Ego is a useful tool

To really destroy the ego would be as useful as destroying the body, intelligence, creativity, language, etc. The ego is a construct we create to navigate and experience this world. Why get rid of it—eve if such a thing could be functionally possible? No, the ego is a magnificent tool. We must learn to use it well. The key, unlike many falsely teach, is not to destroy it, and not even to weaken it.

The key is to make it an efficient, well crafted, strong, and equilibrated tool. To do this, you must not let the ego be the boss of you. It is a part of you and your tool. The ego that ignores the master is unbalanced, afraid, and out of control. Train it well, keep it healthy and strong, and it will be a worthy avatar to your earthly experience.

Jenny Gotts

In the past few months, my dear friend, Jenny Gotts, came to visit me a couple of times. We would discuss her birth chart, her path of destiny, and in those talks she came to see how her life had unfolded in such a beautiful expression of her pure will.

She came to see in her present life a true fulfillment of her destiny, where the deeper and unknown parts of herself were manifesting effortlessly, and helping so many guests who would come to her home, where she and Harry would graciously host inspiring events, and where so many souls found healing, inspiration, guidance, and joy.

“I don’t know how it happens,” she’d say to me, “I don’t really do anything, but everything seems to confabulate to make a difference for people that come to my house.”

Whether it was the labyrinth, a weekend at the cabin, a vision quest, a sweat lodge, or her beloved Tuesday Group, countless journeys were made easier and more joyful because Jenny was there for them.

In one of these talks, just a few weeks before her crossing over, I wrote this haiku for her. I can’t help but look at it over and over as I contemplate her happy smile and loving presence in her last weeks, as she was saying her good byes. I’m showing her haiku here against the background of her beautiful stained glass pieces, with the sweet rose of her loving heart.

Slowly glides the star
across a rushing heaven,
going whence I came.

We are co-authors of what we read

The writer is an author creating the flow and rhythm of speech. Any time we translate a manuscript from one language to another, however, we reinvent it. We create it again, and when we read the written word we must translate the meaning, and in doing that, we reinvent it, recreate it, and give it form. We can’t help but be the co-authors of everything we read, everything we understand, and everything we perceive.

The One in All

In my experience, seeing the common in all is crucial. It can only be done by withdrawing one’s attention from the external identity (I.e., race, country, culture, etc) and rooting it in the inner. Self knowledge, this way, leads to the realization that we are all one. But this rooting attention on one’s true nature and away from external identity must become a habit. Only then can we become truly aware of the oneness of all without having to rely on belief or dogma.