Grow

 

 

The ego is threatened, competitive, and stressed, whereas the soul is drawn more toward surprise, spontaneity, the new, and the fresh.

John O’Donohue, Anam Cara

 

After a certain point in life, the egoic urges and concerns become an impediment to living out our dharma, our deeper purpose in life.  Where ego sees fear in change, the soul remains curious and open.  Where the ego seeks to impose its will on things, the soul longs to become a partner with the flow of life. Where ego takes everything personally, the soul experiences intimacy with life’s unfolding.

 

The egoic part of the self does not feel real unless it is getting attention, recognition, adoration from the outer world.  The loss of these things feels like an annihilation. And yet, when the outer accolades and praise falls away, and we enter into a kind of darkness, there is the chance to find inside the true source of belonging in the world.  Our most profound longings could never be satisfied through ego grasping but instead are filled and nourished through inner connection.

 

Shedding the hard crust of the ego takes time and practice.  It is like the effort of water polishing the sharp-edged rocks into smooth stones.  This practice never reaches an ending point since there is always the next calling forth into new discovery of this vastness that resides within us. But slowly and surely, as all the wisdom traditions tell us, through our practice we learn to still the distractions of the mind, cultivate discernment, hear the voice of the divine in our hearts encouraging us to come closer.  We begin to see how the ego has imprisoned us into a stuck place like a seed unable to blossom and grow, stuck in the darkness thinking this is all that there is, thinking this is how to be safe and protected, not realizing that the sun is reaching out from millions of miles away to touch and nourish new growth.