Lesson 2 - VANQUISH EGO!

                                           Ego’s Ninja Warriors

First, we take a quick peak at what the ego has planned for us. Meet Ego’s Ninja Warriors. Let’s start with this one quote from the ‘A Course in Miracles’ that speaks of the ego’s efforts and the psychological soldiers it uses.

“. . .(The ego’s) messengers are trained through terror, and they tremble when their master calls of them to serve him. For (this master) is merciless even to its friends. Its messengers steal guiltily away in hungry search. . .for they are kept cold and starving and made very vicious by their master, who allows them to feast only upon what they return to him. No little shred. . .escapes their hungry eyes. And in their savage search . . .they pounce on any living thing they see, and carry it screaming to their master, to be devoured. . .They have been taught to seek. . .and to return with gorges filled. . .”

          Sounds a little like the zombie apocalypse in the latest B movie. But make no mistake. This is a quote from Chapter 19 of the Text, The Attainment of Peace, from ‘A Course in Miracles’. Those messengers are the bitter need to find fault in everyone around us and when found, pounce with anger, usually attacking those we seem to love the most.

         Ego’s Ninja Warriors lurk within all of us salivating at the opportunity to ravage our peace of mind and thus our lives.

          Most important, though, is to remember ego is not something or somebody, or some force of nature or the force of evil. Ego is simply an extremely narrow view of ourselves. And when we choose to see ourselves, the world and our interactions only through this truncated viewpoint our decisions for survival and wellbeing are naturally distorted, twisted and unhealthy.

          See survival through this tight focus and paranoia reigns. Ego logic demands soldiers to keep you safe in its now demented and dark shadow world. Guilt, fear, anger and attack are the weaponry for ego’s Ninja Warriors and these warriors are trained from childbirth and their skills honed over years of training.

          Whew! That’s a little dark, but as we review Sun Tzu’s advice, offered in the seventh century A.D. for succeeding in combat, we can make superior use of it today when we marry it to the spiritual psychology of ‘A Course in Miracles’.

Some thoughts to contemplate. . .

1.     Take time in meditation to ask for the spiritual armor you will need to combat ego.

2.     If you are a student of the ‘Course’ notice how ‘A Course in Miracles’ doesn’t talk only about lightness and goodness. How do you feel about the darker explanations of ego the Course offers?

3.     Take note each time you find yourself judging others, sometimes with ‘humor’ and other times with overt unkindness. Label each correctly as ego’s Ninja’s Warriors at work in your mind.