Read time 3 minutes. Launch Spiritual Awakening is a stand alone article in our Who Am I series.
A quick sidebar in our discussion of the ego. One of the core premises here is simple: self-inquiry can serve as a powerful launch point for spiritual awakening. Letting go of the ego—remembering who you are beneath it—eases mental chatter and invites peace, calm, and presence.
As we’ve seen in this series, the complexities of ego are endless. Consider just one: the game it plays with emotions. Authentic, inauthentic, real, imagined—the ego turns even our inner life into a cat-and-mouse contest with itself.
In the last lesson, I suggested that the ego suffers from a kind of god complex. It believes it can arrange perfect conditions, control outcomes, and fix every problem. But Eckhart Tolle reminds us: “It is not problem solving, it is problem making.”
Michael Singer says it even more directly: “In the name of attempting to hold the world together, you’re really just trying to hold yourself together.”
Ego as identity: Restless and unsatisfied
What is this love-hate relationship the ego seems to have with life? Why is it so committed to finding problems? The answer is not complicated: the ego manufactures its own job security.
When something goes wrong, you would think our deepest impulse would be to move on, to put it behind us. Yet ego does the opposite. It replays the scene endlessly. Then stews. Then harps.
It tells us something can be done, that a solution exists, and indeed we may even form one. But even after crafting the plan, the ego still obsesses until execution. What we discover is that ego is less interested in solving the problem and more interested in having one.
Every new problem becomes proof of its necessity. This cycle justifies the ego’s existence. Ironically, peace only comes when we let go—not just of the problem, but of the ego that feeds on it.
As Singer reminds us: “True personal growth is about transcending that part of you that is not okay and needs protection. This is done by constantly remembering that you are the one inside that notices the talking.”
Ego as a tool: Witness and awaken
Taking the seat of the witness addresses two things at once. It shifts the current predicament while preparing us to meet future ones with clarity. We remember: we are not our thoughts, not our emotions, not the endless voice of commentary. We are the one who notices.
The mental voice that once imprisoned us can become the very launch ground for awakening. Instead of asking, “What should I do about this?” we can ask: “What part of me is being disturbed by this?”
So when we feel wronged, can we pause and look again? What is the real value of anger or humiliation? Whom do these emotions serve? Will we use the situation to prop up the fragile ego, or to step beyond it?
Are we going to spend our short lives solving every problem ego invents? No. That game has no end. Instead, we remind ourselves: there is only one problem—we are caught in the illusion of ego. And there is only one solution—we are the witness of all that arises.
The witness sees anger, but is not angry. It sees humiliation, but is not humiliated. It remains untouched. In that remembrance lies the beginning of spiritual awakening.
Explore more:
This article from Grassroots Yoga and Meditation has a lot to offer. It reveals some of the deep history behind this idea of developing the witness. It also offers both a yoga and a meditation technique to help us to develop the witness. Finally, it offers some motivation by pointing out some of the benefits that will come along with cultivating this practice.
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