Understanding Negative Ego by Jach

Hello Everyone,

I want to write a bit about the concept of negative ego, offering some of Lazaris' ideas and some of my thoughts about the concept. I have been hesitant to do this because the arena of ego and negative ego (there is a distinction) is intricate and complex, not readily lending itself to the fast-paced nature of messages posted in a forum section. Also, I do not want this section to become burdened with lengthy posts that feel more like one-way treatises on this or that subject rather than like two-way dialogs on a vast array of ideas.

Before I begin, I get the feeling from reading some of the posts that some think that working with negative ego is synonymous with pain and suffering or with struggle. I suppose it could be, but anything could be if we chose to create it that way. My point is: It does not have to be harsh or unpleasant. A challenge? Yes. As spiritual beings and as adults, we are well-prepared and able to handle challenge. Have not all of us said that a thing is not inherently bad or good, that it's what we do with it and how we deal with it?

Well, that applies to negative ego as well. It is not inherently bad, nor does working with it have to drag you down into negativity. I have found unbelievable liberation and freedom by understanding the function of ego and why it turned sour. I have become so free to discover so many of those positive concepts and realms that we all seek to explore. I have been able to free myself from so many of the entanglements and encumbrances that previously denied me such access.

So I begin with the caveat that I am not going to be able to explain everything as thoroughly as I would like -- and that I am undoubtedly going to leave out some important points here or there. <g> You with me?

Once upon a time <g> when the seat of our power was in our Higher Conscious Mind, we did not need an ego. However, at "the point of consciousness" when our seat of power shifted (evolved) from Higher Conscious Mind to Unconscious Mind to Subconscious Mind and, as now, to our Conscious Mind, the need for an ego emerged. I say "point of consciousness" rather than "time," because time is an illusion, and there is no point in chronology when this shift happens. We each create our own reality, and we each shifted our seat of power in accordance with that creation.

Though we still had access to the "inner voice" of our Higher Self, our Unconscious Self, and our Subconscious Self, we lost our ability to hear, and thus to heed, those voices. As the several people who are new to Lazaris have expressed their sense of being overwhelmed at where to begin and how to proceed with The Lazaris Material, so we as physical beings felt overwhelmed and unsure as to how to proceed. Only our sense of being overwhelmed and uncertainty was not about The Lazaris Material: It was about living life. <g> It was about how to survive, how to be secure, how to belong. It was about how to find value (esteem), and how to create and produce. It was about how to "know" and how to explore our aesthetics. (Re: Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs).

We needed help, and so we created an ego to provide that help. One could speculate at this point: Which we? Perhaps it was our Higher Self or our Higher Self's Higher Self, but I do not feel such speculation would be valuable at this point. Suffice it to say: From some part of our Whole Self, we created an ego to assist us in figuring out how to live our lives.

Initially, our ego was "young and naive." It (and I personify ego here for ease of discussion) did not know how to deal with life any better than we did. However, there is this magical and unknown energy that is called "the energy between," and this incredible concept called synergy (the whole is greater than the sum of the parts). Even though neither our conscious-physical self nor our ego knew how to deal with life, if we worked together, sharing the responsibility and the work, we could figure it out. We could learn by seeking the meaning, exploring the content, and experiencing the phenomenon called life.

So conscious-physical self and ego are supposed to work together. Each has its function, and if each does its job well, we will meet our needs and find success in life (over-simplified here). Then we can move beyond need into the realm of preference, and beyond success into the arena of fulfillment.

What are those functions? Basically, as Lazaris explains it, it breaks down this way:

Our ego is our "eye" to the physical world. It is the portal through which we view the illusion in which we are immersed. It is supposed to deliver the content of our reality -- the information that we observe that we call our world -- to the conscious-physical us. Our job is to place that information, once delivered by the ego, in a context. Then we are supposed to give that information, now in context, a form.

In other words, we are supposed to decide what the content means (context) and then decide what to do with it (form). Then, back to the ego, it is supposed to take that form back into the world -- back into the illusion. It (the ego-self) puts the form into action or into being. (Masculine energy of doing and feminine energy of being).

And so it goes. Once the ego-self "acts and is" in our world of illusion, there will be new content. Then the ego is supposed to gather that new content, deliver it to the conscious-physical self who puts the new information into context and form and delivers it back to the ego for acting and being in the world of illusion. It is an ongoing, efficient system. It is a well-designed system that can work.

Best laid plans and flies in the ointment, many of us have found that this efficient and well-designed system does not work as planned. What went wrong? How did an ego that was supposed to work together with us turn sour? How did it become a negative ego rather than "just an ego?"

Put simply, we turned over our responsibility for context and form to our ego. A Lazaris analogy may be helpful here. Our ego is like an employee in the mail room of our reality. It gets the morning mail, slices it open and sorts it. Our ego then delivers today's mail to our in-basket. We (as chairperson of the board or head of our department) take the mail conveniently sliced open and sorted when we are ready to (or have to) deal with it. We are supposed to read it and place the content in a proper context. We are supposed to decide what to do and compose a response. Then we put the response in the out-basket. Our ego comes by, envelopes our response and posts it to the proper destination and "its day is done."

Keep in mind, all analogies break down at one point or another. If they didn't, they would not be analogies -- they would be the "real thing." So this analogy does break down. It is not perfect, but I have found it is workable.

The problem happens when we turn over our responsibility to our ego. We invite our ego into our office and say, "Sit down." It is a bit uncomfortable because we have interrupted its daily routine, and it is a bit intimidated by being in the "our office." Ignoring or being unaware of its discomfort, we tell the ego that we want it to start reading the letters and deciding what they mean; we want ego to start responding to these letters as well. Oh yes, we expect them to continue their current job functions as well. With a "carry on," we dismiss them to go back to their daily routine.

Ego cannot correctly provide context, nor can it properly respond. Our ego cannot do these things, just as an employee in the mail room cannot adequately run a major corporation.

Now, what would you do if your boss or your partner told you to take over responsibilities that (1) belonged to them and (2) you knew you could not handle? How would you feel if someone began demanding that you handle everything, particularly when you knew you could not do it correctly or adequately? Frustrated, anxious, frightened, and then perhaps, angry. Maybe you would feel sorry for yourself and perhaps even feel martyred by the unfairness.

Our egos try. They open the mail and read it. They think of what it means and answer the mail. They make mistakes. They screw up. They don't know the true meaning so they make one up. They make up meaning that they do understand without regard to whether that meaning is true or correct. They respond inappropriately and get into trouble -- get us into trouble. They defend their inadequate position. Sometimes, hearing somewhere that the best defense is an offense, they attack when criticized. They can even attack before they are criticized. They begin to cover for themselves regardless of what "covering" may do to us and our lives.

They panic. No longer is the point to do a good job; the point is to protect itself. Paranoid, it is always on guard expecting something to go wrong or to blow up in their face. They know they will get blamed ("Oh, that's just my negative ego. I didn't do that, my negative ego did.")

The reactions may vary as they can be as unique as we are. Whatever the reaction, it is only a matter of time before our ego has become soooo negative. It is only a matter of time before our ego sees us as the enemy. After all, we are the source of their problems. We are the one who reneged on our agreement and turned the operation of our life over to them, and their life became hell. We become the enemy in their eyes, and they can come to hate us.

One could correctly speculate that in time, our now-negative ego could decide that the best way to protect itself is to make our lives so miserable that we will come to our senses and take back the responsibility that we shirked in the first place. Too often, when this happens we say, in effect, "Ego, my life is a mess. The content is lousy, and you are doing a terrible job. Do it right!"

When it says, "But I don't know how," remembering the Nike commercial, we say, "Just do it."

How do we feel when no one listens to us? Hmmmm....

In time, our ego may decide the best way to protect itself is to destroy us. Our ego, which began so innocent and naive, is now our negative ego that wants to destroy us. Sadly, negative egos have destroyed too many.

Now we wake up and realize we are under attack. Ego tells us only lies now. When we are wrong, it tells us we are right and everyone else is wrong. When we do something wonderful and self-respecting, ego tells us we are so bad and so arrogant. It always lies. It wants to destroy us.

(Remember, I am streamlining this. I know I have left out some steps here. My point is to create a general picture, not a detailed map.)

Perhaps we come to realize that our negative ego, seeing us as enemy, has become an enemy. What do we do? Some decide to kill the ego, having heard that idea somewhere upon the path of growth. So they set about trying to kill the ego. Great.

Having confirmed its suspicion and worst fear, now our negative ego KNOWS we are the enemy. It may go to war with us -- all out attack. It may go into hiding -- guerrilla warfare. (Remember Viet Nam?)

This is precisely why Lazaris says NOT to try to kill your ego. It is a simple answer, yes, but it will never work. He suggests that we bust our negative ego -- tell the truth about what WE have done. Recognize what we have done. Acknowledge that it was we who did it. Forgive ourselves, and then change. Change by building a positive ego. Work with our negative ego. Make peace with our negative ego. Take back our power and our responsibility -- power and responsibility that we gave to that ego in the first place. Give back to our ego the job it was supposed to have. Work with negative ego to let it do the job it was designed to do.

I see my work with negative ego as letting it be the "eye" to my world of illusion. We can handle our ego-gone-sour by letting it give us the content and by not asking it to decide what it means and how to handle it. Once we know and decide, then let the ego do its job of taking it out into our world.

Lyra, in one of her posts said it nicely. She needs her ego to drive her car and to go to the post office. She doesn't want to kill it. But if she starts demanding that her ego not only go to the post office but that it write the letters she wants to send, then her ego can turn ugly. Lyra's ego may tell her that there is no food in the house. (Content) Fine she puts that into context -- "I could starve to death." (Extreme, I know.) Lyra decides to go to the grocery store (Form) and ego takes her. But, she must decide what to buy. Ego doesn't know how to do this. If she demands that ego choose the food, angrily it may say, "Okay load up on Hostess Twinkies and sugar cookies. That's all you need."

Once home, Lyra may realize that she should not have listened to that negative ego, or she could OD on sugar and buzz on out to oblivion. <g>

Peter Principle: We have promoted our ego to a point of incompetence and beyond. We would be advised to take back our power and to give back to the ego a job it can handle. That is what negative ego work is all about -- not to destroy, but to bust and build. Not to turn away because it is un-fun, but to handle it and continue to handle it so that we can get on to the fun.

Now the work can be complex. The very ego-now-negative will give us the content. I love Lazaris' quote about the most consistent message from our negative ego: "Negative ego? Oh, I handled that long ago." This is why I feel that we need to know our negative ego inside out. If we know it inside out then we can put the content it delivers to us into context: Is this the proper content, or is this the content that our negative ego wants us to have?

In a post, Norm said it so elegantly: "I don't know much about my negative ego -- only as much at it wants to know about it." I love that line. Thanks, Norm.

I have found that when I tell myself that I have totally handled my negative ego that such a message is FROM my negative ego. When I continue to work with it, I don't get messages like that. And it becomes easier and easier to say no to that ego. It may not be fun, but it becomes quick.

Another Lazaris example. If you are baby-sitting an obnoxious child hell bent on destruction, are you better advised to lock that child away in another room and put earplugs in? Or would it better to keep that child in clear view so you can intercept him/her when they make a beeline for your freshly painted walls with a crimson crayola? I suppose we could put our ego in another room and just keep cleaning up the mess over and over again. But that sounds like struggle to me. That sounds like continually being drawn down into the muck and mire of negativity.

I also think -- and have seen too many examples in the world around me -- that there could be a time when the destruction is just too great to fix. The negative ego that tells a man to go ahead and have that illicit sexual fling because "that's the way men are" is not going to be able to put back together again the loving relationship that may well be destroyed. The negative ego that tells a person to take an assumption and "run with it" is not going to be there to repair the damage done.

The putting back together or the repair is up to us. And sometimes we may not be able to put it back together again; sometimes we cannot repair the damage. We are left with the sorrow of that. We are left with the responsibility of living with that. Yes, forgive ourselves -- learn, love, and heal ourselves, and continue to grow, change, and evolve. Sometimes being responsible means accepting what we have created without explaining it away.

Once we handle our negative ego -- once we know it well enough (not perfectly) to master it, dealing with it takes a moment. In some areas of my life, it is that way -- half a breath and that's all it takes. In other areas, it takes longer, but it is easy. It is fast. Ego is no longer an obstacle. A hurdle at times, but no longer an obstacle. Once we learn how to jump the hurdles, we can soon glide over them as if they were not there.

However, in my opinion, if I ever want to glide over the hurdles, I need to know where they are and how high they are.

(He's wrapping up now). And this is why Lazaris emphasizes negative ego work -- the work that can take us home. On my Spiritual Journey I have worked on so many things, as have we all. In my opinion, the work I have done with negative ego was/is critical and was/is why I have found my life filled with so many successes and with so much happiness.

I hope this offers the perspective I wanted it to.

Much love,

Jach

	THE LAZARIS MATERIAL
	Lazaris Events Schedules & Fliers	Lazaris Workshops Register OnLine	Lazaris Downloads, CDs, DVDs, Tapes & Books	Lazaris Articles & Transcripts	The Jach & Lazaris Room (a private forum)

Understanding Negative Ego

by Jach Pursel