Ego, Energy and the Tao

Our spiritual community loves reflecting on the Soul, the True Self, the ancient voice that is in constant connection with God. Everyone in one way or another has experienced this connection, has received a glimpse of what life could be if only we could have constant access to God. So we keep on reflecting on this divine state and we think about the ego, the "I", our desires which often seems to stand in the way of experiencing Heaven on earth. So in essence we are thinking about ways how we could overcome our ego. The problem with that approach is that the ego is us, so if we think about the ego, everything becomes a little circular.

Thinking about your ego is perhaps not so helpful, yet being aware of the voice in your head is. In the same way, you can reflect on the "mood" that you are in, the chemicals in your brain that get activated, the hormones that are flushing through your system, the blood flow, the breathing, etc. You can experience your energy state and observe it like the voice in your head. Not only can you be aware of these energy states, but you can even activate them consciously and change them. When we discuss spiritual themes we experience different energy than when we work. When we play with our children we have a different energy than when we go on nature walks. When we are aware of everything that is going inside of us, the voice in our head, our agenda, our emotions, our energy state, we connect with the now. We are in God’s kingdom right away, yet for many of us this feat is hard to accomplish.

The missing connection in our God discovery journey is spiritual energy. If only we could be aware of our different energy state, we are in tune with Tao already. We have learned the hard way that it is good for us to stay away from dark energies, colleagues who love to gossip, alcohol, bad food, violence, porn or stress. We have learned the hard way that we need meditation, yoga, nature walks, a creative outlet at work or a hobby, friends, family time, exercise, church or vacation. All the activities simply put new life into us. We want exposure to good energies all the times. But these are just indirect ways of keeping our spiritual balance. How much nicer it would be if we could always be aware of what we do. When you are aware, when you are observing the thing you are doing, you connect with divine energy already. Simply, when you are aware, you won’t do anything to harm others and yourself. Your power of observation has that magical ability to stay connected to the Tao and in effect making you the master of your life. You are no longer just swayed by emotions or acting unconsciously like a slave. In the now you are cooperating with life and you as well as your environment become whole in the process.

As a spiritual path traveler you can learn to be in tune with your energies. You can feel how your impatience is rising, you can feel that you are speaking too fast when you express yourself. You always have the Tao to lean onto, the signs and symbols that you perceive as a constant feedback mechanism. When you lose your connection to spiritual energy, your soul siblings are happy to tell you when you need to slow down, or will at times encourage you to speed up a little. You may take a colleague to a golf game and just as you are complaining about some internal company politics you observe how the bag of your golf partner keeps slamming into the door of the trunk of your car until you change the conversation to a more uplifting subject only to observe that, miraculously, the car ride has become so much smoother. And when you then pull into the parking lot while you discuss how much you enjoy working together with a new colleague it is that you observe that the time has just moved to 12:34; a feat that is totally lost on your colleague because you learn how to adjust yourself according to the situations to tune into the right channel to uplift yourself and others.

Along the Tao you cannot really make a mistake. Sure, we are as driven by our desires - the ego - as the fellow next door, but we have experienced Heaven on earth; have enjoyed the bliss of joy, love and peace when we are connected. Every moment we can choose to connect to this state and all we need to do is to open our eyes, spread our arms wide open and unlock our heart and this blessed moment is ours to capture.

By Christian and Su Zhen