Evolution of love

EGO IS A VERB

From early childhood, we are given messages such as, "You are pretty," "You are smart," "You got a good grade, so you are good," or "You did not get good grades, so you are not good."

Soon the child starts to believe it, to feel it, to own that emotional essence as "me." In the same way, someone can have a thought, and pretty soon he or she will start feeling that thought. If he thinks about a happy, sunny day, soon his body will start taking on that tone, feeling something that doesn't exist. So, of course, this makes it rather difficult when someone is told to get rid of ego, because who is going to get rid of ego? What is trying to get rid of ego? That's how it maintains itself, thinking it has to do something with itself.

Ego is a movement. It's a verb. It is not something static. It's the after-the-fact movement of mind that's always becoming. In other words, egos are always on the path. They are on the psychology path, the spiritual path, the path to get more money or a better car. That sense of "me" is always becoming, always moving, always achieving.

Or else it is doing the opposite—moving backward, rejecting, denying. So in order for this verb to keep going, there has to be movement. We have to be going forward or backward, toward or away from. We have to have somebody to blame, and usually, it's ourselves. We've got to be getting somewhere because otherwise, we are not becoming.

So the verb—let's call it "egoing"—is not operating if we are not becoming. As soon as a verb stops, it's not a verb anymore. As soon as you stop running, there is no such thing as running—it's gone; nothing is happening. This ego sense has to keep moving because, as soon as it stops, it disappears, just like when your feet stop, running disappears.