Here's a simple exercise.
Whenever you feel anger, hatred, or anything that is bothering you, try and detach yourself from the one that is speaking.
Try to see yourself speaking, your self, the you who is thinking all these things.
That is not you. That is the ego.
The ego tries to convince you many things, especially that it is you. That it owns you, and that the things and people around you are under some sort of sphere of influence.
There is constant stream of thinking and feeling from the ego. Comparatively, the self, the real one, is still. It is unmovable, unreachable. It is simply very still.
I need not tell you that the ego, as explained by Eckhart Tolle from whom I stole most of this, is pathological. The ego tries to trap you in a state of drama, in pain, doubt and whatever negative state that will cause it to feel even more real. To be right. To win. To be the centre of the universe.
The ego knows you. It has been with you since the beginning. Creating identities and roles and labels for you to use.
Consider labels. Hold something in your hand. A rock or a pen. When you give it a name, it diminishes in potential and significance. It has entered the realm of definition, and definitions are always limiting.
Yet, if you hold it without attaching any labels to it, it seems almost magical, ephemereal. It is simply is. It is the state of being where it is connected to the universe. It is connected to you, for you are the universe.
Roles work in the same way, just that the limiting labels are applied to yourself instead of a thing.
Say you consider yourself a writer. The 'writer' part restricts you to one role, one aspect of your being, when you are so much more.
The ego tries to deny most of this realisation by using all sorts of tricks. Delusion is a normal one. Overwhelming you with emotion or information that you do not need. Information and emotions that are false and not in-line with the truth.
The only way to be aware is to shift your perspective from within, to a view where you can actually see your ego.
ANd then, rather than resisting it, you accept the ego, for the ego is part of you. Acceptance of the ego diminishes its size and importance.
What you are left with is a presence. A presence of yourself. That presence does not fit at the centre of the universe. It IS the universe.
And when you move, the universe moves with you. All of creation moves. And no power can stop that.
