12 - H4H News: How Does the Ego Use Guilt?

Synopsis: Hope for Humanity News is a series of three to five-minute weekly podcasts designed to educate, inspire, and comfort listeners during these challenging, but hopeful times. 

Hi everyone! Welcome to Hope for Humanity News! I’m Reverend Joan Kistler.

Last week, we talked about how the ego uses painful emotions, like anger and fear, to pull us away from the present moment. But then we suggested that anger and fear are not the only weapons in its arsenal. Another weapon is guilt.

How does the ego use guilt?

The ego is like an angry, scared child who doesn’t understand the way life is. So, it’s constantly stomping its feet and demanding things because it’s scared that it’s not going to get what it needs and wants. Life always provides us with what we need, but not always what we want. That’s the way life is.

The ego generates fear because of its lack of trust in life to provide what it needs, and it produces anger because it refuses to accept that life doesn’t always provide what it wants. The ego’s refusal to accept the way life is is its own fault. So, when the ego starts stomping its feet and projecting blame, we can take it as seriously as we would a child having a tempter tantrum.

Just to be clear – shame, or the feeling that we are not worthy of love, is never justified. No matter what we’ve done, we’re always worthy of love in the eyes of our Source. Guilt may be justified if we deliberately did something to harm ourselves or others. Once we take responsibility for our actions and do what we can to make amends, guilt is no longer justified.

As far as Essence is concerned, there is no one to blame because there is nothing wrong. Life is exactly as it should be. Life supports life, but it does not revolve around the ego’s preferences and desires – and that makes sense since there are currently over seven billion egos on the planet.

There’s no way Life can please them all.

Essence even accepts the ego as it is. It exists as the grist for the mill of our spiritual evolution, so we don’t have to feel guilty for having an ego. Our job is to be aware that it is a false self, and it is not a wise guide for our life. But we do have far better choice – our True Self, or Essence.

Of course, there are other ways the ego pulls us away from the present moment other than using judgment and negative emotions. It also uses time.

How does the ego use time to pull us away from the present moment?

Tune in next week.

11 - H4H News: How Does the Ego Use Anger & Fear?

Synopsis: Hope for Humanity News is a series of three to five-minute weekly podcasts designed to educate, inspire, and comfort listeners during these challenging, but hopeful times. 

Hi everyone! Welcome to Hope for Humanity News! I’m Reverend Joan Kistler.

Last week, we talked about how the ego uses one of its favorite tactics, judgement, to pull us away from the present moment. At the end of the broadcast, I mentioned that the ego also uses painful emotions, especially anger and fear.

How does the ego use anger and fear?

The egoic mind developed out of the primitive reptilian brain. This part of the brain contains the emotional center of the brain, which is responsible for our fight-or-flight response. When a threat is perceived, a signal is sent from one part of the brain to another part, which dumps adrenaline into the bloodstream, causing us to feel unpleasant “anger” or “fear” sensations, such as increased heartbeat and breathing, and tense muscles.

The problem is that this part of the brain can’t tell the difference between a real or imagined threat. To the ego, everything real is a threat because the ego doesn’t exist in reality. So, when the ego passes a negative judgment on reality, and we adopt its viewpoint, the brain naturally responds to the imagined threat, and we feel a certain degree of anger or fear. This benefits the ego because it makes its imagined threats “feel” real to us.

Let’s say that it is raining outside. Essence accepts the rain and even enjoys listening to the sound of the raindrops pitter-pattering on the roof. Ego says, “Oh no! It’s raining, and I just washed my car! Every time I wash my car, it rains the next day. There goes ten bucks down the drain.” You see, the ego took a natural part of life and turned into a personal problem.

That’s what the ego does – all the time.

Fortunately, our brains evolved to the point where we modern human beings now have intelligence, which we use to gain knowledge, solve problems, and create new things. We can also use our intelligence to separate fantasy from reality. So, when the egoic mind sends out a “red alert,” we can use our intelligence to decide whether it is a real problem to be handled now, or an imaginary one created by past regrets or future projections.

We can be certain that Essence never uses fear or anger to manipulate us because these emotions do not exist within Essence. Essence abides in a state that has often been described using three words: peace, love, and joy. So, when a message comes to us, and we feel peace, love, and joy, we can trust that it came from Essence.

Now, if anger or fear don’t work, the ego has another powerful emotional weapon in its arsenal: guilt.

How does the ego use guilt?

Tune in next week.

10 - H4H News: How Does the Ego Use Judgement?

Synopsis: Hope for Humanity News is a series of three to five-minute weekly podcasts designed to educate, inspire, and comfort listeners during these challenging, but hopeful times. 

Hi everyone! Welcome to Hope for Humanity News! I’m Reverend Joan Kistler.

Last week we ended our broadcast stating that one of the ego’s favorite tactics for leading us away from the present moment is judgment.

How does the ego use judgment?

The ego resists reality, and judgement is its primary resistance weapon. The ego is really into its beliefs and opinions and will defend them at all costs. That’s because beliefs and opinions are the house of cards upon which its illusory identity is built.

The ego has beliefs and opinions about everything, and it has to be right, or its illusory house of cards collapses. Since reality is its enemy, the ego must always judge against it with reasons that are always right and “solutions” that are always right.

When we identify with the ego’s beliefs and opinions, its judgements and solutions seem perfectly reasonable. At that point, we’re ego-hijacked, and we’re far more likely to act out its solutions, no matter how senseless or destructive. Why? Because we’re right.

The ego constantly passes judgments against us, others, and life in general. We’re never good enough, others are never good enough, and life is never good enough. It uses this discontent to drive us out of the present moment.

It tells us, “If you do this, then you’ll be happy.” The problem is that this is its “solution” for every single moment of reality. So, as long as we’re identified with the ego, we will never be happy. It will have us forever chasing after happiness instead of choosing to be happy now.

Essence, on the other hand, doesn’t argue with reality. At the moment, we are exactly as we are supposed to be, others are exactly as they are supposed to be, and life is exactly as it is supposed to be.

Why? Because it’s reality. No amount of imagining or wishing that it “could” or “should” or “ought to be” any other way will change it.

So, if we find ourselves thinking negative thoughts about ourselves, others, or life in general, we can be absolutely certain that the ego is talking to us. And if we’re feeling painful emotions, we can be absolutely certain that we are believing what it is telling us.

Painful emotions, like anger and fear, are powerful weapons in the ego’s arsenal.

How does the ego use anger and fear to lead us away from the present moment?

Tune in next week.

9 - H4H News: How Does the Ego Deal with the Present Moment Compared to Essence?

Synopsis: Hope for Humanity News is a series of three to five-minute weekly podcasts designed to educate, inspire, and comfort listeners during these challenging, but hopeful times.

Hi everyone! Welcome to Hope for Humanity News! I’m Reverend Joan Kistler.

Last week we ended our broadcast stating that a main difference between the ego and Essence is how each deals with the present moment.

Since they are opposites, they deal with the present moment in opposite ways. The ego fully resists the present moment while Essence fully accepts it.

Essence accepts the present moment because the present moment is what it is. It is reality. Essence can communicate with us only when our mind is quiet, when our awareness is in the present moment. It doesn’t invade our minds like the ego, and it doesn’t talk much: it communicates with us more through feelings. Its wisdom just drops into our minds, and we are suddenly at peace.

The ego resists the present moment because the ego is an illusion. Therefore, it has no power in reality. It only seems to exist in illusory states like the past and future.

Like a pied piper, the ego plays certain “tunes” to lead us away from the present moment. For example, if we have some regrets, it leads us into the past with the “if I only I had …” tune. And if we’re the anxious type, it leads us into the future with the “what if” tune.

That’s why mystics say that this life is an illusion. It’s an illusion because most of us do not live in reality. The main cause of human unhappiness is that spend more time thinking about life than we do actually experiencing life. We spend a great deal of time fretting over the past or future, which keeps us from living in the now.

What good does it do to fret about the past or future? How is that functional? The answer is that it isn’t. As much as the ego tries to appear helpful, how beneficial is following these tunes when we can’t change the past, and we can’t predict the future?

The truth is that dancing to these tunes lead us only to suffering. It prevents us from dealing with our lives effectively in the now because the now is perceived through a lens distorted by past regrets and future worries.

The ego has many tactics to lead us away from the present moment, and one of its favorites is judgement.

How does the ego use judgement?

Tune in next week!