All madness is a manifestation of Ego Consciousness.
Every war, every battle, every fight, every protest is a manifestation of egos seeking to gain MORE of something: MORE money, MORE control, MORE power over others, MORE ‘safety’, MORE pleasure, MORE things.
On the inner plane, the same is true. Only the ego demands MORE from ourselves: MORE money, MORE ‘safety’, MORE attention from others, BIGGER muscles.
An ego is like a snowball rolling down a hill: its momentum causes it to accumulate MORE. Why does an ego always seek more? Because it’s an ego. It is its nature.
An ego CRAVES. An ego CRAVES attention, power, sex, money, food, etc. Why? Because it’s in its nature.
Egos are clever and often disguise themselves. This commonly shows up as the ‘Victim Consciousness’. The Victim gains attention, and even power or money from being a Victim. This opportunity seems to be so alluring that the Victim often repeats this charade again and again.
Another clever disguise is the Spiritual Ego. This type of ego immerses itself in spirituality and starts to believe that it is ‘more spiritual’ than others and thus more powerful, or inherently better. This type of ego might learn spiritual tools like the Law of Attraction in order to get more of what it wants more efficiently or in a more ‘spiritual’ way.
Another twisted type of ego is the Self-Hating Ego. This type of ego, which is common among spiritual seekers, can be found constantly blaming, hating, and berating itself. This ego feeds not off of power over others through interaction with the outside world, but rather, through constantly diminishing one’s self-worth internally. This often also mirrors as someone who then either acts powerless or overpowering (or often, oscillating between the two) in the outside world as a way to counteract the insistent self-hatred. It’s really the ego trying to counteract itself.
There are many type of egos but all suffering is really a manifestation of ego in some form. The ego is the one that constantly fights the Will of the Universe, and this is what causes its suffering.
Ego is a collective illness. When a baby is born, there is nothing but Consciousness present. You look into the eyes and nothing but purity is to be seen. As the child ages, the ego grows as the child learns the word “my”: “my toys”; :my parents”; etc. The ego becomes full-blown in adolescence. Most teens are obsessed with social status. (I certainly was.)
As a child becomes an adult, the opportunity to transcend the ego might become possible through spirituality. Most adults, however, are not drawn unto this path, at least not until physical Death starts to near and one begins to contemplate what it was all for.
Ego can never be transcended by ego. This is why most spiritual paths do not really solve the issue for most people. It is the ego itself wanting to do the work. The ego wants to overcome itself through the spiritual work. And naturally, it is never able to.
The only thing that transcends ego is Divinity, God, Source, Presence, the I AM. The place without ego is a place where there is no suffering. This does not mean that there is no pain, but there is no suffering. There is a spaciousness. The identification of oneself with one’s problems drifts away. It is very easy to become attached to our problems. We can be conditioned to learn that we need to have problems in our lives; that if we don’t have problems, that is a problem, so we must create more problems.
This is a sickness of ego. An ego can define itself—draw energy from—problems.
As an exercise, ask yourself the following questions, and breathe to create some space from ego. You don’t need to answer them–just ask:
Who am I without my problems?
Who am I without my name, my job, my family, my friends, and my hobbies?
Who am I without my preferences?
Who am I without my enemies?
Who am I without my suffering?
Who am I without my past?
Who am I without my mask?
How would Divinity answer the question ‘Who Am I’?