I think that any discussion of ego-debasement should come with a big warning label that says: CAUTION! Any success in this matter will completely change your life. 180 degrees. If your life-view is generally strong, sound and comfortable, please read no further--for this will only change things.
That said, I assume that anyone who is genuinely interested in this discussion probably enjoys seeing life change.
I should also say that any method, exercise, or technique geared towards uprooting the ego should be seriously viewed as nothing more than a temporary experiment. That is, this should not become a belief-system, formal religion, thought-process, extended practice or long-term goal--because all of these manifestations ARE the ego. These 5 little paragraphs are meant to be viewed as nothing more than experiments:
ex⋅per⋅i⋅ment: (-noun) 1. a test, trial, or tentative procedure; an act or operation for the purpose of discovering something unknown or of testing a principle, supposition, etc.: a chemical experiment; a teaching experiment; an experiment in living.
These are not to be believed, gained, defended, accumulated, labored over, or kept. They are to be experienced, lightly evaluated and then laid aside for that which lies beyond.
1. Stop looking at "yourself".
The absolute perfect love that you are has never been seen through the veil of the ego. Not once has the ego seen who you really are. However, the practical aspect of this experiment is very easy and very effective in removing the veil. Simply stop looking at yourself. Stop staring every time you brush your teeth in the morning, walk by a mirror, enter a glass door, get into the car, pass by a window, or in any other situation where you catch a reflection. Stop looking at photos and videos of yourself. If you need to fix your hair, by all means, use a mirror to look at your hair. If you have something in your nose, use a mirror to look up your nose. But put a full-stop to looking at reflections of "yourself" and thinking that is you. That is NOT you! It is a piece of reflective glass and nothing more. It is ink on paper. It is pixels on a screen. The thought that the reflection is you is a dream. You can never truly "see" yourself as you really are. Just try it! It's impossible. You can look down and see hands, legs, and feet...but you cannot see you. The ego has told you a lie for far too long that you are reflections. It's a game of smoke and mirrors. Take a break from it and learn to see yourself in things other than glass. Whether you think you are cute, fat, average, stunning, skinny, old, tanned, or indifferent, simply forget what the reflections show you. Stop looking at reflections, and see who you really are. Simple.
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2. Stop "choosing".
You did not choose where you were born. You did not choose your parents. You did not choose your sex, skin color, body-type, or how big your feet are. You did not choose the life-defining events that happened during the first few years of youth. You did not choose who you think you are. You did not choose what you find funny or how smart you are. You did not choose your name or whether your friends love you. You did not choose your personality. You did not choose what kind of food you like or what turns you on. You did not choose your last heart-beat, breath or thought. You did not choose those memorable "kodak moments". Nor did you choose the painful events of your worst nightmare. Simply put, you did not choose the story of you. But the problem is not choice, the problem is that there is no you to choose! Stop pretending you have a choice and life becomes exponentially simpler. Seriously ask, "What have I ever really chosen?" Choice only arises when there are two. But when the ego is seen through, there is only one. The illusion of choice is the ego's merry-go-round. See what happens when you stop "choosing".
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3. Forget the names of everyone you "know".
Does your loving pet care what your name is? Does he even know it? Probably not, and yet he loves you just the same. The ego, however, is drowning itself in a sea of conceptual character names. Every person the ego meets needs to be properly labeled--and it most certainly needs everyone to know it's own label! This keeps everyone, including you, under it's control, neatly defined, and firm within it's little fantasy world. It's the starting point for building all the conceptual stories about who everyone is and how they compare and contrast to you. Stop with the name calling! Just be with your friends, family and co-workers without the conceptual names, roles and labels. Let go of the whole story you invented (good or bad) that goes along with those names, and just be with them. Instead of having dinner with your conceptual sister Mary, just go to dinner with that person exactly as she is, in that exact moment. The truth of who she is cannot be appreciated in the four little letters; M - A - R - Y. In fact, her true name is far too long for you to even speak. One small aspect of her might be that she is your sister, but that is definitely not who she is in every waking moment. Not in the slightest! Nobody is who you think they are, because you are not who you think you are. This could be called forgiveness, or letting go of the past. It might seem abstract, but simply strip the names from those you "know" and see who they are without them--see who you are without them.
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4. Remember that every "stranger" you see is real.
Every single person you have ever seen pass by is completely real. They are reality. It is most helpful to remember this and experience it daily. This experiment is essentially an inversion of the third experiment. In the above example, we were attempting to forget the make-believe stories of those people we supposedly "know", whereas here we are attempting to intimately know those we call "strangers". This does not mean you need to talk to every person and hear their story--that would be an impossible ego game. You don't even need to see them walk by (although it helps). You are simply recognizing the fact that every single "stranger" has a complex, conceptual story that is just as vivid and seemingly real as the ego thinks yours is. From the grotesque up through the sublime, in that recognition, you undermine all stories and move beyond them. The millions of details, fragmentations and differences do not matter, but the fact that you are fully capable of embracing all stories is of infinite value. It means anything is possible and you embrace it all. Standing in a crowd of thousands of people and realizing that everyone there is perfectly real will dwarf the ego to the dot of an i. That older lady walking by at the park is a widowed mother of three with a great sense of humor, and she is wondering what to make for dinner. We do not need to hear about her life, but there is a part of us that fully allows her to be, just as she is. In that awareness, she remains as infinite potential. In that awareness, we are all One. She allows your story to be, and you allow hers. In truth, that awareness swallows both stories up and all that remains is loving compassion. It's easy to do, just remind yourself that every "stranger" you see is completely real.
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5. Forget everything you "know".
You do not know where you came from, where you are at, how you got here, or where you are going. You do not know what you believe in or why. You do not know what happened this morning, and you do not know what is happening now. You do not know what the world is, where it is, or what's in it. You do not know what humans are. You do not know what death is, and you do not know what life is. You do not know what food, dreams, sex, and time are. You do not know what anything is, but above all, you do not know what you are. That's the biggest question of all, and you do not know the answer. You will never "know". What a big fat relief! Just consider yourself to be a huge, ambiguous question mark and everything you "know" is just outside of you. You are completely separate from all of it. Every last detail. How can a huge, ambiguous question mark know anything? The instant you know something you are no longer a question mark. But how can you not be what you are? It's an impossible dream. Everything you "know" is the ego. It's not good, bad, or any shade in between--it's just not you. Forget everything you ever learned, said, read, saw, dreamed, or hoped for and be what you are. Simple.
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