Spirituality: What Is the Ego? How Is It Created? How Is It Deconstructed?

The ego are the parts of your awareness and self-perceived identity that arise out of the perception of not being God, and indirectly from questioning the existence of God/Source/Creator to begin with.

This doubt arises from incarnating in the physical world. Doing so places upon you the metaphysical veil, which blocks out or makes it difficult to ascertain this truth.

Note these doubts or perceptions may also arise in other realms and planes of existence – and therefore so can the ego. But for the sake of simplicity, let us focus solely on human life in this reality.

Are You God?

A common type of perspective in spiritual circles is that “there is no I”, “the self is an illusion”, and so on. While such perspectives contain grains of truth to, they can also be misguided.

In peak spiritual experiences of any nature, you may find your awareness greatly expanding outwardly and matching with that of Creation, the Creator, and Infinity at large. When this happens, due to the difference in scale how difficult it is for the human mind to process it, it may look like you’re “dissolving” to a broader context. That only the Infinite/Universe/Creation are the true existence. And that your identity as a human being is not real, and perhaps, therefore, that it doesn’t matter.

But this is just an impression. You may be tapping to higher perspectives and broader truths – but that doesn’t mean you or your awareness are an illusion.

Mind you, parts of human awareness might be more ephemeral or “false” than others. Some parts correspond to lower awareness and darkness i.e. lack of Light; some correspond to an adopted a constructed persona that may not honor the Light within. Those parts can indeed be false and illusory, spiritually speaking.

The I/Me within, on the other hand, the one witnessing it all, is not an illusion: it is the Creator’s awareness projected as Their aspect, and living the experience through their eyes. In other words: you are God/Source, also.

And, therefore, you are not an illusion.

What is the Ego?

The Ego is the cumulative, pervasive portion of your beingness that conceives yourself as being disconnected from Source.

It believes Source does not exist, is not real, does not care, etc. And it sees the self as being just the physical part, what you can see, and what you can ascertain “with certainty”.

Metaphysically, it’s said the ego is centered in and with the nature of the lower mental body; Even so, I regard the ego as something that infinite consciousness can subscribe to on any plane of existence, insofar the general perception of a higher order not existing, and you not being part of such order, may be maintained.

As a human being, you are immersed in a reality where the existence of God/Source and your relation with Them it is not apparent, and for the most part is not acknowledged (in direct experience). Because of this, you’ll instinctively try to be God once again. Why? Because your already are and cannot cease to be — and yet, you find yourself not being.

So you — and, perhaps, your ego — will try your hardest to aggrandize yourself once more, using whatever tools you can see and have at your disposal. You’ll try to match His/Her strength, courage, wisdom, and love. You’ll try to match His/Her worth, greatness, and glory.

There is an aspect of spiritual legitimacy to this: what you’re trying to reclaim is already yours. Nevertheless, a fair portion to these attempts will amount to your ego’s desires. It is the ego who tries to be grand.

Is the Ego “Bad”?

Being or feeling disconnected from the original spiritual Home is inexorably distressful, because it is essentially a falsehood.

And aiming to seek and look for the Light, rise to God’s original Glory, and “return Home”, is a natural tendency that arises in every soul from that distress. This seeking in itself isn’t inappropriate. In fact it’s at the core of all spiritual seeking.

But the ego sees oneself entirely disconnected from Source, and does not believe in any sort of higher order. Rather, it believes only in what it can see. So it will attempt to satisfy the inner seeking and distress — shared with the soul at large — by vowing to obtain what it wants outwardly. Again, by whichever forms of power it can come up with: resourcefulness, power, appearances, control, manipulation, etc.

Further, since the ego can’t see God’s Grace in yourself, it will try to obtain it by having others see it for you. In other words: it will try to obtain it from them — since there’s no other Source anywhere to bestow it to you. There are only other selves from which to obtain that grace, that worth, that importance.

The irony here is that the ego does not believe in Source, Light, or oneness at all. Yet, all it’s striving for is none other than Its very grace, greatness, immortality, worth. Therefore, it’s a contradiction: the ego’s desires are fundamentally instigated by deeply spiritual reasons; reasons it fundamentally denies, yet seeks ardently.

The ego is neither “good” or “bad”; it’s a coping mechanism, essentially. It’s just that it doesn’t contemplate the Light or its principles, but is nonetheless fueled by the same fundamental despair of the soul. So the ego just wants, wants, wants… and it will do everything in its power to get it.

All that matters to the ego is satisfying itself. Therefore it will seek what it wants, by any means necessary. And in the process of doing so, it can and will fall outside of the bounds of integrity, and of the Light. This is how the ego an become synonym with darkness and corruption.

How is the Ego Created?

Representing every and all potential for disconnection from Source, the ego is a construct that naturally builds up while you’re on the material plane. This is because the spiritual nature of reality tends to be obscured, which tends to play into the ego’s beliefs.

As you’re unaware of your own spiritual origins and go through the distress of being apart from them, while on the physical plane you’ll devise an identity and means of survival to navigate the physical world, on your own devices. You’ll look for strategies of coping, survival, and success, as these apply in the harsh and competitive world of 3D Earth.

Success in courtship and intercourse. Success with money. Success in overcoming obstacles and adversity. Success in squaring off against rivals and enemies. Success in solving problems. Success in rising in the social environment. Success in finding safety. Success in belonging, being needed, being accepted, and being appreciated. Success in getting what you want and aspire to.

As stated, there’s no harm in it; there’s no issue with learning and applying resourcefulness. It’s one of the things we’re here to do, and a type of knowledge the material world builds in you.

But even as you learn those things, the material environment (especially ours) will still stay harsh and potentially painful. And at one point the i) need to navigate adversity, ii) the fear of past trauma and with iii) the deep need to keep climbing the “ladder” — the one where you’re unconsciously/spiritually aiming for Godhood — all combine. And that’s where the line between survival/learning, and power over others, can be crossed.

When you invest and commit too much past this line, you’ll begin holding onto methods that might have brought you success at one point, but did so possibly at the expense of dignity and integrity, balance with the surrounding reality, and respect for the intrinsic worth and well-being of others and of the planet at large.

The ego builds up with every strategy employed in this manner, and is reinforced/validated by whatever success obtained doing so – even if at the expense of others, and causing separation along the way.

The ego questions the existence of ultimate Source, and every strategy of success you develop under that perspective will validate and fuel it. Even as it’s also expanding values of separation within.

Is the Ego Sustainable?

When operating from the ego, while one may experience gains visibly and/or in the short term, the self becomes exposed to accumulating acts of separation for others and within. In the process further increasing the degree of separation from Source that is felt and experienced.

Through the ego you may create a degree of success, and that success may very well be real and tangible; but, both spiritually and in practice, you’ll also be creating increasing amounts of harm, pain, and separation — to others outwardly, and to yourself karmically — as much if not more than whatever good you might be doing.

The methods of the ego are unsustainable, because they’re based on false spiritual premises. There’s no greater being above Source, to which all things in existence belong; and it is Its Light that Creates. All Souls inherit this aspect of Source, making them Creators in their own right.

But to believe otherwise, such as the ego does, manifests (the experience of) severing oneself from Source. And no matter how successful this might be or how powerful it might feel initially, this ultimately equates to sentencing the self to forever fetch — and take, drain, steal — all they need outwardly. The ego may never create any “fuel” of their own, so to speak.

Since metaphysical and fundamentally the ego can’t create Light on its own, the methods it employs can only ever wield diminishing returns. Leading it to *never* be satisfied with what it gets, and always want more. This on top of never being able to truly become Source – by virtue of not believing in Source’s existence in the first place.

Further, the more the ego generates and then operates out of pain and separation, the more you’ll feel disconnected from Source, and the more you’ll subconsciously feel more at risk of going through pain, trauma, and loss.

So as you invest in the ego, over time you’ll be even more tempted to hold to the power and worth the ego craves and the strategies by which it obtains them. But when operating from the ego to any meaningful extent, the results will always invariably dwindle; and so you’ll always be motivated to escalate.

The ego is truly unable to create what you’re searching for; because it is spiritually devoid of truth. In comparison and competition with the outside, which is all the ego can see, there will always be someone stronger, smarter, sharper, more beautiful, more on the top of their game.

This can lead to a continuous self-fulfilling cycle of operating from more and more separation, just to maintain the edge you experienced initially. This can go on, until you may come to a point where you’ve become hostage to your own ego, virtually embodying it.

The only long-term result of operating from the ego is creating and becoming trapped in negative self-destructive cycles. Which will simply more and more pull you further apart from the truth the ego contributed to conceal in the first place. Which is that you were Source all along.

How is the Ego Deconstructed?

Completely deconstructing or dissolving the ego is virtually impossible, especially for as long as you’re on the material plane.

You’ll always have an ego. You’ll always want things. You’ll always have the potential to be a little mischievous, and/or use the tenets of resourcefulness you’ve learned while here to cope and survive. And these things are acceptable to an extent. The ego “comes with the territory”; it’s part of living on the physical plane.

But we can talk of deconstructing, dismantling, or “dissolving” the ego, in the sense of loosening its fundamental grip/hold on the self and reverting the negative cycles it gave rise to. Which is, generally speaking, part and parcel of every spiritual journey.

Throughout your stay on the physical plane you explored — and possibly became karmically embroiled with — the ego’s coping mechanisms, elements of constructed identity, and power trips and methods, that it used to cope with the aforementioned physical plane and the spiritual distress of being in it. However, to the extent these don’t honor your truth and do not represent the Light, they’ll eventually need to be recognized for what they are if not discarded, for the purposes of, eventually, allowing you to realize the Light proper — yours and the Creator’s.

These are the parts of the self and the self’s identity that are fundamentally “false”.

This can often be a long and arduous process.

Because these are mechanisms you valued greatly. They might have proven effective on the material plane; they might have granted you a sense of power; and might have given you the impression you were closer to your true worth, by adopting and using them.

But, to the extent they are ego-fueled and hide instead of allowing you Light to shine, they’ll necessarily need to be discarded, for you to recognize your own Light, which is your ultimate spiritual goal.

So in various ways and shapes your spiritual process will often put forth the invitation — sometimes suggest, sometimes push, sometimes force, sometimes yank away, etc. — for you to discard any and all artificial notions of grace and glory, of power and control, of worth drawn from others. Until you’re finally able to recognize these things in yourself.

So you yourself will deconstruct your own ego: by working to distinguish it from the Light through the course of your spiritual progress. And then choosing the path of the Light at each junction of that progress.

The more you’re able to distinguish the pull and games of the ego from the grace and wisdom of Source/God; and the more you’re willing by choice to engage in kindness, compassion, love, integrity, and absence of hostility; the less and less “pull” the ego will have over you.