• Man's purpose is to transcend from his animal nature to a realization of divinity. Source unknown

• Man is between the animals and the angels, in a difficult transitional place, having aspects of both. Source unknown

• There is only one thing to give up and that is the juice the ego gets out of situations! Source unknown

• The ego is not an enemy to be subdued but merely a compilation of unexamined habits of perception. Source unknown

• The ubiquitous human ego is actually not an "I" at all; it's merely an "it". Power vs. Force, chapter 24 Resolution, S. 291, Hay House issue, February 2002

• One does not have to destroy the ego or even work on it. The only simple task to be accomplished is to let go of the identification with the ego as one's real self! [...]
  All that is necessary [...] is to let go of ownership, authorship, and the delusion that one invented or created this self and see that it was merely a mistake. That this is a very natural and inevitable mistake is obvious. Everyone makes it, and only a few discover the error and are willing or able to correct it. The Eye of the I, S. 86

• Question: Why is so much attention placed on the Ego?
  Answer: Realization is a progressive process. Spiritual progress is hastened by understanding the true nature of the ego. It is not an enemy to be attacked and defeated, nor is it an evil to be vanquished. It is dissolved by compassionate understanding. The Eye of the I, S. 114

• Question: We hear that the ego is the block to realization. Can you explain that?
  Answer: There is no such thing in reality as an ego; it is merely illusory. It is made up of a compilation of arbitrary points of view supplied by mentation and powered by feelings and emotions. These desires represent the attachments which the Buddha spoke of as the bondage of suffering. With absolute humility, the ego dissolves. All thought is vanity. All opinions are vanities. The pleasure of vanity is therefore the basis of the ego – unplug it and it collapses. In the higher state of consciousness, it becomes silent in the Presence. To even have a single thought in the presence of the Presence would not be within the realm of the doable nor would there be the likelihood of bringing up such an outlandish pomposity. The Eye of the I, S. 179-180

• Question: There must be some tools to assist in lessening the hold of the ego.
  Answer: Ideation persists because it is valued. Notice that everyone has an opinion on everything. Notice that all thoughts are merely pontifications. Everyone is enamored of their own thoughts and ideas, even though they are worthless. The Eye of the I, S. 180

• The ego confuses wants and needs and is impatient. It is constantly demanding and wanting. […] [T]he very focal point and source of the ego […] is focused on survival. It's desires and wants are deemed to be essential because of the ego's beliefs about survival. The ego therefore has to 'get' or 'keep' and acquire because it views itself as separate and therefore dependent on external sources of supply. These may take the form of energy, attention, possessions, status, security, protection, image, money, gain, advantage, and power. Its primary view is lack, and with lack comes fear, need, greed, and even homicidal rage and threats. Fear is its motor. The Eye of the I, S. 283

• The first illusion to surrender is the belief that there is such a thing as "mind". Experientially, one can only state that thoughts, feelings, images, and memories come into one's awareness in an endless progression. The word "mind" is therefore only a concept, as is the word "ego".
  "Ego" as used hereafter generally refers to a collection of thoughts that are presumed to be representative of one's personal reality and identity, with a shading of implication that the groupings of thoughts and beliefs is purposeful. The purpose is to maintain the illusion of the personal self as the inner 'cause' of one's existence and activities, including thoughts and feelings. Again, the implication of 'ego' is that it is the self protective collection and structure of the thought processes and is thus blamed as the culprit and source of spiritual error. I. Reality and Subjectivity, S. 38

• Never underestimate the ego's wily strategies. The more realistic position is to respect its capacities and compassionately heal it. Once the ego is docile it is much more amenable to evaporating into the sunshine. I. Reality and Subjectivity, chapter "The Way of the Heart"

• Defects are inherent the ego's structure and should not be taken personally. I. Reality and Subjectivity, S. 183

• The ego puts up resistances and it struggles for survival. Therefore, when its proclivities arise, they should be viewed as a sign of success and not of failure. Instead of dismay, the surfacing of the ego's resistances should be taken as a sign of accomplishment. The inner search that characterizes the spiritual pathway is are capitulation of the evolution of the ego from prehistoric times up to the present, but this time there is the gift of freedom to choose differently. I. Reality and Subjectivity, S. 183-184

• Question: Why is the ego so difficult to overcome?
  Answer: One becomes addicted to the ego and preoccupied with its contents. It attracts all of one's attention so that one becomes obsessed with the mind and its feelings. If the person believes that the mind and its contents are the real 'me', then the focus is certainly understandable. Basically, this error is due to naivete. The mind is an amusement park, full of thrills and spills and curiosities. It is also the theatre of the absurd for the drama of feelings and social identifications. It is an 'act' in that it is a personal characterization, dramatization, and display I. Reality and Subjectivity, S. 309

• The real you is not the ego. Refuse to identify with it. I. Reality and Subjectivity, S. 380-381

• The world of the ego is like a house of mirrors through which the ego wanders, lost and confused, as it chases the images in one mirror after another. Human life is characterized by endless trials and errors to escape the maze. At times, for many people, and possibly for most, the world of mirrors becomes a house of horrors that gets worse and worse. The only way out of the circuitous wanderings is through the pursuit of spiritual truth. I. Reality and Subjectivity, S. 393

• Question: Is the ego thus both victim and perpetrator?
  Answer: That is correct. The ego is the victim of itself. With rigorous introspection, it will be discovered that the ego is really just 'running a racket' for its own fun and games and survival. The real 'you' is actually the loser. I. Reality and Subjectivity, S. 397

• The ego has an endless storehouse of prizes on which to feed. It greedily pounces

• To the ego, peace sounds inactive and passive because the ego thinks in terms of ‘doing’ something, such as seeking control, gain, or avoidance. The ego darts through traffic, pushes the speed limit, and watches for police cars. It fumes at delays and stupid drivers; it tailgates and curses under its breath at slow traffic. It blows its horn and passes on curves. It is driven by the hope of beating time and jumping the line. It shakes its fist at the driver who moves ahead in line and it vows terrible vengeance. While all this is going on, simultaneously the ego is planning work strategies, talking on the cell phone, and listening to the radio. I. Reality and Subjectivity, S. 425

• The ego just does what it has been trained to do over the millennia, and it still thinks its survival depends on adherence to and the practice of its programs that, because of evolution, have now become the antithesis of the intentions of the ethical person of today or of the serious spiritual seeker. Truth vs. Falsehood, chapter 5 'The Essential Structure of Truth', S. 50

• [The ego] feeds off of and is seduced by the energy of negativity of pain, suffering, hate, and guilt to which it gets attached (addicted). It secretely nurtures the 'juice' it gets from being the martyr or the victim, and it loves hatred, being 'right', and revenge. The consciousness level of ego is based on the utilization of the qualities of force, whether they are emotional, intellectual, or physical. The undoing of the ego, consequently, is not by the utilization of moralistic or emotional counterforce but by the use of the power of truth itself. Truth vs. Falsehood, chapter 5 'The Essential Structure of Truth', S. 50

• The core of the ego is a rebellious anarchist, atheist, and exhibitionist that expects life to be an endless Roman orgy, including intoxicating abandon and polymorphous, perverse sexuality that permits abuse of the naive and vulnerable. Truth vs. Falsehood, chapter "Truth: the pathway to freedom", S. 253

• The ego is attracted to the limitation of form, whereas the essence of Divinity is beyond all form, yet innate within it. Truth vs. Falsehood, S. 356(?)

• The term 'ego' has a different meaning in spiritual work than it has in psychology, psycho-analysis, and the theories of Carl Jung or Sigmund Freud. Transcending the Levels of Consciousness, S. 23  

• The ego's basic illusion is that it is God, and without it, death will occur. Transcending the Levels of Consciousness. The Stairway to Enlightenment, chapter 1 Shame: Despair, S. 36

• In classical Freudian terminology, the 'ego' is understood and contextualized quite differently than it is in spiritual terminology. The Freudian ego is that aspect of the mind that has to deal with external reality, as well as balance and resolve the inner conflicts between the 'Id' (primitive drives) and . Thus, psychological health is equated with having a healthy, realistic, and balanced personality. Transcending the Levels of Consciousness, S. 52

• The ego is envious of that which it intuits as being superior to its limitations and thus readily hates and denounces that what it cannot understand. Transcending the Levels of Consciousness, S. 59

• The core of the ego is its basic presumption by which it identifies itself as the primary source of existence, action, and decision, and thus usurps the sovereignty of Divinity. Transcending the Levels of Consciousness, S. 281

• The ego/mind is a dualistic construction that originated as animal consciousness which, eons later, evolved through primitive homonoids and finally to Homo sapiens, in which a prefrontal cortex was added to the old animal brain, providing the capacity for linear conceptual thought. Thus, initially, the mind primarily became a new tool for the expression of animal instincts through what is now called the ego. Discovery of the Presence of God. Devotional Nonduality, S. ?

• The ego, by projection of presumptive value, sees beauty only selectively and bases it on the linearity subserved by expectations of aesthetics. Discovery of the Presence of God. Devotional Nonduality, S. 130

From Hawkins' psychiatric practice

• This was the block in another catatonic who had not spoken in years. The Self said to him through mind, "You're blaming God for what your ego has done to you". He jumped off the floor and began to speak. Discovery of the Presence of God, S. 288

• Realization is a progressive process. Spiritual progress is hastened by understanding the true nature of the ego. It is not an enemy to be attacked or defeated, nor is it an evil to be vanquished. It is dissolved by compassionate understanding. Dissolving the Ego, Realizing the Self. Contemplations from the Teachings of David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D., S. 4, quote 2

• The ego is not an enemy to be subdued, but merely a compilation of unexamined habits of perception. Dissolving the Ego, Realizing the Self. Contemplations from the Teachings of David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D., chapter 1, S. 5, quote 2

• The ego was inherited as an “it,” and is actually an impersonal “it.” The problem arises because one personalizes and identifies with it. That “it” of the ego structure is not unique or individual, and it is relatively similar (with karmic variations) in everyone. What really varies from individual to individual is the degree to which one is enslaved by its programs. The degree of dominance is therefore determined by the extent to which one identifies with it. Inherently, it has no power, and the power to decline the ego’s programs increases exponentially as one progresses spiritually. Dissolving the Ego, Realizing the Self. Contemplations from the Teachings of David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D., chapter 1, S. 9, quote 3

• Question: The programs of the ego do not continue unless they are secretly pleasurable?
  Answer: That is the secret about secrets. The payoff is a gain of a pleasurably satisfying reward. The ego has learned to be very clever in order to survive. It is capable of resorting to any lengths or ruse of self-deception and camouflage. The world we witness is merely the drama of the collective egos acting out on the perceptual stage of form and time. Dissolving the Ego, Realizing the Self. Contemplations from the Teachings of David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D., chapter 1, S. 13, quote 1

• The ego is not the actual reality or source of life or existence, and is therefore vulnerable to dissolution. It is primordial but not essentially sovereign. It is dominant only until its illusory quality is recognized. Dissolving the Ego, Realizing the Self. Contemplations from the Teachings of David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D., chapter 1, S. 25, quote 2

• When people talk about the personal "I", it is a presumed agency they think is responsible for their thinkingness and decisions. What they fail to see is all that is happening spontaneously, autonomously, independent of any personal self. Because of the Field, you call me. Because of the Field, I reply. Because of the Field the persona, the voice, articulates in languaging it knows you will understand. But I have nothing to do with it. Interview Power vs. Force, presented by magazine Light in Times, Kathryn M. Brinkley, November 2004

Einige Rechte vorbehalten Martin Heigan

• Ego is the persistence of animal instinct from an earlier part of the brain. The frontal cortex emerged later and allows thinking. However, the thinking is then used for animal goals.
• We now have rivalry and the quest for domination via the intellect, rather than teeth, claws, etc.
• Man is addicted to the payoffs of being right, blaming others, twisting the knife.
• He must be willing to surrender these payoffs if he wants to get beyond the ego.
• Most would rather enjoy hating someone than to give it all up.
• Rarely do people escape the 400s.
• See the ego as your pet. Befriend and understand it. Houston, Texas, Seminar The Realization of the Presence of God, Unity Church, 11. October 2003

• Survival is me, ego, the animal is driven by hungryness, never enough, the core of the ego is wantingness. It wants more of everything, is greedy, desiring, insatiable, you cannot satisfy it. The average person is driven by this instinct, this primitivism. This is the basic nature of the ego, survival. Once you know that, you can have compassion for it and treat it like a pet. Chicago Seminar Title unknown, 10. April 2004

• The crux of the ego is its addiction to the juice of positionalities. You only have to focus on that one point. If you want to understand the ego, you have to understand the amoeba. The amoeba needs to get. The non-linear has a probe in linearity, and that's your ego. It's checking: Is this molecule good, is this one good? It's information processing. Before it gets invested in something, it checks it out. When we find out what about the ego is it that we need to surrender? It’s the experiencer. It's only the experiencing that matters – it isn't even just the juice, it’s the experience of the juice. Sedona Seminar Alignment, 3 DVD set, 16. April 2005

• There's really only one thing you have to let go of. You don't have to give up any particular negativity or positionality. You just have to give up the payoff, the juice.
  Could you? Of course — but would you? It's then a matter of will, but not human will, which is only as strong as your level of consciousness. It's only by surrender; now it's spiritual, Divine will, which calibrates at 850. Sedona Seminar Spiritual Traps, 3 DVD set, 15. October 2005