Lesson 333: “What is the ego?” “Forgiveness ends the dream of conflict here.”
This lesson says, “Conflict can not be evaded, set aside, denied, disguised, seen somewhere else, called by another name, or hidden by deceit of any kind.”
We learn in the Course to make the time and space to deal with our inner conflict that distresses us. We are asked to look at all of it. Sometimes our egos want to simply avoid all of our resolution of our bothersome conflict.
The ego likes to be sluggish and pretend that this conflict is not happening because it seems like a gigantic task to change.
That’s why the ego tries everything to shift our focus away from that conflict, which is always a thorn in our sides until we do something about it.
We need to give it time for the process in our minds. And we want to be gentle.
The problem is that the ego’s mode is to be harsh and critical, and rigidly controlling. The ego’s energy is aggressive so sometimes we don’t know how to get the ego to step aside and be gentle. We need to be gentle about the process.
This is generally a long and taxing process because we get to delve into the root intention and energy of that conflict.
That is tough in itself, but then, we also must take whatever steps are necessary to resolve this conflict. Our not resolving it keeps it lingering in our minds in a state of limbo which leaves us feeling partially done.
This always leaves us wanting that final feeling of resolution- a healing energy when the conflict has been given successfully to God’s altar.
We are reminded that we need to be clear to ourselves that we expect the resolution to be completed and conflict set aside.
Sometimes we need to give ourselves boundaries.
We need to give ourselves the clear directive to do what is necessary to help us move on from feeling this conflict.
The ego has all the tactics of resistance and often we get stuck in the repetition of denying our disruptive inner conflict cycle and we don’t know how to release ourselves. Just appreciate the ego can have all kinds of ways of throwing us out of balance and out of sync with God.
Just keep creating the boundaries for ourselves where we tell the ego that we will accept only so much reluctance and then the ego needs to be quiet and respectful of our process of resolving conflict until it is finally done.
We just need to let our egos know that they are important- as all parts of us are- but there is no other alternative to do things sometimes than our right thinking with God. This is why we are learning to teach them to be quiet so we can give adequate time and attention to resolving our inner conflict. This boundary for the ego is what works in the long run.