Coexistence of the Ego and the Soul

by Jakob Sederholm

Mar 4, 2023

Note: The content shown below was written by Jakob Sederholm and published on medium.com. None of the content was created by Rezin West or rezinwest.com.

 

Let’s go through some of the key aspects of what we call the ego and the soul.

What is the ego?

The ego is who most of us identify as ”I”, it is the mask we wear and show to the world. The ego is our persona, a character we create through our mind. The ego could be seen as a dream of the mind. Because we believe we are our ego, it often times rules over us and drives our existence in a constant search to fulfill its desires. The ego is mortal, meaning it only exists for a limited time and can die at any time. It’s main purpose is therefore to survive and resist change and danger. It wants to remain safe and comfortable. When we die, it is actually just our ego, mind and body that dies, because our spirit leaves. When spirit leaves there is no more energy to keep the body functioning. However, your true self, the soul or atman, can never die and keeps on living even if your ego dies.

What is the soul?

The soul is the higher aspect of your being. It is not a physical body, but rather a spiritual body made up of subtle energy vibrating at a higher frequency than what we can percieve with our eyes in this dimension. The soul is immortal, meaning it can never die. The soul lives on through many many life times of different egos. The soul chooses to incarnate in a certain moment as a certain being to learn different lessons. The soul is our true self, with a direct connection to God. It always knows what is right for us, and guides us through our life. However, through our upbringing, most people are conditioned to not listen to the voice of their soul, and instead follow their ego. Everything you see in society revolves around the ego. Most people still have a strong voice calling from the soul when they are young, but if they ignore it for long enough it will eventually quiet down and stop calling. To connect back to your soul is therefore a gradual process of letting go of your ego, learning to distinguish between the voice of your ego and your soul, and first and foremost TRUSTING your gut feeling, your intuition. To follow your dreams, to listen to your heart, is the first step to reconnecting with the soul. The more you trust and listen, the stronger and louder the message will get. Eventually you will not have to think about it too much and you will simply exist and live in pure alignment with the soul. The soul lives completely in the present moment and communicates through emotion, with the information from the heart. What feels right is most often right, what feels wrong is most likely wrong. Although the soul is infinite and immortal, it is generally believed that the soul does have an age. This is were terms such as ”old soul” or come from, people who tend to be more calm and spiritually inclined. As I see it, the soul is immortal in the sense that it is pure energy which cannot be destroyed only transformed, however, souls are constantly being born from God, just like many souls also return to God all the time. In that sense there are younger souls that recently were born from God, like a new born here to learn the basics about life, and older souls that already have lived many lives on earth and possibly on other planets as well.

Differences between the ego and the soul:

Ego:

Soul:

Important notes:

Many times people tend to look down upon the ego and see it as something purely negative. While an over inflated ego is one of the root causes of a lot of the suffering we see in the world, the ego still serves an important purpose. It is only through the ego that the soul can work in this dimension. It is through the ego that God viewes his/her creation and experiences itself. The soul is a fractalisation of God. The soul is born from God and shall return one day, which is the grand purpose of the soul; to experience the creation of God, learn lessons from different perspectives and ultimately return with this information to help the universe grow and evolve. The ego is, in other words, the vehicle through which the soul operates and experiences this world. One could say that the ego is like our clothes. It’s not really who we are, but it would get a bit cold in the winter if we were naked all the time. Sometimes we change clothes when they get old and worn out but it’s not the end of the world, when don’t stop existing just because we change clothes. With that being said, we must not let the car drive itself following the orders of the engine, but rather take control of the steering wheel and drive it ourselves. The problem today is that most people on the planet are completely unaware that they in fact are not their ego, and therefore live a false life that is like a mascarade. This leads to a lot of suffering as the ego is easily manipulated because it doesn’t have a compass of its own. The soul is the compass. If we don’t recieve the signal of the compass, how can we know which way to go? Then we will look outside ourselves for answers and follow people who tell us they know. This is how tyrannical regimes, crazy cults and other forms of group hypnosis are formed.

It is therefore of great importance that we do some kind of spiritual practise everyday that opens our heart and connects us with our soul and true purpose. When we are in alignment with our true self and our destined path, resistance ceases to exist. A person living in alignment with the soul doesn’t have to worry about the future or think too much about what to do and so on, since life flows intuitively in the eternal moment of now. One simply walks one step at a time listening to their gut feeling and the path will appear in front of them. For someone used to living in an ego-based 3D reality, experiencing a soul-based reality can be a very transformative journey. It is a bit like climbing out of a cave and seeing the sun for the first time. One will start to experience magical synchronicities where everything flows and aligns perfectly. It can be a rough ride in the beginning as the ego has to be diminished, which it will resist and attempt to regain control but it’s part of the journey and if one sticks through the rewards will be worth it.

So how do you realign with your soul?

As I mentioned earlier, the soul is mainly connected to our emotional body. It speaks to us not through words, but through feeling. The first step in reconnecting with your soul is therefore to start being more aware of your emotions and, more than anything, trusting them. Somebody invites you to a night out but you don’t reeeaaally feel like going? Don’t go. Or, on the contrary, if you are at a party and see someone that looks interesting and you get this good feeling – talk to them! All souls are connected in one unified field of energy and consicousness, and they are all working together to lead you to the right people and places at exactly the right moment. The more you start trusting your gut feelings, the more you will start to experience this for yourself. The proof will come.

Meditation, yoga, qi-gong, prayer and other spiritual practises are a great aid aswell. I would say that if you are not doing at least one of these you will have a hard time getting anywhere. Meditation is almost a must if you want to make any kind of progress, and yoga or some kind of physical exercise is a very good complement.

Spending time in natural environments far away from the turmoil of cities has a lot of positive benefits aswell. Nature is a key element to understanding ourselves, as whe are in the core nature. If you spend an extended period of time, let’s say around 3 weeks or more, out in nature completely isolated from normal society, you will probably boost your progress quite a bit and see society and the ego world in a new light.

Final words

In the end, the soul has all the answers we are seeking, and as we start hearing the voice of our soul more clearly we will not need to follow the advice of others so much. Take this text as a starting point, something to go from, but ultimately it’s all up to you to figure out your own path. I’m speaking from my experience, but I cannot know for sure that it’s going to be the same for you. What it’s really about is taking back control of your life (or actually letting go of the need to be in control all the time), and listening to yourself. It’s so easy to get stuck in certain ideologies or routines that sometimes become like a religion. Spirituality is about freeing ourselves from all attchments and coming in direct contact with God. Ultimately we have to free ourselves from the desire to meet God as well, but let that be the driving principle at least in the beginning. Trust yourself. Listen to yourself. Believe in yourself. There will come times when you doubt yourself even after you have made significant progress. Just keep going. Don’t stress about it. Life flows like it flows. The waves come and go. The old created resistance against the old, creating a wave which ultimatley crashes down and wipes away the old. And then it all flows back to the ocean and the cycle repeats. There is no need to force anything, no need to worry about anything. Just let go, follow your intuition and you will eventually end up where you’re supposed to be.