Eckhart Tolle, in his book, A New Earth: Awakening Your Life's Purpose, shares the best understanding of the ego and some of its ramifications that I have come across in some time. Here are a couple more snippets...
"Paradoxically, what keeps the so-called consumer society going is the fact that trying to find yourself through things doesn’t work: The ego satisfaction is short-lived and so you keep looking for more, keep buying, keep consuming." (Pg. 36)
and...
"Ego-identification with things creates attachment to things, obsession with things, which in turn creates our consumer society and economic structures where the only measure of progress is always more. The unchecked striving for more, for endless growth, is a dysfunction and a disease." (Pg.37)
Contrast Tolle's understanding of the ego with the Bible's understanding of how we have been created:
"Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains." (I Timothy 6:6-10)
Gracious God,
Help us to become more aware of our egos and their power in our lives and relationships. Help us to love the "things" that will add life rather than the ones that make promises they can't deliver. Most of all, thank you for creating us with the potential for true awareness and the freedom to make life-transforming choices. Amen.
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