Virginia Woolf and 'A Room of One's Own'

Virginia Woolf published her extended essay, the six-chapter, 'A Room of One's Own', in 1929, based on a series of lectures she had delivered the previous year at Girton and Newnham, the two women's Colleges at the University of Cambridge. By then, an established and esteemed novelist, the theme she was exploring was 'Women and Fiction'. Published just ten years after women had gained suffrage in Britain, the book is regarded as a precursor to the voluminous feminist literary activity in the later years of the 20th century.

In spite of the lack of a formal academic background, Virginia Woolf was a well-read autodidact. She uses a narrative form of an imaginary young woman named Mary given any of three surnames, researching the topic of 'Women and Fiction'. She concludes that minimally a woman needs 'a room of her own' (lockable) and some cash to live on (500 a year in Mary's case). What she is clearly saying, after a careful historical analysis of lives led by men and women in relation to each other in the past, and up to the day of her deliberations, is that women are deprived of artistic and literary expression because of their economic, personal, and social subordination by men, and not because of a lack of innate ability or talent.

The purpose of this essay is to analyse, and comment upon the author's extensive use of binary categories beginning with the central, historically loaded, categorization of the differences between men and women. Although two sets of binaries, reason/emotion, and fiction/fact, are delved into in this essay, Woolf's awareness of the complexities of apparent binary categories is far more extensive and will be examined more closely in the following paragraphs.

Although there does not appear to be 'opposites' in nature, dualism seems to be deeply rooted in language and human thinking. Binary opposites or polarizations are not always logical opposites but are necessary for the units of language to have value and meaning. Following Saussurean structuralism, it is generally held that 'binary opposition is one of the most important principles governing the structure of language', while 'paired contrasts' are not always 'opposites', in any exact sense, they are believed to be necessary as a means of ordering the 'dynamic complexity of experience'. Most linguists believe that 'binary opposition is a child's first logical operation'. Another powerful influence on binary thinking in the West was Descartes' mind-body dualism.

Binary thinking is also hierarchical. One of the two terms is considered positive and the other negative. Religious thinking cannot exist without the polarisation of guilt and innocence. Structuralists believe that the world is organised into male/female constructs, roles, words and ideas. For example, masculinity (phallus) is associated with dominance and femininity (vagina) with passivity. Post-structuralists seek to deconstruct the whole edifice of binary thinking, not allowing one to be intrinsically superior to the other, giving instances of binary opposition contradicting itself and undermining its own authority.

However, there is increasingly a consensus forming that such 'antitheses' are aspects of a deeper unity and 'all so-called opposites such as reason/emotion and spirit/substance is merely 'apparent' binary opposites' (Forceville, 1996). Woolf's essay, having utilised a plethora of binaries in her exposition, concludes with the acceptance of that 'deeper unity' in her acknowledgement of 'manwomanly' and 'woman-manly' qualities in human nature.

Enough has been said about the fundamental significance of binary thinking in the use of language until recent times that it is no wonder that Woolf's essay is filled with many instances of the complexities between apparent binaries. Of course, the main concern when talking of 'Women and Fiction' is of defining and delineating the subject. Woolf shows that this is no easy matter. In the course of her investigations by reading books written by men on women, she unearths many 'fictions' like the insistence on the inferiority of women on all fronts. Such views are not based on 'fact'. Woolf dramatizes the effect of discrimination and disempowerment of women by asking the reader to imagine an equally gifted sister of Shakespeare. Prevented from achieving any of her creative aims and ambitions, Judith Shakespeare commits suicide only after what women from time immemorial were expected and permitted to do, give birth.

Since Woolf's lectures are given from a personal point of view and has no pretensions to being academic, she implores her audience not to expect a neat conclusion. She uses a fictional device to present her argument based very much on facts she gathers at the British Museum Library. At the Oxbridge college she visits, presumably by invitation, figures like the Beadle, Fellows and Scholars whom she introduces almost casually in Chapter One return at the end, emphasising their relevance to the narrative and her subject matter. She was debarred from trespassing on their 'turf', both literally and metaphorically. She was also not admitted to a library there because of her sex. She confronts and questions binaries such as illusion and truth. She also dichotomizes pre-war and post-war sensibilities. She describes the trees and the river at Oxbridge as vague and resigned at sunset, while becoming glorious and expectant in the morning. She also addresses the binary qualities of 'laughter' and 'anguish'. Her thought processes are clear and well articulated mainly because of her use of such binary signifiers.

The binary theme continues with her contrasting the sumptuous lunch given at a well-endowed male preserve at Oxbridge with the rather 'poor' meal for dinner at a female college. While gold and silver are said to be 'buried' within the 500-year old grand buildings patronised by Kings and nobles, the women's college built in the 1860s had a struggle to raise the initial 30,000. She contrasts the safety and prosperity of men against the poverty and insecurity of women throughout history reflected in every facet of their lives.

In Chapter Two, she deals with the binaries of interest and confusion as well as amusement versus boredom allied with the roles of masculinity and femininity. When she speaks of the freedom from fear and bitterness that the inheritance from Mary's deceased aunt gave her, she can also contrast that with the pity and tolerance ('toleration') she feels for womankind from her position of freedom. Reflecting on the culinary pleasures she enjoyed the previous day, she wonders why men drink wine while women drink water. She also contrasts two types of anger she felt over Prof von X's peroration over 'The Mental, Moral and Physical Inferiority of the Female Sex'. Her anger at the treatment of women at first was a complex emotion of disgust while it then transforms into a 'simple and open' anger that she could use constructively.

By the time she reaches Chapter Three, she has not unearthed any facts, but only opinions totally detrimental to women (fiction). She now turns to historians (fact). She refers to Prof. Trevelyan's 'History of England'. There she finds the abominable treatment of women by men during Elizabethan times regarded as the norm. Wife-beating was a regular practice. Marriages were pre-arranged to suit the men. Contrastingly, women who were portrayed in literature possessed personality and dignity denied to the ordinary middle-class woman. Women 'burnt like beacons in works of all the poets from the beginning of time.' While women in literature, like Antigone, Cleopatra, Lady Macbeth and Emma Bovary could be 'heroic or mean', 'splendid or sordid', 'infinitely beautiful or hideous in the extreme', the average woman was a complete nonentity, hidden from view. Binaries abound in this chapter as in 'women are imaginatively of the highest importance' while 'practically she was completely insignificant'.

When we reach Chapter Four, we come across the struggles of Lady Winchilsea with poetry, with Aphra Behn having more success with her plays. This further supports Woolf's insights into why and how women were denied free expression. Woolf first uses the word 'incandescent' with which she describes the creative mind, as a quote from Lady Winchilsea. She needed for her mind to have 'consumed all impediments and become incandescent.' But unfortunately it was 'harassed and distracted with hates and grievances'. Aphra Behn was the first woman in England to make a living by her writing, although her personal life is not said to have been worthy of emulation. However, Behn opened the way for the 18th century women novelists like the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen and George Eliot. In describing them and the novels of the early 19th century Woolf speaks of their virtues in binary terms as swift not slovenly, expressive without being precious.

In Chapter Five Woolf introduces a representative contemporary woman fiction writer she calls Mary Carmichael. This is an imaginary figure chosen to show what is lost in writing from a position of defensiveness and protest. Woolf lauds the fact that Carmichael is no longer self-conscious of being female in her imaginative writing. There are binaries like 'heavenly goodness' and 'hellish depravity', compared with writing that is 'serious, profound and luminous' with others, 'lazy-minded and conventional'. She advises contemporary women writers to 'illumine your own soul with its profundities and its shallows, and its vanities and its generosities'. Although Carmichael's fiction may be 'pulped by the publisher in ten year's time', Woolf is confident that her successors in another 'hundred years' would have achieved their full and glorious potential.

In Chapter Six Woolf describes a man and woman approaching each other from opposite sides of the street. The setting is a London street viewed by the author from her apartment window. They get into a taxi and are driven away. For Woolf this is a symbol of the binaries coming together. The strain she had being going through over the last two days eased, and she now has an insight into the 'unity of mind'. As Coleridge had said, great minds are androgynous. The true creator is 'incandescent' and 'undivided'. Sex-consciousness stands in the way of creativity. She says that 'it is fatal for anyone who writes to think of their sex.' She finally arrives at the conclusion that good writing flows from a marriage of opposites. Gender, masculinity/femininity is no longer relevant. Honest, creative and lasting fiction arises from a mind that is uncluttered and can face facts.

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What Is Ontological Coaching?

Ontological Coaching originates from the teachings of Ontology. According to Wikipedia, "Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations."

Ontological Coaching therefore, lives under the premise that you are a co-creator, and the nature of your being is related to your reality. An Ontological Coach brings awareness to new possibilities through powerful questioning, and supports you to take effective action. The role of an Ontological Coach is not to give you the answers because your inner knowing is creative and resourceful. They facilitate your process to acquire a deeper learning on a subconscious and conscious level, which goes beyond one session. This method is more sustainable than merely teaching the "how to's" that only temporarily satisfy. They also train you to become aware of the three elements of body, language, and emotions in addition to teaching proper planning and strategy because everything is interrelated and relevant to the greater human potential.

Be aware that not all coaches are the same. With all the benefits of Ontological Coaching, you are receiving above and beyond what an average life coach offers who primarily works with you to set goals and to be your cheerleader. Julio Ollala, one of the biggest promoters of Ontological Coaching, best describes this in his book From Knowledge to Wisdom: Essays on the Crisis of Contemporary Learning by sharing the following statement:

"Unfortunately, coaching today is being practiced by many who are uncredentialed and unstudied, who are offering traditional consulting, training, and pop-psychology advice under the guise of "coaching." It is being practiced by those caught in the same habits and traps of thinking that the clients they are trying to serve are in."

This is why it's valuable to invest on hiring not just a coach, but an Ontological Coach that is trained and knows what to listen for in order to coach you through your challenges. They have cleared their own mind clutter, and they are better equipped to handle your concerns in a safe environment. You fully engage yourself for your own benefit to remove any incongruences in your thoughts and what you say you will do.

For example, having fear of failure is actually setting you up for failure no matter what things you say or do right because the underlying context is incongruent. Another way to understand this is to imagine that you are playing a game of dartboard. Only instead of focusing on the bullseye, your eyes are on the wall away from the board while you throw the dart. How likely will you hit the bullseye with the dart? Similarly in life, your thoughts are like your eyes. And if your thoughts are not congruent to your actions, how likely will you get what you really want? Are you willing to notice and observe the way you perceive failure? What if instead of thinking that you will fail, you are operating from a place of confidence knowing you will succeed? How might that affect your actions and outcome differently?

With a trained Ontological Coach you will:

• Get A Behind-The-Scene Look At What Drives Your Actions

• Notice What Stops You From Achieving Your Dreams

• Create Once-And-For-All Shifts

The benefit for you is that you begin to really experience true peace, happiness and greater abundance. Who doesn't want that?

To learn about Mina's coaching services, please visit http://www.CoachMinaWatkins.com and sign up to receive the Free Secrets to Happiness Series.

References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology 

"From Knowledge to Wisdom: Essays on the Crisis of Contemporary Learning," Julio Olalla, 2004.

Mina Watkins is an insightful Business Coach, Speaker, Published Author, and Radio Show Host. She is a trusted confidant that mentors coaches, creative visionaries, entrepreneurs and business owners to dream bigger, play bigger, and live bigger. As a trained Ontological Coach, she coaches her clients with her caring and intuitive style, which allows them to create lasting breakthroughs from the hidden core issues that were holding them back.

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Awesome Tips For Creative Writing

In this world of slander, liable and blacklist, there is little span for creativity, writing robotically is not an efficient way to allure the readers and retain their interest. Creative writing is the powerful tool that is used to express feelings and thoughts of a person in imaginative and poetic way rather than to covey it in simple informative style. Writing is the type of expressing your personal freedom that is used to free us from mass identity spread around us.

How to get started for creative writing ideas

Many people consider it a simple thing to write about the stuff they have read in form of stories and essays; they are able to write good piece through it. But that is not a good approach to become a skillful creative writer. Creative writing has its own requirements and principles of construction that need to be learnt. It does not mean that you possess creative writing skills because you have read plenty of novels and stories.

Simple writing is not like a piece of furniture. It is just like that you can claim to make a chair as you have enough practice of sitting on it. While your first writing document may disappoint you in first attempt but you should not lose hope. Constant practice and training in creative writing program is very helpful to polish your hidden creative writing skills.

There are plenty of books that are written for new fiction writers. These books are meant to give you complete insight of creative writing tips and creative writing ideas. Many tutorial websites has also introduced various creative writing programs for the assistance of new and talented writers. You can join these sites which offer creative writing programs to polish your creative writing skills. Here, I would like to give you some tips that will help you to start your career as a creative writer.

Tricks and tips for beginners

Stretch your writing muscles with short exercises:

If you do know much about creative writing tips, you should read creative writing essays and articles daily. Make it a habit of writing daily even if you have been writing for ten minutes.

Carry a notebook to note your observation:

You will find great lines of dialogues if you keep your ears open in cars or on the bus. You should write down any unusual phrase in your note book that you smell or see.

Try to work out in that time when you like to write:

Some writers prefer to work early in the morning because they regard morning time suitable for creative writing. Some prefer to work late at night when all family members have gone to bed. You should do not waste time to do such experiment.

Getting feedback

All writers need to edit and revise their work on completion. First attempt will never give perfection in your work. When you have completed initial draft, leave it for a few days-come back and pinpoints mistake with red pen. If you cannot pinpoint them, ask your fellow writer to go through it and provide feedback.

Writing is fun:

If you feel bore of your current work, take a break and start a new project, something which is purely for excitement and fun. You can write a short story if you are bogged down of writing a long story.
You can be a good writer if you are able to provide new prospective, deeper meaning, moral integrity, entertainment and life transforming experience to reader through your creative thoughts.

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There's Something About the Balut

There are certain foods out there which can evoke different emotions within our self. A waft of our favorite childhood dish brings a feeling of comfort and transports us back to a happy time or place. When you are prodded by a friend to eat a balut, either your heart pounds with anticipation or your face cringes in horror. Eating one though can give you the much desired 'star' point from the locals when you travel to a South Asian country where this egg is a delicacy. They are ecstatic to receive you in their inner circle and you feel mighty proud to join them.

What is really a balut?

Balut is a fertilized egg of a duck or chicken. The duck egg is the one famous as balut though. Its name could have originated from the Filipino word 'balot', which means "to wrap".

At the start of the balut making process, only the egg with thick shell is chosen to ensure that it can withstand the stress of continuous egg removal and placement in containers. The balut maker would lightly tap the egg with his fingers and then listens. A thin-shelled egg emits a brittle sound while an egg with a cracked shell produces a hollow sound. The balut maker would then anxiously monitor the incubation process for he knows that a slight change in heat temperature could affect the embryo development of the duck egg.

The balut which is often sold in the streets is a boiled duck egg between 17-18 days old. One balut vendor that I talked to proclaimed with pride that his balut is the most delicious because it is 'balot sa puti' (wrapped in white) and is 17 days old. What he means is that it is at a stage where the duck fetus is still wrapped in its white embryonic membrane. The embryo is weak, thus, the beak, feathers, and bones of the duck are not yet fully developed. It is an ideal stage for eating balut as there would be no feathery bits getting stuck between your teeth.

When a craving of balut hits me, I would wonder why I always need to wait for nighttime for the balut vendor to appear in our street. From the essay, "Balut: Fertilized Duck Eggs and Their Role in Filipino Culture", Margaret Magat discusses that some local people makes the connection on how we eat balut with the way an aswang sucks the lifeblood out of a human fetus through its mother's womb. Aswang is a mythical creature in the Philippines folklore, preferring to eat the flesh of dead bodies and unborn children in the cover of darkness. I am thinking that this could be one possible explanation why our ancestors started the tradition of eating balut only at night; it could be from shame or fear because they are going for an unborn fetus even if it is of a duck.

When someone has the chance to throw salt to an aswang, it is a common belief in the Philippines that it would cause their skin to burn. A sprinkling of rock salt on the balut may also stem from the same belief of the purifying powers of salt. If you can successfully eat balut with salt without burning, then you are not an aswang or would never become one. The plus factor is that the salt enhances the taste of balut.

There is something about the balut which creates excitement just by simply being in its warm presence. You know that you are in for an unforgettable experience when you get the chance or gather enough courage to eat it either with salt or spiced vinegar. It could absolutely terrify one person but it could also bring unbridled joy to another.

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Article Title 2121 - Making Sure Your KSA Writers Are Certified

It is important to get your KSA done by certified KSA writers. The full form of KSA is Knowledge, Skills and Abilities. This is usually required if you apply for a job in the Federal Government. KSAs are long narrative essays that have to be attached with your resumes for the jobs.

Not only are these KSAs long and tricky, they are also very difficult to write. But if you want to submit a job application to these high level US government posts, you cannot do so without a KSA. Therefore getting a good KSA is as important as getting a Good resume written. Candidates are chosen on the basis of their aptitude revealed through how well they have written their KSAs.

So why do you need professional KSA writers?

This is a good question. There is a very important reason to this. A KSA has to be both technical and at the same time sound professional. Even if you are an expert at your field, you might not know how to write such professional essays. Also these essays should not have any grammatical errors.

Just imagine, you are writing an essay for a job application in US's one of the most distinguished and highest job positions and you make grammatical errors! Imagine how it would look. Though these are essays, they need to be precise, concise and to the point. They also have to be written in the first person narrative.

But this does not mean that you can put anything and everything about yourself there. Only that information relevant to the job title or description should be presented in the KSA. Grammar and spelling should be flawless.

You have a choice of attempting between three to ten questions in the KSA and the answers should be written in a way that they reflect that you are the best possible candidate for the job.

There are some main elements that you can include in the KSA. These involve volunteer work, certifications, awards, education, training, experience and likewise. However always remember that whatever you write should have a relevance to the government sector job you are applying for as well as the questions.

Now the very reason why you need government KSA writers is because the questions in the KSA are based on different themes that have a wide variety. They can be based on your computer expertise or organizational and management skills or even your capability in supervision. Simply because you are a good manager or good at computers does not mean you will be able to present them intricately on your paper.

It takes a long time to prepare KSAs. Can you guess how much time? That's right. It takes weeks and months of painstaking work and meticulous preparation to prepare a KSA. A single mistake in making a KSA can prompt the employer to reject you without providing any second opportunity.

A lot of brainstorming sessions and racking is needed to find the correct examples that would prove that you are the best for the job. These are likely to stress you out. So giving this headache to professional hands that is certified KSA writers, takes away all the risk.

A good certified KSA writer needs to be talented, experienced in their field of writing KSAs. Their fees should also be pocket friendly and they also should have a good command over the English language.

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The Evolving World Of Emoticons

Creating an Emotional World in Cyberspace With Emoticons

As computer technology developed and the Internet grew, emoticons were in limited use. In the early years of Internet communication, people were just beginning to learn crafty abbreviations and the use of text symbols to convey emotions. Most folks wrote expressive dialogue with complete sentences. Gradually a shift was made to simple texting messages. As social media sites developed, a new language began to develop. As this new language developed, the need to express human emotions grew. This is when emoticons experienced a rise in popularity.

Emoticons are considered the pioneers if Internet emotionalism. Cyberspace was no longer a sterile place devoid of human emotion. The emoticons are a mainstay in this developing emotional world of cyber communication.

Invasion of the Emotion Icons

Today, emoticons are a favorite among social media users. These days the written language has been reduced to a series of abbreviations. The emotion expressing symbols are a useful tool to convey human emotions in the world of abbreviated text. People no longer communicate with well-crafted sentences. On social media sites short and sweet is preferred to long and drawn out. Emoticons are a crucial element in social media communications. The symbols used extensively on instant messaging boards. Instant messaging is essentially a real-time online chat. Many popular social sites allow users to chat with each other using a chat box. Emoticons are used to convey emotion without having to type a detailed message explaining a person's current state of mind or well-being.

Emoticons are skillfully adaptable and manage to keep up with current technology. It was only a matter of time before these little iconic figures would invade cell phones. While cell phones are convenient, the phones are rarely used to have conversations that engage the use of vocal chords. The preferred method of communication on cell phones is with a tiny keyboard. Unbelievably, people prefer to tap out cryptic messages on a miniature keyboard instead of using verbal communication. Emoticons are used for added emphasis in the skillful art of texting.

There are so many emotion icons in texting directories have been established. If you are unsure of the meaning of a texting icon, simply visit one of the many texting directories to find out what it means. These icons have managed to wedge their way into most forms of modern day communication. Even the business world is not immune to these fanciful characters.

Emoticons have become so familiar and widely used; the business world has begun to embrace them. Many people use text icons in emails at work. However, their use is usually limited to emails between coworkers. It would be inappropriate to send professional emails to clients that contain the use of icons. Many people rely on emotion icons in emails to circumvent misunderstandings. Emails cannot convey the tone of verbal communication. In addition, many misunderstandings have occurred by a poorly written email. Many people lack sufficient writing skills to develop an effectively crafted email. In most cases, people rarely have the time to ponder whether every sentence they write will be understood. Emails are crafted in a matter of minutes. It is almost as if there is a race to hit the send button. Many email writers use emoticons because the icons are quick and easy to use.

Unfortunately, many young people have become accustomed to using emoticons and texting lingo. Many human resources professionals have reported a use of both on resumes. In addition, school teachers have reported their use on essay papers and tests. While many employees may use both emoticons and texting lingo in emails to their coworkers, it is still considered to be inappropriate in professional correspondence such as job applications. In addition, these symbols are not acceptable in professional business correspondence. A vendor or client does not want to receive a letter dotted with icons. Emoticons are useful in the business world; however, their use should be limited to the employee email system.

Evolution of Emotion Icons

While emoticons can be constructed with one to three keystrokes, many people have turned to animated emoticons. Text emoticons are still used in cell phone texting, however, due to the popularity of their use, many cell phone companies have developed animated icons. In addition, many programs allow you to download animated icons. With a click of a button, you can have a happy face emoticon that delivers a smile with a thumbs up or rolls its eyes with the classic "whatever" look.

Smiley face emoticons are now considered a classic. While theses emoticons are still popular, they have changed. These little characters have developed legs, hands and hair. Many programs allow you to customize the emoticons. You can add hats, clothes, jewelry, and change the eye color. Personalizing these icons is a creative form of expression in the virtual world. Emoticons have become as diverse as the global population.

Almost every Internet culture has developed its own emoticons. The smiley face is an international symbol and has been adapted to represent many cultures such as Mexican, Irish, Asian, and Australian just to name a few. Emoticons evolved from a simple use of the colon and parentheses to fun icons with flair.

Today's modern emoticons can speak, sing and laugh. Emoticons are no longer limited to smiley faces. Almost any icon or character that expresses a human emotion is considered an emoticon. Many different forms include puppies, cats, aliens and dancing bananas. In the online world, these icons electronically convey human emotion in a whimsical way and are only limited by the human imagination. Anyone can create emoticons by using online software programs dedicated to creating these eclectic icons.

The evolution of emoticons continues. These characters will continue to change as long as technology changes. If you accept that Scott Fahlman is the original creator of the emoticon, then these iconic characters will be 30 years old soon. As emoticons continue to develop, it is anyone's guess what the next generation of emoticons will look like. Rest assured these emoticons will continue to help humans express their emotions in the the cyber world.

The way people communicate has changed significantly since Scott Fahlman typed his first smiley emoticons on the computer. He more than likely had no idea that little symbol would take a generation by storm and become an important communication tool. For the younger generation, emoticons are an important tool for self-expression.

Emoticons are meant to be silly and fun. It is a simply way to express emotion in cyberspace. However, it should not replace the art and creativity of written language. It seems as if we are headed back to the use of symbols instead of eloquently written words. While emoticons may enhance casual online banter, they do not have any real world application.

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Essay on Ego

What is ego? Ego is an idea of separation from our true selves, from God, from each other, that we invited into our minds to prove to ourselves that we, who were created one with all that is, could give ourselves a different experience, an experience of being self-authored, or self created, or created in our image, rather than in God's image. We made ego to experience ourselves as different rather than the same as God and everyone else. In other words, ego is what we use to keep ourselves from being who we are.

Ego is a weed we cultivate for our destruction. Ego is our way of making ourselves of ourselves. Of ourselves we are nothing. We are not of ourselves; we are of God. Because we are of God we are grandeur. Because we are of God we are God. We traded in everything for nothing in trading in God for ego. As long as we have an ego we keep ourselves bound and limited and confused about our true identity.

We made ego to replace God. We are always choosing either for God or for ego. We made ego without love, so it does not love us. God made us with love, and so God loves us. It is misdirected love to love ego for it will use our love against us. Ego's ONLY purpose is its existence. It does not care about us at all. God loves us. We are wise to choose God instead of ego. God could not stop us from making ego because to do so would require defying our will, and God is but love, and God, in love will wait, forever if necessary, for us to return to Him. Our will is free.

Can ego be transformed? No, ego is interested solely in its existence and transformation does not fit its agenda. It cannot be transformed or purified or brought under the direction of the soul, or become different from what it is. The ego and the soul do not know each other. The only thing we can do in relation to ego is realize ego's unreality and thereby free ourselves of its shenanigans.

Are we guilty for making ego? No, of course not, but we are each responsible for our ego's, thus only we can free ourselves of its treacherous clutches. Someone who is free can tell us what ego is, so we can become aware of it, but only we can let it go.

Is it possible to be free of ego? Yes, it is not only possible but essential to being restored to who we are. And upon your freedom of ego depends the salvation of the world. Freeing ourselves of ego is life's only true purpose. For that we need to surrender completely to God within. All that is required of us is our willingness. God will do the rest.

How do we relinquish ego? By looking at it. If we fight ego we meet it on its terms and it will win, for ego's determination to exist is ENORMOUS. If we look on it calmly, we see its impotence. Denying ego, feeling guilty about it, defending it, justifying it, protecting it, befriending it... are all ways to maintain ego's existence. We dispel ego by withdrawing belief from it.

To date probably only one in a billion has overcome ego. It is very rare because no one takes the trouble to truly find out what ego is. As soon as you do, you will walk away from it. The one who has is a hero. Why? Because that person has broken the code and exposed ego's deceptions for all humanity. Everyone benefits when one person breaks free. Its like one person stepping away from the mafia. Once one has the courage to do so its only a matter of time before the whole mafia's house of cards collapses. The mafia is not going to be happy with you. When you do not share a thought system you weaken it and that threatens those who subscribe to it, but always keep in mind that you have God on your side and ego becomes impotent in the presence of God.

Ego remains with us lifetime after lifetime. Ego does not die when the body dies. Ego only dies when we relinquish it. When we do, we break the cycle of birth and death. We are born because of ego. If we die with ego, we will be reborn with a karmic debt, since ego depends on our karma for its existence. The moment we free ourselves of ego, we free ourselves of karma, because karma is of ego. Ego causes us to do that for which we will feel guilty. It then convinces us that we deserve punishment for our 'sins,' which are really only correctable mistakes. So we come back lifetime after lifetime to suffer consequences for actions committed in previous incarnations. It is all a lie we buy into as long as we believe in ego. Karma is baseless. All we need do in this moment to be completely free of any and all past karma is lead a holy life now. Then God will efface all our karma from the past. Past is not real, just as time is not real. In making the most of this moment and we do not bind ourselves to the past.

When God created us, He gave us the power to create. When we made ego, we gave it the power to create. Ego uses the power we gave it to miscreate, or create what is not in our best interest, but rather what is in its best interest.

Ego cannot oppose the laws of God. Nor can we. However ego can misinterpret them, as can we according to what we want, rather than according to what is. Ego originated from our desire to be as we are not. We cannot be as we are not. We can only be who we are. We do not have the power to be different from how God created us, and God created us all perfect. We can do that which is imperfect and experience consequences in alignment with our delusion, or we can simply accept our perfection and live in alignment with God's laws and experience peace, love and joy.

God creates only the eternal. We are eternal, which means we cannot die. Our bodies may die, but we are not our bodies. We are limitless eternal consciousness. Ego, our creation, unlike true creations, is not eternal. It is not eternal because it was made to replace God. It was made by creations of God to create their own creator. That is not possible. Therefore ego is an impostor. Ego can only exist in time. Ego cannot exist in eternity. Since ego cannot exist in eternity, and since ego cannot exist without our protection and allegiance, ego must keep us in time in order to exist.

At the moment of making ego, we made a pact with it. We guaranteed it eternal life, to prove to ourselves our capacity to create the eternal without God. So in order to be restored to our true nature, we must break our pact with the devil. Only then can we be restored to eternal life. Its us or ego. And since we made ego, our allegiance is for it. It is our nature to b selfless. Ego uses that against us to keep itself in business at our expense, while urging us to choose for that which is self-serving and beneath our true noble nature.

God created us in His image and likeness, that is like God. We made ego to create ourselves in OUR image and likeness, rather than in God's image and likeness, thus exactly like God. For this we needed to free ourselves of God. How can we be God while pushing God aside, yet that is exactly what inviting ego into our minds aimed to accomplish. What we did not anticipate is that our decision is nearly impossible to reverse because of ego's determination to exist once entertained.

Our uniting in truth with God and all our fellowman disempowers ego. There is only one truth. There are many paths to truth but truth is common to all legitimate paths. It is ego that would have us believe that truth is different for everyone. That is because truth threatens ego's existence. Ego wants to keep us confused about what truth is. If it can convince us that truth is different for everyone, its existence is assured, because it depends on difference, and is undone in the presence of unity and oneness.

It is in dissociating from each other that we maintain ego. We are all one. When we know our oneness, we will feel compassion toward those who suffer and struggle the effects of oppression and injustice and act toward the betterment of all mankind, all our brothers and sister, the one family of God. The greatest service we can render is to relinquish ego.

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