Enlightenment is one of those things where the moment you claim it, it's gone. This video today
was inspired by two comments that I got last week. The first comment was left in my Microdosing Story
video and the person was apparently triggered by my use of the word "should" and he took it upon
himself to let me know. He was like, "You should stop using the word 'should' because it makes you
come across as unenlightened." The second comment that I got was left on my Psychedelic Trip Report
video and the person was like, "Stop talking about yourself. Expand your consciousness and become
One!" These two comments got me thinking about the sheer irony and hypocrisy of it all —that
in a community of people who purport to be on a spiritual path, we would still see so much ego
coming from people who are essentially claiming that they have transcended ego. In today's video,
I want to unpack the concept of spiritual narcissism and I want to talk more about the ego.
How can we tell the difference between the voice of our ego and the voice of our intuition? It's
not so clear-cut, especially when you think that you've already had certain spiritual experiences
under your belt. So if you are in the mood for a different kind of message today, keep watching.
And don't forget to give this video a "like" because you can always change your mind later. ;)
So let's begin by revisiting a few basics. Our ego refers to our sense of self and all of the
stories that come with it. It is where our sense of who we are comes from. In spiritual circles,
they say the ego is illusory because it can be dissolved through sheer awareness
of your moment-to-moment experience. Our ego is an evolutionary survival mechanism. It is
the filter through which we interact with the world. At times, this filter might have been
what we needed to survive... like when you're on the playground being bullied and your ego goes,
"Screw them. They're dumb. You'll show them!" But now that we're adults in situations where
we have the freedom to choose where to go and who to associate with, our ego can often stand
in the way of our happiness and it does this by creating separation where connectedness would
have made us happier. While many of us now have an understanding of how maladaptive the ego can be,
transcending the ego is an entirely different matter. Some people devote their whole lives to
the spiritual path for this kind of transcendence, but for most of us, we tend to only get glimpses
into what this kind of transcendence feels like. The duration of the glimpses that we get
depends on the intensity of the practices we undertake. Say, for example, taking a five
gram heroic dose of psilocybin mushrooms is going to give you a different level of ego dissolution
than meditating for five minutes. The process of ego dissolution can in itself feel quite
destabilizing, but what awaits on the other side is a sense of love, oneness, and liberation...
All beautiful feelings, but feelings that tend not to last. Here's what usually happens after we we
feel this "oneness;" this love. We tend to go back to our lives, we go back to our human existences,
and the filter of our ego kicks back in. So what about the people who say they've achieved
enlightenment and now go around with an attitude of "I'm enlightened, you're not?" The Tibetan
Buddhist meditation guru Chögyam Trungpa once said that the ego can convert anything to its own use,
even spirituality. Trungpa is credited for coining the term "spiritual materialism," which refers
to the use of spiritual pursuits to satisfy our ego-based needs. Spiritual materialism fools us
into thinking we are transcending our ego when, really, we are just developing it. This often
presents as a belief that you are more spiritual than others because you have accumulated more
spiritual knowledge. Those comments that I shared with you earlier? I don't doubt that the writers
of those comments have more spiritual experiences than I do. I don't doubt that they know more
about spirituality than I do. They might have even spent more years on a spiritual path than I have.
But enlightenment is one of those things, where the moment you claim it, it's gone. And we are
all susceptible to this trap. The further we journey on the spiritual path, the more
susceptible we become to the pitfall of spiritual materialism and its more severe incarnation,
spiritual narcissism. In psychology, the centrality principle states that people
tend to self-enhance more in areas that matter more to them. For example, somebody who values
their appearance a lot will be motivated to spend more time at the gym. This is a principle
that applies to virtually every domain of personal development and skill acquisition and spirituality
is not exempt. Somebody who values the ideals of spirituality will be more motivated to pursue
the spiritual path. And like with any skill, the more you cultivate it, the better you feel about
your competency in it and that in turn raises your self-esteem. Self-centrality and self-enhancement
aren't necessarily bad things. They're not necessarily things that we can avoid, either,
because they just might be baked into the human psyche. But while we can't avoid them entirely,
we can change how we are in relation to them. Will we let our competency in a certain skill
give rise to the belief that we are better than others or can we simply just feel good about
our own efforts and leave it at that? I almost even feel that if you're going to go around with
an air of spiritual superiority, the bar ought to be raised higher for you to demonstrate the
kind of "ego-lessness" you purport. Now. I want to close this video by sharing some practical
tips for ego awareness. This section of the video was something that I needed to write for myself,
because my ego is something that I struggle with. It's like... I know enough about it now to
recognize it but I don't have enough experience in ego dissolution where I can completely keep myself
in check. This is something I'm working on and maybe these tips will be helpful for you as well.
Here are five ways to distinguish between the voice of your ego and the voice of your intuition.
Number one: the ego promotes separation while intuition promotes connectedness. Whether the
voice inside causes you to feel like you're better than others or worse than others, you
can be sure that that is the voice of your ego. Number two: the ego constantly justifies while
intuition is quietly resolute. If the voice inside is constantly making justifications for something,
there's a good chance that the thing that it is trying to justify isn't strong enough to stand
on its own merits. Intuition, on the other hand, requires no justification. The answers it provides
are simple, stoic, and don't lend themselves to much scrutiny. Number three: the ego judges,
the intuition accepts. Number four: the ego perpetuates a sense of danger while intuition
perpetuates no such thing. A great way to get a read on this is to check in on how you're feeling.
Are you feeling anxious? Stressed? Fearful of losing something or not getting enough of what
you want? If the character of your experience is marked by a sense of scarcity, that's a surefire
sign that is your ego at play. Intuition, on the other hand, is steady and secure and it tells you
that you are enough in this moment. You have everything you need in this moment... nothing
about this moment needs to change and that is a drastically different character of experience.
Last but not least, the ego is rooted in the past or the future while intuition is rooted in the
"now." That is it for our video today. I hope you guys enjoyed this little message. In the comment
section, I would love to hear about any encounters you've had with spiritual narcissism or whether
it's something you've struggled with in the past. Spiritual narcissism is heavily linked to another
construct known as "communal narcissism." It's where instead of saying, "I'm the greatest,
I have the best words..." Instead, you insinuate that you are the most helpful person around.
We see a lot of this in people who feign humility and charity, when in reality,
they are just using these qualities as vehicles to signal to others how virtuous they are. The
beautiful thing about spirituality is that it's one of those things where you can tell it... you
can know it by its fruits. You'll know if someone is truly secure in themselves. You'll know someone
has truly transcended, because they're not waving it in your face. They are just at peace and you
know it. You will know it by how they carry themselves (at least that's how I understand it,
anyways). Thank you guys so much for joining me for this video and I will see you next time.