Ego Is Not A Dirty Word

This is an edited version of an email I sent to a friend once, someone very dear to my heart.
I am posting this as I have a friend currently going through a similar thing.

There seems to be a fashion in spiritual circles to try and "kill the Ego".
The Ego is just one aspect of our humaneness.

Admittedly a powerful , consuming one.

Whatever we fight we empower, that's why Christ said "resist not evil". Its the denial of all aspects of ourselves that creates separation and gives us the idea we have something to fight.

Its the longing for the "other" the "not this" the "almost there" that creates spiritual and human anguish.

The belief that there is a right way and a wrong way, that pain , despair, and all of our beautiful confused humanness is not right or spiritual or true.

THIS is the ego talking...it will create conflict any way it knows how, and when you are on the spiritual path, it will use that.

You cant blame it for this, it literally doesn't know what it is doing, its function initially was to be the force that looks outwards, on the world , and to give us a strong sense of self to survive and to explore the external world.
When we thought that it was the only thing, and forgot where 'home' is , thats when the problems arose.

God gave us an ego , as he gave us freewill, to create whatever world we wanted, not in his image, but in ours, which are one and the same.

The Ego thinks it is you, and you think you are it, it is actually trying to protect you, it thinks if it dies , so do you, so to try and kill it, there is an underlying feeling of trying to kill yourself.

You cannot create spiritual suicide, you will end up terribly depressed.

Give it to God. Learn to love yourself, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. Everything changes through love. That isn't a hip throw away line ......real love encompasses everything, including your ego, it sees it as mistaken, like a small child, not threatening, real love is compassionate.

The ego is a God given gift, if one was never lost, they would never work to find the way home.

In our confusion and humaneness we are beautiful beyond belief, an expression of Gods glory and magnificence, perfect in our imperfections....

PS even though I talk about God a lot, I am not formally aligned with any religion.