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 form, from the perception of not being God, or the doubt about being God; and also, indirectly, from questioning the very existence of God/Source/Creator and Its Light to begin with. This perception/doubt arises from incarnating in the physical, as this places upon you the metaphysical Veil which among others blocks out or makes it difficult to ascertain this truth.

Note this perception can also arise in other realms and planes of existence, so can the ego. But for the sake of brevity and simplicity, let us focus solely on the reality we know.

Are You God?

A common statements in spiritual circles is that “there is no I”, “the self is an illusion”, etc. This line of thought is misguided.

In certain peak spiritual experiences, you may find your awareness greatly expanding outwardly and matching with that of Creation, the Creator, and of Infinity at large. When this happens, due to the difference in scale and the difficulty of the human mind in processing it, it may appear you’re “dissolving” in a broader context, that only the Infinite/Universe/Creation are the true existence, and that your identity as a human being does not exist – and perhaps, therefore, that it does not matter – in the grand scheme of things.

This is just an impression. You’re reaching out to a broader truth; but that broader truth doesn’t mean you, or your awareness, are an illusion.

Mind you, parts of the human self’s awareness might be more ephemeral or “false” than others. Such as the parts that correspond to lower awareness and darkness i.e. lack of Light; the parts that are greatly involved with the experience, and might be missing that Light; the parts that adopted a constructed persona that do not honor the Light within. Those parts, indeed, can be largely false and illusory.

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

What is the Ego?

The Ego is the cumulative, pervasive portions of your beingness, across each and every layer, where you conceive yourself as being disconnected from Source (and/or that Source does not exist, is not real, does not care, etc.), and therefore where you see yourself as just the physical, just 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; still I regard it as something abstract consciousness can subscribe to on any level.

Immersed in a reality where it is neither apparent nor acknowledged in any way the existence of God/Source and your relation with that truth, you’ll instinctively try to be God once again. Because your already are, and cannot cease to be – and yet you find yourself not being. So you’ll try your hardest to aggrandize yourself once more, with whatever tools you can see and gave at your disposal. To match His/Her greatness, strength, courage, wisdom, and love. The parts of you that try to do so can be called the Ego.

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 within, from that distress. This seeking is in itself not inappropriate; it is at the core of all spiritual seeking.

But the ego is the part that sees oneself as entirely disconnected from Source and believes only in what it can see. So it will attempt to satisfy that inner seeking and distress by obtaining outwardly what it wants, namely through resourcefulness, power, appearances, control, etc. Since the ego can’t see God’s Grace in yourself, it will also try to obtain those things by having others see it for you – since there is no Source anywhere to bestow them to you. Not contemplating the Light or its principles, yet fueled by the same fundamental despair of the soul, the ego can and often will seek to obtain what it wants by any means necessary, in the process fall outside of the bounds of integrity and of the Light. This is how the ego becomes synonym with darkness and corruption.

How is the Ego Created?

The ego is a construct that naturally builds while on the material plane.

As you’re unaware of your spiritual origin and go through the distress of being apart from that truth, you’ll devise means of survival and identity to be able 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 in making money. Success in overcoming obstacles and adversities. Success in squaring off against rivals and enemies. Success in rising in the social environment. Success in finding safety. Success in belonging, being needed, being accepted, and being appreciated.

Like the previous point, there’s no issue with learning strategies and the resourcefulness. But the environment stays harsh and potentially painful. So at one point the need to navigate adversity combines a) with fear of past trauma, and b) with the deep need to keep climbing the “ladder” – the one where you’re unconsciously/spiritually aiming for Godhood. And here the line between survival and learning, and power over others, can be crossed.

Past this line you’re holding on to methods that brought you success before, but possibly at the expense of losing sight of your values of dignity and integrity, jeopardizing balance with your surrounding reality, and respect for the intrinsic worth and wellbeing of others and of the planet. In the process of operating through the ego, you’re creating success but also as much if not more harm, pain, and separation – to others outwardly, and to yourself karmically. The more the ego generates, and then operates out of, pain and separation within, you’ll feel more and more disconnected from Source, and you’ll subconsciously feel more at risk of going through pain, trauma, and loss. In turn you’ll be even more prone to hold to the power and worth the ego craves, and the strategies by which it obtains them.

The ego builds up with every strategy of success employed in this manner, and is reinforced/validated by whatever metrics of success obtained doing so, even if at the expense of others and causing separation along the way. The ego stands for the questioning the existence of ultimate Source, and every strategy of success you develop under that perspective validates and fuels it. Even as you’re expanding on the values of separation within, and all that it entails. However, in operating from the ego, even though gains may be experienced in the short term and/or visibly, the self is exposed to accumulating acts of separation for others and within, in the process further increasing the degree of separation from Source that is will be felt and experienced going forward.

The irony here is that the ego does not believe in Source, Light, or oneness – yet all it’s striving for is none other than Its grace, greatness, immortality, worth. It’s therefore a contradiction: what the ego is doing is fundamentally instigated by deeply spiritual reasons, reasons it fundamentally denies yet seeks ardently.

How is the Ego Deconstructed?

Completely deconstructing or dissolving the ego is virtually impossible for as long as you’re on the material plane. You’ll always have an ego, and 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 to survive. These can be acceptable to an extent.

But we can talk of deconstructing the ego in the sense of loosening its fundamental grip/hold on the self, which is generally part and parcel of every spiritual journey.

Throughout your stay on the material plane you’ll explore – and possibly become karmically embroiled with – coping mechanisms, elements of constructed identity, and power trips and methods, that your ego used to cope with the material plane and the spiritual distress of being in it. However, to the extent these do not honor your spiritual truth and do not represent the Light, they’ll eventually need to be discarded, or at least recognized for what they are, for the purposes of, eventually, you being able to realize the Light proper – yours and the Creator’s.

Doing so can often be a long and arduous process. These are mechanisms you valued greatly, because they might have proven effective by some description on the material plane, and because they gave you the impression you could be closer to your true worth by adopting and using them. But, to the extent they are ego-fueled and hide instead of shine your Light, they necessarily need to be discarded for you to reach the Light proper – your ultimate goal. So, in various ways and shapes, your spiritual process will often invite you – sometimes push – to discard any and all artificial notions of grace and glory until you’re finally able to recognize them in yourself.

So the answer to this question is that you yourself will deconstruct your ego: by working to distinguish it from the Light in the course of your spiritual progress, and then choosing the path of the Light rather than of the ego at each junction where this applies. 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 are by choice willing to engage in kindness, compassion, love, integrity, and absence of hostility, the less “pull” said ego will have over you.