Awakening

As described in Part III of "Human Energy Systems" (click here), there is an aspect of consciousness that sits in the heart chakra of most karmic beings called the "Core Veil". It is this veil that creates the basic sense of "I", which is the primary vehicle for ego and all of its separateness and suffering.

Because the root cause of suffering is a persistent sense of separation from Source, and the ego exists solely as an expression of that separation, one's suffering and one's ego are inextricably linked. Therefore, the end of suffering must ultimately involve the dissolution of the ego.

But what does it mean to "dissolve the ego"? First of all, we need to know what we're talking about. By "ego," I don't mean your personality, your mind, or your survival instinct. What I mean by "ego" is your sense of individual identity, the way in which we tend to believe that we are what we are merely experiencing.

For instance, right now you are experiencing a human body, but the ego will distort that experience by believing "I am this body." By identifying with your body, you are distancing yourself from your true identity - Source - which has no body. It is that distance that causes you to suffer. As human beings, we identify with countless things such as thoughts, beliefs, emotions, happy experiences, painful experiences, families, tribes, nations, careers, etc. Some people try to get around this by actively trying to identify with Source, because they know that That is their essential, truest Self; but this would be a mistake. You don't have to identify with what you are, you simply are whatever that is. Even identifying with what you actually are creates an artificial distance between you and You.

So the ego game is all about identity—The only thing the ego needs to survive is to create a believable story about what it is, some identity that can survive a fair amount of scrutiny. Of course, because all identification is ultimately a lie (remember, you are what you are, regardless of identity), the only way the ego can survive is by avoiding too much scrutiny, because upon deep enough examination, all identifications are seen for the illusion that they are, which ends the game of smoke-and-mirrors that the ego plays in its desperate bid for survival.

Therefore, dissolving the ego means examining all of your identities deeply and profoundly enough to see them for what they really are. Each identity that you drop can be considered a mini-Awakening; and when you have dropped the most basic, fundamental identity—the very sense of "I" that is the foundation for all egoic thinking—your own dreaming human consciousness will experience a fundamental Awakening.

What that looks and feels like is completely individual. You may feel tremendous relief, liberation, or bliss; or you may feel disappointment, anger, fear, or perhaps nothing at all. Everybody reacts differently, and it usually takes time for the personality to fully integrate such a fundamental shift in consciousness. But such integration does come, and as you embody that Awakening, you start to see the unity of all creation, the "sameness" that permeates all the universe's diverse shapes, lives, and other forms. The suffering that informed your sense of identity dies along with that identity, and life takes on a whole new tone of peace and freedom. (For a more complete article on Awakening, please click here.)