The Driver and the Vehicle.
You might have heard of the word Soul before, you might have even read or educated yourself about the Soul, and yet others might have had an experience of being aware of the Soul. But what does this really mean, the Soul? And what is its relationship to the body?
What is the Soul?
The Soul is the individual portion of our true Self, it is also referred to as spirit, the being, the I Am presence. It is the portion of Source, creation, consciousness, or God that is expressed by us in our own unique way. We are the whole, and because we experience seemingly parts in this reality of separateness (duality), you could say our Soul is an individualized part of that whole. As we said before, the whole, God, or Source, is like the sun, and we as Souls which are extending out of and being part of the sun, are it’s sun rays. This then means we are as the sun, always connected to the sun, and in truth we are the sun. Expressing ourselves in our own unique way, experiencing creation as an individual point of view, and bringing back all of this learning home to Source. So the Soul is who and what we truly are, as having an individualized experience of the Creator.
Here you can read more about the Soul as the Self.
What is the body?
You could say, that the body is like the vehicle or the temple of the Soul. It is a materialized part of the Self which houses the Soul. Like a snail that lives insides its own shell. Or you could say, the body is like a car and the Soul is the driver. So in truth we are not the body, we are the Soul, and the body is simply a tool through which the Soul can navigate and engage in this reality. Like a diver wearing a diving suite to go into the deep sea, or an astronaut wearing a spacesuit to go into space. When it comes to the body itself, we have both a physical body, and we have an etheric or energy body, some people also refer to this as being the aura.
Here you will find some healing methods that might be helpful.
What is the ego?
When we speak of the ego, you could say, the ego is the navigation system or software of the car, and the car being the body. The ego has in fact no real substance, it is a concept, like the software on our computer. It is not something tangible, but still this software is very helpful for us to use the car or computer. Without the software, or in this case the ego, we would not be able to function or navigate in this reality. So the ego is the system that helps us to operate the body and navigate through our experience in this reality. And because the ego has no substance in and of itself, it then needs some clothes to wear, so it adapts a role, a persona, an identity, it adapts a mask to wear. And anything that it believes to fit well with itself it employs. Through this role, persona, identity and mask it then relates to the world and others around it. And everything that does not fit with the created image of the ego seems to be a threat to its survival, this then becomes unwanted and undesired and is then pushed into the shadow, were it is split off and pushed into our unconscious.
The main function of the ego is survival, of itself and the body. Besides this, it has the function of protecting itself and the body from any harm, pain, hurt or trauma, and when this is too much to handle, it will split off the painful part and relegate it to the shadow. Also of course as said before the ego is used to operate the body and navigate in this reality. And although some religions or mystic schools would say the ego is evil and needs to be killed, in and of itself the ego is neutral. It is an idea, simply a mechanism to have an individualized experience, to operate the body, and to navigate in this world. But when we start to believe that we ourselves are this ego body and created persona, here is where conflict starts to arise.
What happens when we believe we are our ego, instead of the Soul?
Most people live their lives believing their ego to be the self, so what they perceive to be the self is in fact their ego. And this is where the problems start arising, when people believe they are the ego and body, instead of the Soul. You could say in this case, now we believe we are the car and not the driver, and all other cars and everything we encounter seems to be a threat to us. When people identify with the ego and body, and believe this to be themselves, they will feel the need to protect and defend themselves, they will steal, cheat, manipulate, kill and do anything in their power to ensure their survival.
The ego mechanism then, believes itself to be separate from others, and all others are a separate vehicle, they seem to be a threat to it’s survival and it needs to protect and defend itself constantly to ensure its preservation. It can be extremely cunning and vicious, even taking on new forms and roles as we proceed in life, wherever we go the ego will go with us. As we follow a path of spirituality it will turn into a spiritual ego, when we become a doctor or a scientist, it will accompany us on this path too, so it will fit and mold itself in every new situation to ensure its survival. The belief in this idea, of being the ego and body, this in fact is what creates wars, and the reason why we harm one another. Simply because we believe we are separate from one another, we believe we are a separate entity, living in our own world, seemingly unrelated and disconnected from one another and all of creation. And we somehow need to protect and defend ourselves to ensure our survival at all cost.
What is the real function of the ego?
As soon as we realize and understand that we are not the vehicle, we are not the ego and body, we then see that we are the driver or the Soul, and these are just simply tools of the Soul to navigate in this experience. And through understanding that the Soul is an individualized part of all that is, and all is connected as a whole, then the ego and body can take on their true functions. The body having the function of housing the Soul, and the ego having the function of helping to navigate in this reality, and of protecting the Soul and being its servant. Now the ego becomes the protector of the Soul, instead of believing it needs to protect and defend itself and the body. We then slowly let go of our identification with the ego and body, and the belief of it being who we are. In this way, we let go of the ego being the centre of our existence, and we allow the Soul to be the centre of our existence and the ego its holy servant.
So in truth, we don’t get rid of the ego, as some schools may teach, this is simply not possible. We do need to dethrone the ego, we need to detach from it, and align it with the Soul. We then immediately stop the harm we cause to others, and thereby we stop the wheel of karma. Our conscience will emerge, and as we understand and have the experience of being one conscious expression, we will see that when we harm others we are in turn harming ourselves.
How to transcend the ego?
As we said before, it is not so much about getting rid of our ego, or killing it as some may suggest. Here we would rather speak of transcending the ego. To transcend the ego, or dethrone the ego and detach from it, we need to become completely aware of ourselves and uncover all our parts. We need to be completely honest to ourselves and others, we need to be transparent, sincere, we need to show our vulnerability, allow ourselves to feel safe, with ourselves and with others. And with this new foundation, we will need to let go of the roles, personas, identities, and masks we have adapted. We will need to let go of our rigidness, allow our innocence and playfulness, and allow our conscience and essence to emerge. Through true openness and transparency, where we expose and uncover all our deepest, our most vulnerable, most dark parts, our insecurities, our wounded parts and all that we have relegated to the shadow, we can become aware of these parts and reintegrate them.
Through this process of exposing and uncovering all aspects of the ego, with all its parts and its behavioral patterns, it will have nothing more to hold on to. This way it will no longer have anything to empower itself, and it will gradually lose its grip. Through becoming aware of the ego and all its aspects in all its facets, and through observing the ego, we can then start to integrate these parts and align them with the Soul. Through quieting the ego and taking away its power, we will be able to become aware of the one who is the observer and experiencer of all these seemingly separate parts, this being the Soul. And through this path, step by step, we will be able to transcend our ego, and allow the Soul to sit on its righteous throne, and so also the ego can take its true place as the servant and protector of the Soul.
Here are some healing methods that might be helpful.