In Defense of EGO: The Power of Imagination

EDITOR'S NOTE: Each month in 2014, we will focus on one of The Twelve Powers In Man. We start in January with The Power of Imagination.

Self Confidence: "Confidence in oneself and in one's powers and abilities." 
EGO: "A person's sense of self-esteem or self importance."

We clearly see that without one, the other cannot exist. Yet, so many disparage the EGO and would have us all believe that having an "EGO," the Latin term for "I" (=I  AM) is destructive to our spiritual evolution. 


Following many leaders in the spiritual community, many people, including me, also felt that having an EGO was wrong. What I eventually realized is that when an EGO is missing, we can and will run into trouble.

Credit: Gorgeous Picture. Note the item: EGO- kill it!

The way I see it, "EGO" should be defined as "pride in oneself." The day we stop having "pride" in the self within us is the day we begin to slowly go down, not only in our own eyes, but in the eyes of the world. We MUST have a sense of ourselves and where we fit into the world!


To care about ourselves and developing our

God-given gifts to serve the world does not rob God of his role in our lives. This self connection...to our Soul... directs us to the POWER of God, the gifts, within us.   

"For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he," Proverbs 23:7 

It's easy for those who have reached the pinnacle in their careers, indeed lives, to believe that an EGO is unnecessary. (Indeed, many believe that they are the true GOD! Let them have their illusions.) But then...there are the rest of us.

 I tell you: 

Aspiring to not have an EGO is pure nonsense!

Lose your EGO, and you lose your pride in all that you do and accomplish. Indeed, losing the EGO is to turn your back on the gifts of God.

Being EGOTISTICAL is miles away from having an "EGO."  There is a huge difference between having pride in oneself and being puffed up about yourself. An egotist is self-centered, focused on self, believing that he or she is better than others. At various times in our lives, we may be an egotist. But as we grow in Spirit, we lose this disconnection with Soul.

One who recognizes his EGO and has pride and confidence in SELF is connected to his Soul and also recognizes that this trait, this pride, this confidence, also should reside in others. To take these attributes away is to destroy the very Soul of a person.

We should not strive to remove our EGO, our confidence. (See this piece: "Authentic Being and Conscious Living") Rather, we should strive to recognize that the sense of self that we feel is present in others, too. So, we should recognize that whatever gifts we've been given to navigate the world equate to different gifts given to others. 

We should stay vigilant to see where we think our gifts are "better" than someone else's and work hard to overcome feelings that would separate us. The easiest way to do so is to take the "Namaste'" attitude: honoring the light of God in others. 

Recognizing that our "brothers and sisters" are also infused with the Spirit and Light of God, we should be able to settle into our EGO without becoming EGOTISTICAL.

Through my studies at Unity School of Christianity, Lee's Summit, MO,(Unity School of Christianity), I learned about The Twelve Powers in Man, as taught by Unity's co-founder, Charles Fillmore. 

Those twelve powers are:
* Faith *Strength *Wisdom *Love *Power *Imagination *Understanding *Will *Order *Elimination *Life (itself)

Credit: Unity Worldwide Ministries: http://unity.org. For more information on the 12 Powers, check this piece: http://www.unity.org/resources/articles/twelve-pathways 

We will be highlighting one  of the twelve Powers each month throughout 2014.

Let's begin with:

According to Unity teachings: Bartholomew, the apostle, represents Imagination, whose nerve center is found in the space between the eyes. 

The Power of IMAGINATION, (delineated in June, colored in blue, in the chart above.)

This power allows us to CREATE the next steps in our lives. We always are "creating" in our lives. So, if our thoughts are negative and pictures bleak of what we expect, guess what? We are creating negative experiences for our future. The converse also is true: have positive expectations; create positive experiences. 




Connecting to the Spirit within us, we begin by MEDITATING on the results we'd like to see. Most of us are unaware that the images we focus on are dictating the path for our future. 

Tyler Perry chats with Oprah Winfrey on her OWN network.

Listening to Tyler Perry chat about his past on OWN, it's clear that he began creating his tremendous success by visualizing a better world than the one in which he was living in his childhood. Perry said he did this to escape the pain of physical and emotional abuse. The world he's now living in is an out-picturing of that visualization. 
  
 Then, using our imagination to TO VISUALIZE (SEE) what we'd like to accomplish, we focus our thoughts on achieving the results.

We next call upon the POWER of FAITH* (= Confidence) in Self (=Ego.) This moves us forward to the next step in manifesting. By holding fast to what we can only now imagine, we are able to realize only our dreams.

We often hear, "Thoughts are things." Truthfully, though, "pictures are things."

Imagine what your life, with your dreams fulfilled, would look like. Begin to use the Power of IMAGINATION to "image" the new life.

Master Teacher Neville Gooddard, throughout his writings, promoted the concept of the  power within us and emphasized Faith and Confidence to help us carry our dreams through. Once we begin to practice these attributes, beginning with IMAGINATION, then we will begin to see our dreams realized.

Without the power of IMAGINATION, fueled by our EGO and CONFIDENCE, we can accomplish nothing in this world.

What we will begin to see as we move forward within the year 2014 is that ALL the 12 powers, noted by Charles Fillmore, are connected and critical for our success.

Don't leave any of your gifts behind in 2014. I especially urge you to bring along your EGO for the ride, as we take pride in the gifts given to us by God.

Happy 2014! 

Let a wonderful year of unfolding our 12 Powers BEGIN!

Namaste',

Che' 

*NOTE: In February post, we'll focus on FAITH, as the 2nd of The Twelve Powers in Man.