Kay:
Gosh, Questers – it is Episode 150!
Shi:
And, the last day of the month!
Kay:
It’s so, SO cool. We’re so glad that you guys have stuck it out with us! And, maybe this is your very first episode! And, if it is, go download the other 150 – they’re a lot of fun! But, anyways, Happy July 31st, and Happy Buddha Friday! We’ve got a really cool quote for you that we were just kind of geeking out about, because Buddha is dropping the ancient wisdom today saying, “Wear your ego like a loose fitting garment.”
Shi:
This is great imagery…It’s an amazing simile….And, before we get into what to do with the ego, I think it’s important to start off with what the ego is, because how we maybe understand it is not necessarily how it’s defined at large…
Kay:
Well, a lot of times, when we think of ego, many of us tend to think in terms of competence, or someone who might have a lot of self confidence, (or too much self confidence!), and we would say they were egotistical, or they’re really self absorbed. So, many of us think that, “Oh, well, I don’t even have any though! If I’m not self-absorbed, then I don’t have an ego!” But, ego in the sense of today’s quote, and especially in the Buddhist tradition, is really that voice inside your head that is the representation of your human brain. And so, it’s like the physical brain that has its own intellectual dialogue going on. And so, the ego gets threatened – it grows big – it grows small – and it has all kinds of different things that it can do. But, your ego is the changing part of you. There’s also that never-changing internal spirit inside of you too – AKA: the internal “omm” – but the ego is that intellectual part that is constantly articulating your entire life…
Shi:
Another way to understand the ego is that it is your internal way of representing what you think you’re representing to the world, right? So, your ego is the picture that you’re putting out to the world and who you think everyone thinks that you are. Of course, you can never truly know what they think about you, but your ego is the thing that you construct inside of your mind that you think the rest of the world sees you as. And so, this comes back to identity, which is something we’ve been talking a lot about lately. And, we’ve been talking about how you identify yourself, and who it is that you think you are truly – because you’ll always do your best to come back to that. And, that’s the ego’s job. As Kay mentioned, the ego’s job is to articulate that to yourself and to others. And, if we don’t put some separation between our ego and that internal “omm” part of ourselves, we can let that ego drive the bus and be in charge. And, all the while, we’re saying, “Well, that’s just who I am,” or, “That’s just me.” Or, you know, “I’ve never been good enough”, or, “I won’t settle for that” or a myriad of things in between…And, your ego is pretty much always the culprit!
Kay:
What I like about Buddha saying, “wear your ego like a loose fitting garment,” is that he is not telling you that ego doesn’t have a place in your life. He’s not telling you to take your ego off, throw it in a trashcan, and burn it. He is telling you to wear it like a loose garment. Which means, understand that it’s going to be a part of your makeup, and that it’s a part of you. But, if you have it on too tight, and it’s constricting your body, chances are your life isn’t going to be very pleasant! You know, Buddha’s whole goal is to end human suffering, if you will. And, this is one of those things that – if you have that mental voice, worn as a loose garment – when you hear it come up, or you hear an old pattern of thinking happening, or an a non-constructive or disempowering pattern of thinking come up in your mind – if you’ve truly got the loose garment effect on your ego, you can choose to shrug it off to your shoulder, or take it off to the other side, because it’s not the entire thing, and it’s not necessarily quite so much a part of you as it would be if it was a tight tank top!
Shi:
Right?! You think about what a tight fitting garment feels like…it’s uncomfortable! And, you know, I don’t want to call that suffering unless it’s really tight…
Kay:
I think of like the tube dress girls in Vegas versus the like flow dress girls, right?
Shi:
Be the flow dress girl in Vegas, because you won’t suffer as much! And, you’ll be able to move around a little bit more, and have more flexibility. Look, the garment is important. It’s still important to protect you from the elements, and to protect you from societal scrutiny about walking around naked. But, wearing it like a loose fitting garment versus a tight one gives you more flexibility, more breathability, and more comfortability!
Kay:
So, just a reminder, Buddha does say, “Wear your ego like a loose fitting garment.”
Shi:
And, now it’s time for your quest! And, of course – It is an ego quest today! So, we want you to consider how tightly you are currently wearing your ego, and then, pick an item of clothing from your closet that represents how you think you are currently wearing your ego. You can either think about it, or, go one step beyond, and get in that garment – take a picture – and post it to the Living Your Quest Life Facebook group! We would LOVE to see what your ego looks like, expressed as some of the garments in your closet! So, are you ready?
Kay & Shi:
Let’s quest!
Shi:
Happy weekend, guys!
