Theos-Talk Archives (July 1997 Message tl00328)

From: "JOSEPH PRICE" <JKEITHPRICE@msn.com> quotes

ARTHUR YOUNG: Hello, Jeff. 

> <Picture>MISHLOVE: You know, many spiritual teachers suggest that it's the
> ego that limits us -- that we get locked into the small, separate self, and
> if we could only get rid of our egos and experience the great oneness of the
> universe, that we would be enlightened. Yet this seems to go against the
> whole grain of Western thought. I wonder what you think about it.

> <Picture>YOUNG: Well, I think the ego is essential, and it ultimately can
> flower into what you could call, what Jung calls, the personality -- you
> have these terrific personalities like movie stars and so on, after you've
> evolved sufficiently. But you first have to have a thing before you can give
> it up. So as I read nature, ego is our little ship or vehicle for
> experiencing the universe, and there's no point in giving it up until we've
> had the experiences it affords, and which only it affords.

I don't think you give up the ego. Rather you give up the idea of the ego
at center stage. The ego is the wheelbarrow for the Self. Eventually it
becomes the doer for the Self.