The Self, The Flesh, The Ego

Eckhart Tolle, in his book A New Earth writes about the ego...egoic mind and explains how that keeps us acting in an unconscious manner. According to Tolle, and I believe him, the ego...egoic mind prevents us from experiencing a greater sense of our purpose, of our connection to the source, God and, to the peace and fulfillment that we were created to have. In my view, from a Christian paradigm, it is the ego that keeps us from being aware of the Christ within each of us and, keeps us in what Paul called the flesh and what we have come to call the self.

The ego, the flesh, the self want to be in control of all situations. In fact, we feel helpless and anxious when the self/ego is not in control. The self/ego is our seperateness. It is what distinguishes us from others. It is part of our survival instinct. The ego does not want to surrender to God and his ultimate goodness. It keeps us fearful of what may happen when we are not in control, but, as Tolle points out so graphically, our ego/self/flesh is an illusion. It is really not in control at all... not really.

Therefore, dying to flesh is really dying to the ego...egoic mind, the self. In the beginning of our transformation, it is merely recognizing the ego whenever it shows itself. It is recognizing that there is no past or future but really only "right now." It is in the "now" that we begin to experience the Christ within us. One has to be focused on the Christ within right now. Now, whenever now is for you is really the only time you can experience the Christ within. Tolle points out that we cannot rid ourselves of the ego by our actions or by our doing anything. There is no solution except to be aware that we are connected to the source, his words, I would choose to say the Christ within but in any event, there is no way to be transformed by our connectedness to the Christ within except for seeking it and communing with it in the present moment. We can do this in every present moment. As we recognize our ego, self, flesh for what it is, acknowledge it and then transfer our attention to the Christ within, this is the mechanism for transformation.

So then listen you Christian, you disciple of Jesus Christ, you cannot transform yourself by conforming to written rules and regulations. You can only be transformed when you recognize the self, flesh, ego and surrender it to the Christ within in the present moment. The more consistantly you do this the greater the outward transformation will be and the sooner self, ego, the flesh will die off.