Last month some of us were able to meet with Peter Dewey, a renowned Christian minister deeply involved in the mystical teachings of Christianity and a writer on the Gospel of Thomas. His talk was wide ranging, and he shared an image that resonated deeply that I would like to share here with you now.
The ego as used here is the part of us that thinks it is special and separate, better than everyone else and always right. We can start to tune into it by noticing where and when we have opinions as they always come from this aspect of the ego.
Peter described the ego as like a mist or cloud enveloping us so completely that the rays of God / Love cannot permeate. I know I have felt that way many times but what a visual image to describe how it is and also to observe the challenge inherent in it.
When we are surrounded by ego, we are either lost in it and cannot see beyond it.
Or, as we expand self-awareness, we begin to notice it when we `lose the plot`.
Even in recognising this state the ego still plays us. It might distract us in any number of ways; we each know where our well-trodden paths of distraction lie.
The ego might hurl us into denial, a state of false innocence, of blame etc. All of which serve to keep us exactly where we are; lost in ego with no opening for the Holy Spirit to transform us enabling us a different perspective on the situation.
The Course in Miracles writes of their being only one choice we, as human beings, ever have to make. To choose Love, the Holy Spirit, God, Source of All …. or desire and wants i.e., the ego.
To make this choice for God, however, requires a surrender of knowledge, of the understanding through which the ego perceived the situation. The ego offers us so many wonderful reasons for us not to surrender to God that is can be easy to stay in the situation, right, yet lonely: a winner with a fear of losing; rich with a fear of poverty; successful with a fear of failure etc. All these states the ego offers have their inherent darker side that seems to refocus on the ego and feeding it yet more.
However, when we can open to another way, Divine miracles begin to appear. A beam of light shines through the cloud and the whole world looks different.
The hardest part is asking for help.
Perhaps the prayer is simple…..“Beloved, help me want to see this differently. Thank you”
To own the challenge and hand it over is all it takes.
Rev. Jude