Jesus and the ego self

In Lecture 6 from the Omega series: Tolle talks about presence as non-resistance to what is.  Jesus’ talk about turning the other cheek.  Turning the other cheek is exactly about this: not getting caught up in the drama of self-identity.  Not defending your ego.  It’s about being fully, deeply present now.  Letting go of the past and the future and accepting what is. 

Tolle points out that this does not mean that if someone is threatening your actual physical existence to just let them stab you, for example.  Being fully present may mean that I take evasive action, but I do it calmly without getting all caught up in some emotionally charged story about this moment.  I do not attack the other person out of a sense of self-identity preservation.  If I defend my body, I do that without the drama. I don’t turn the other person into my enemy in my mind.  And this is the critical piece of Jesus’ example: not making enemies in my mind of others.  See Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6(?). 

Imagine Jesus before the Sanhedrin with all their accusations, violence and drama.  They were beside themselves with indignation, self-righteousness, blame, trying to guilt or shame him.  They were livid, furious. 

Yet, because Jesus was fully practiced in non-identification with egoic self or the form of ego, he said nothing.  Not a word in his defense.  

When Pilate questioned him and repeated the accusations, Jesus asked, “Is this what you say or are you just telling me what others say?” Pilate replies,”So, you are the King of the Jews?” And Jesus basically says, “That’s your story.”  Because Jesus is not defending his image, his sense of self, because he is deeply present in this moment, calm, not dragged into the drama, Pilate recognizes this and pleads with the people to let him go, “He has done nothing wrong.  I find no fault in him.  He certainly has done nothing to deserve death.”  

But when we are caught up in our egoic self, our sense of self-righteousness often takes over.  We spend so much time and energy trying to prove our “rightness” to the world. And when we are identified with constantly having to prove how right we are, we make enemies in our own minds out of everyone else.   We are no different than these Pharisees and Sadducees who made an enemy out of a Jesus.  Jesus was not their enemy.  But in their minds, he was the enemy.  And when we make someone else into an enemy, it becomes much easier to murder or kill that person and feel fully justified and righteous in doing so. This is the drama of the ego mind. 

See the previous entry on Cain and Abel.