The Ego could just as easily be called body-senior, or the body without the Spirit in charge. The ego needs approval, needs gratitude, and needs credit. The ego is always trying to be in control, but when it gets that control, it does not know what to do with it. It does not have access to the higher information, so it cannot make the choices that allow for growth to occur. It becomes stuck and ruled by the material world. The being is not in charge to make the decisions.
A great part of the spiritual journey is the process of teaching the ego to take direction from the Spirit. When someone refers to another person as "egotistical", what he/she is really saying is that that person’s personality and body programming is in charge. Egos go into resistance easily. They are often in a state of competition because the ego cannot conceive of how, as Spirit, you are so much bigger than the situation. As Spirit, you transcend all of it. The ego tries to fight for its scrap of attention and competes with everybody in the process.
Certain situations may immediately put you into an "ego state". The spiritual goal is to stay neutral instead of going body-senior. Choose to stay out of competition and out of resistance. Remaining in that state of ease and bliss is you experiencing yourself.
The process of shifting from a state of body to a state of Spirit is, in fact, a process of dying. It means letting the ego die. You must get out your golden sword, hunt the ego down and slay it. It is part of the Spiritual Warrior's journey.
The body will not readily accept the death of the ego because the body identifies so closely with it. Being spiritually senior means staying in charge and letting the body know it is okay. The old walls can come crumbling down. They supported the old house. Your house, as Spirit, is immeasurably bigger and more beautiful than the ego house. Each brick and mortar that built the ego house was a wound waiting to be healed because much of the ego is built from wounds and programming.
Your name, what you do, or who you think you are, are all ego pieces that hold up walls, but they are not you. You are a spiritual being getting your learnings on this Earth, just like every other spiritual being on the planet. The Spirit wants to be free, and the Spirit knows it is not your title, your job or your relationships that defines you. These are things you do, and that is fine. Continue to do them with passion, but remember, they are not you.
If you can allow the ego house to fall, then you can build a new house, and it will be built of light. It will be freedom. In order for you to change and grow spiritually, you need to let go of the old ways. It is a basic, spiritual law that the more you let go of the past, the more you can create the future consciously. It is the law of the Universe.
When you are living from a place of non-attachment, you can have tremendous financial wealth or none at all, and it does not matter. Either way is fine, because you have spiritual abundance right now. Everything you ever desired, you already have. If you can accept this, you are living from a place of Spirit. The place of ego is always looking for something to fulfill you, but it never will. Living from Spirit is knowing you have it all right now.
