The word “I” embodies the greatest error and the deepest truth, depending on how it is used. In conventional usage, it is not only one of the most frequently used word in language but also one of the most misleading. In normal everyday usage, “I” embodies the primordial error, a misperception of who you are, an illusory sense of identity. This is the ego. This illusory sense of self is what Albert Einstein, who had deep insights not only into the reality of space and time but also into human nature, referred to as “an optical illusion of consciousness.” That illusory self then becomes the basis for all further interpretations, or rather misinterpretations of reality, all thought, processes, interactions, and relationships. Your reality becomes a reflection of the original illusion. The good news is: If you can recognize illusion as illusion, it dissolves. The recognition of illusion is also its ending. Its survival depends on your mistaking it for reality. In the seeing of who you are not, the reality of who you are emerges by itself.

Source: Eckhart Tolle – A New Earth; create a better life.

I remember a simple exercise from Eckhardt's other book, The Power of Now, where he challenges the reader to observe their own thoughts and then to recognise that they are not the thoughts but the observer and therefore not their ego which has those thoughts and acts on them. This was to recognise the illusion we live that we are our thoughts and emotions instead of that observer who attaches no judgment or emotion to what he or she sees, but simply acknowledges the process. Whenever life starts to spin or I get overwhelmed with my emotions, I remember this and I step back into that observer and detach from the processes of the ego. It helps to re-centre myself and ground myself.

Ego is one of those highly misunderstood things. It is a word that gets used to mean a variety of aspects of self. Eckhardt Tolle has done some amazing work on helping bring through understanding not just of what it is but how to work with it. His contribution to living in the now and remaining present is groundbreaking and worth a read.

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