!

Everytime we get see a clip, we get a wee dopamine hit.  Multiple that by 100 clips in an hour. That dopamine is addictive.  But we all know for every high, there has to come a low.  This is how the ego, the false self, that is totally stuck in the material world, looking for material satisfaction, how it traps us online.  We know the low is coming, that depressed feeling we get when we finally turn off the phone, and our brain is spinning and we know we’ve just wasted our time and now we can’t sleep.   So we delay it even longer.   We bought the high and now we don’t want to pay the bill. 

This dopamine addiction is really just a failed attempt for the soul to feel its own joy.  Which is a much more subtle, higher frequency feeling.   So, its really understandable that most of us go for the easy substitute.  But we do have the ability to choose where we focus our attention. And more we see the facts, the easier it is to choose wisely.  And the more we choose wisely, the easier it is to choose wisely.

So friends, choose wisely, enjoy safe scrolling, and if you want to awaken to your truth, try not to feed the ego every time you open your phone. 

This is the last in this mini-series on how big is your ego.   The list of factors that the ego can feed is are literally unlimited. 

In the next article we will explore more aspects of ego, but this time the more internalized, subtle aspects. 

Om shanti