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I remembered this story while considering
what to say at a wedding I recently conducted in Indiana for my
Sister-in-Law. The point I was making on that occasion was that in the
absence of great awareness, and alas, sometimes in the presence of it, people
tend to act according to their “nature.” The crocodile set across the river
with noble intent and yet ate the frog anyway. Habit erased consciousness.
Habit can likewise erase relationships. Habit is one of the ego’s tools to
protect itself against change and is a function that can be both destructive
and beneficial depending on the amount of awareness we bring with it to the
dinner table. There are different
senses of the word “ego.” In
psychology, ego is the word used to describe the structure of our current,
self-identified level of personality, cognitive ability,
emotional-intelligence, etc. In this sense, a weak ego (or the lack of a
properly developed egoic structure) can lead to pathology and problems,
boundary issues or borderline personality disorder. |
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The ego doesn’t
like the part where it has to die, never mind that it will arise renewed,
stronger, healthier and more capable. The ego struggles against this,
creating negative, self-defeating thoughts to reinforce itself and its
boundaries. The ego separates. Again, this is helpful in the beginning of
each evolutionary cycle of soul growth. Each stage of development includes
all that was gained from the stages before it, just as cells include the
molecules and atoms that “came” before it. The ego protects what was gained;
and yet, each stage also presents new cognitive and spiritual opportunities
beyond the capacity of the preceding level. To learn, to inculcate these new
opportunities, we must transcend the limitations and sticky spots typical to
each stage of growth and overcome the ego’s fierce reluctance to enter into
the dark unknown. |
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That might mean swallowing the frog of ego,
to cannibalistically consume the part of ourselves that constantly,
insatiably needs more or better at the expense of realizing the fat flies
already present. It might mean recognizing our crocodile nature before we
unintentionally harm a friend or beloved. It might mean awakening and letting
go into the ever-present ground of being that connects all that is, the
timeless, manifest unfolding, creative, divine process; the metaphorical
satin sheet into which all is woven and of
which we are individualized threads. Perhaps we are becoming more and more
aware of the threads that lie woven beside us in an ever expanding net of
world-centric inclusiveness and are about to awaken to the inseparable
oneness of the whole. Perhaps we are about to awaken . . . right . . . now. As you
ponder the parable of the frog and the crocodile, what arises for you? Thank you
for spending this morning moment with me, With love
and aloha, Holman |
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To grow from this
place requires building up a healthier, stronger ego. Once the ego is strong, healthy and
relatively well-adjusted at its current stage or wave of development, only
then does ego become the “enemy” of further growth, because the cycle of life
demands that we are born from one level to the next, more inclusive one, grow
and consolidate there before slowly transitioning (or dying) to that level so
that we may be born again into the next, and so it goes. |
