The ego is based on fear, but the soul is based on love.
(from Be Love Now by Ram Dass.)
We all have an inner self - a part of the soul - which observes (or "witnesses") the outer self - the ego - in action. In Christian tradition these two characters are represented as an angel on one shoulder, taking in one ear, and a devil on the other shoulder, talking in the other ear. The angel (soul) is calm and humble, while the devil (ego) is forceful and rough. It is our choice which voice we listen to. If we don't make this choice actively and with determination, then it will be made for us, as the voice of the ego is much louder and much more insistent than the voice of the soul. The devil is happy to mock the angel, drown it out, and generally take control. The devil dictates a steady stream of instructions, and tempts us with many illusions and promises, all of which turn out to be hollow and empty. Meanwhile the angel sits there quietly, unperturbed, giving advice only when asked. The angel is effortlessly more powerful than the devil, and has immeasurable comfort, peace, love, and bliss, on tap for us, whenever we want it - we just have to turn to the angel and accept its' gifts. But the angel is too humble to force itself on our attention. We have to make that choice ourselves, while ignoring the blandishments of the devil.
If you are not comfortable with the Christian personification of soul as angel, and ego as devil, then just think of it as soul and ego, true self and false self, inner self and outer self, or whatever terminology and characterisations work for you. Every philosophical or religious tradition has its own equivalents of these two characters. The gameplay is always the same. One quietly seeks to liberate us, while the other seeks to chain and enslave us. Generally we listen to the wrong one, and this is the old paradigm.
The human race has been on a long dark journey, in slavery to our own delusions. The ego or devil is not real. It is our creation. We have built it up through recurring patterns of thought. We have learned to mock and shun the very idea of spirituality, of divinity, of inner light. We have created a dark and dismal false self and allowed it to rule us. Now we simply have to turn our attention to the angel on the other shoulder, quietly sitting there, radiating light, love, peace, comfort, bliss, and harmony. This is the the true self, the soul, the inner self, our saving grace.
If we make just a little effort to give more attention to this angelic observer, we can easily free ourselves from the illusory chains of the devilish ego. As Ram Dass puts it:
as meditation deepens, you identify less and less with the ego and begin to touch and enter more deeply into the space of love. You begin to experience love toward more and more people and find love in the experiences that come into your field of awareness... As you keep giving up the habits that hold you back from loving, the ego's fear of letting go dissolves in the love. From the ego's vantage point you surrender into love. From the soul's vantage point you are coming home, the boundaries of separation are fading, and the two are becoming one. As you begin to enter into Oneness and to become love, instead of perceiving from your ego, you're perceiving from your soul. You are shifting your identification from ego to soul. You don't kill your ego, you kill your identification with your ego. As you dissolve into love, your ego fades. You're not thinking about loving; you're just being love, radiating like the sun.Your awareness has then moved from the old paradigm to the new paradigm. Fear has been replaced by love.
