Ego and Oneness

            A Course in Miracles tells us that ego fears oneness. But ego is simply the experience of fear. The stories it has as to “why” it is afraid are, first, to project the source of fear away so that ego can deny it is fear, and second, to seem to be real. Elaborate stories make up ego’s world, filling what it feels is the “void” of consciousness.

Ego is the idea in consciousness that is opposed to truth, or pure consciousness. Its denial of truth results in it denying what it is, too. But as truth rises toward conscious awareness, the contrast with ego illuminates all that ego is. Ego’s fear seems to increase but it is really just being exposed. So, it can seem that ego is “afraid of” truth (or anything else it points to), but that’s just a way for ego to project and explain away the exposed fear to itself.

Last week’s article was about the various ways that oneness can show up in one’s perception, and it mentioned how ego cannot know truth, but it takes information from truth rising to conscious awareness for itself. The oneness of truth is that it is the one and only. This is different from the oneness of joining or union, which implies more than one coming together to make one or discover that they are one. In union, at least a modicum of individuality is implied. Ego cannot acknowledge the onlyness of truth because that means ego doesn’t exist, so it takes the oneness that rises to conscious awareness and translates it into union. As much as ego will argue that its autonomy is threatened by union, it will never acknowledge the onlyness of truth that reveals its nonexistence. Given a choice, ego will choose union, in which it seems to continue to exist, over acknowledging the onlyness of truth.

Ego may say it is afraid it will be lost in oneness, as though it will be absorbed and lose its identity. But that explanation for fear is false because it can never enter oneness of any kind. When a oneness experience occurs it is because ego is gone, if only for a moment, and oneness is revealed to be always here. This is the awareness underneath ego’s stories of fearing oneness that it really seeks to hide. Ego is always trying to prove its existence and even its story for fearing oneness is an attempt to prove, through misdirection, that it is real.

Many have mystical oneness experiences, as described in last week’s article, only to be disappointed that the experience is not prolonged. They are changed by it, but their life in the world is not changed in the way that they hoped. They want and often expect at first that the oneness they experienced will show up in their person’s life, like they will go forward feeling one with everyone or at least with one other. Even if the perception of oneness remains to break through now and then, they are disappointed to find the world is not cooperating in this oneness. No one else is feeling or seeing this oneness, or if they do (the mystical holy relationship), it seems to mean something different to them. The oneness they feel is real. The mistake is thinking it has to do with what is appearing at the time of the experience. So, it is not that “we are all one” but that oneness is real and it reveals that “I” and “we” are not real.

While ego is the thought system prevailing in your conscious awareness and living experience, you cannot dismiss it merely by saying it is not real. You must address fear and even the forms it takes. You can mitigate (reduce) fear, even if fear will only fall wholly away when ego falls wholly away. In fact, fear is what you deal with any time you look at an upset. Your mind is not alone with ego. You have an inner teacher to help you live with fear. Ego may project away fear with stories as to its cause, but it is still helpful to address them with your inner teacher while the world ego says is real is still real to you. You can always ask for comfort and another way to see a situation. There is always an answer if you are open to asking for it.

 

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Comments

nicci said…
wonderful. thank you...
7:17 AM
evette said…
🕊️
9:57 AM
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