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Spirituality, Emotions and Health: Part I

What if I suggested that in order to awaken to your true self, you had to be healthy? Dietary changes are an excellent start. For example, the solar plexus is the home of the egoic self. The egoic self is narcissistic, self-absorbed and thinks that it is the boss of you. What if I told you that most gut trouble has a component of the bossy ego asserting itself? The ego has and will continue to exert control over every aspect of your life if you don't start making friends with it, gently urging it to a backseat position in your life.

Don't kid yourself, though. None of us can ever get rid of our ego, but we need to put it in its appropriate place and at least be aware of it. We don't really want to get rid of Mr. Big Head Ego because our ego is what allows us to live in the world: To stop at stop signs i.e. to follow the rules of humanity and civilization; to learn how to cook, make furniture, drive a car, perform surgery i.e. to perform the tasks and professions of our lives.

As a word of explanation the ego is the "I" of us. Our name, our mind, our personality, our history and anticipated future. To awaken is to discover what is behind all this to realize that we are not our "I", but much more, something that witnesses the "I". Thought cannot comprehend what is behind thought (since thought is all ego stuff), therefore, awakening becomes more of a "transcendent revelation." (Adyashanti)

The ego is our major protector from harm in our daily lives and it is unceasingly vigilant, which is both good and bad. The bad part? The ego can go way overboard sometimes in its vigilance causing phobias, OCD, fearfulness, paranoia plus a host of emotionally-driven illnesses.

If we could just remember that the ego is merely a tool, and a good one at that. But no more or less than the shovel in the shed or the spatula in the drawer. And in matters of the awakening to your deeper spirit, you would never ask the ego - which seems to live in your brain and is the major part of your thinking apparatus - "What is the meaning of life?" any more than you would ask your shovel in the shed - "What is the meaning of life?" Your ego would reply with a strictly intellectual answer which is in essence, mind/ego talking to itself because it is stupid in the way of revelatory information. Mind answering mind/ego about enlightenment is like ouroborus - the famous image of the snake eating its own tail, going round and round - lots of activity! - thinking it's getting somewhere but never arriving, documenting always its own ego's self-creation.

Secondly, the ego might use its particular skills in manipulation and deflection so as not to even address the question because it really doesn't know how. If we get close to busting the ego, it might direct attention away from its possible demise with one of our many addictions - TV, reading, alcohol, drugs, eating, cooking - or by making us sick, because the ego never wants to be found out. It's deluded and thinks it has more meaning than a shovel or a spatula, silly thing!

Awakening of spirit is through grace and not through thought/mind/ego and if you are interested in all of this I would first recommend that your vessel or your transmitter/receiver be as healthy as it can be. Your body is as much a tool as is your ego and my belief is that oftentimes your ego wants you to be unhealthy because - being forced to concentrate on various ego-driven health issues - you lose power and you lose motivation for focusing on awakening to the More-ness that we all know exists.

For example and back to paragraph one, here is a way that your undermining ego will bully you: If you have poor digestion, it will be reflected in the solar plexus chakra and you will be dealing with and paying attention to your egoic self most of the time with stomach aches, colitis, heartburn, parasites etc. It will be difficult for you to be centered in the upper chakra systems of spirit because all of your attention will be lower. The ego loves dwelling in lower chakras because the upper chakra systems are closer to spirit, the ultimate receiver being on top of the head.

Your various illnesses? It's your ego messing with your head, saying, "I will never allow you to slip out of my control. It's much too dangerous. For you but especially for me. I am the chairman of your board and don't you forget it." All illness is a form of the negation of spirituality. It's the ego exerting influence/ deflection and manipulating you so that it may reign supreme. And sometimes you will experience flare-ups of physical and emotional symptoms just before you are ready to let go of your controlling ego so be on the lookout for this sign. It's a good sign and one to work with.

Somewhere deep inside of you, however, you know that you are one wave on the vastness of a huge ocean thus belonging to - no, actually being - the whole of the ocean. The wave (you) and the ocean (Spirit) are one and the same and just a different expression of the same thing. Somewhere deep inside of you, you long to find that you are part of the one consciousness in the middle of the Great Consciousness All That Is. It can become very lonely and frightening without that connection.

This is what the search for Truth is all about. And this is a very scary and very dangerous concept for the ego because it actually thinks it is the ocean and it is the only consciousness on the block. It thinks, poor deluded ego, that it is you and probably it has deluded you into thinking that your thoughts and ego-driven energies are you, and that your thoughts are the only you that exists. The ego feels separate from everyone and everything and moreover likes it that way because it enhances its specialness.

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