Once we know we are more than the ego personality, is there still a use for it, or...?

According to ACIM, the ego is a belief that we are something

that God didn't create. It is a myth like many other ideas we accept as true.

The ego loves attention, so it loves for you to fight with it and even work to get rid of it.

It is very durable - but not a reality - just a belief in a myth.

God exudes love and man in His Likeness should also broadcast love

to fellow man and all of creation. But the ego has other plans for us.

We can overcome the ego by allowing Holy Spirit to grow and manifest

in our daily life. By getting away from the errant belief of separation from

God and attempting to become self sufficient; instead we need to ask for wisdom

and yes, ask for help. Again, allowing that inner resource to guide your daily activities

dissolves a belief in the ego.

The ego is our tool for self expression. God gives us a face and we give that face it's expression according to our hearts longing. Sri Sri Ramakrishna spoke of the ripe ego and the unripe ego, the one that binds the soul and the one that becomes the means of expression of the inner man. The outer man is led by the emotions and desires but the inner man is lead by faith and intuition, the direct knowing that comes from within. It is spiritual effort that leads to inner awareness that frees the soul rather than outer awareness which binds the soul the world of appearances. Even when God comes among us It also has to do what every other soul has to do, overcome the world, the ego/mind level of perception. In so doing God shows the way and awakens spiritual longing in those who are ready to set aside the desires of worldliness. At some point every soul will discover the the world cannot satisfy the soul with real Joy or Peace. Those and all other longing of the soul are gained only when we discover the vast realm of being within.

Namaste'

Perpetua was cast into prison while pregnant and was doomed to be killed in the roman arena for sport. While confined, she dreamed she saw a ladder leading into heaven. At the bottom was a dragon that threatened anyone who might attempt to climb. At the top was a friend who shouted to her not to let it bite her.

Dragons/serpents have for aeons been symbolic of divine wisdom although Christianity perverted that with the invention of a personal devil. That wisdom affords us entrance or access to the ladder but the fearful aspect comes with the sacrifice of self to Self which is the wisdom imparted to us by Jesus, Buddha, Shankaracharya, Krishna, and many others. That sacrifice is the potential Christ, not Jesus, within; another concept from aeons ago that Christianity perverted into an exclusive atonement for sins. Success comes when one is able to endow their fluids with the bisexual force (generative/destructive) of Life which includes the ego personality. The equilibrium of balance between the two, however, hangs in negative existence. This is a place of rest established by a perfected will that enables one to go beyond dualism to a level of consciousness that is non-dual. Hence the profane energy from the ego personality, an aspect of positive existence, must be continually purified and as it were held at bay. This is a prerequisite for being freed from matter and becoming a human being of a superior kind which is actually what many mistakenly call angels.

Good, difficult question !

The problems are the many meanings of ego, self, identity, personality, etc. currently in use.

Ego should mean your present self -- the "I" identity of your "I am". This is a growing awareness over time. You start out about age 6 years as "I am" and happy, no deep concerns. As a teen, you might ask "I am what?" Later, you (still ego identity) might realize that you are more than you think you are ! The search for more Truth-God-Reality continues. At about age 35 years on average, you may have a Spirit-birth and realize: "Wow ! I am a son (or daughter) of I AM" -- The Infinite Personality of God our Eternal Universal Father.

All this time the ego remains but changes more toward Divine values and not selfish goals. You started out as mostly a limited human; and you have added soul awareness and some Spirit-of-God awareness to your unchanging, God-given personality. You as personality never change; you are forever (if you choose to survive as most will do) unique -- without duplicate -- in both time and in Eternity ! Always a perfecting, eternally ascending, Divinely beloved (mortal to soul to Spirit levels) Son of God ! (with either male spirit or female spirit characteristics. Only the many types of Angels are classified as Daughters of God)

If anyone had no ego, they would lose all identity in the space-time universe. Jesus teaches (and my paraphrase) Rather than saying, "Not my will, but Your Will, Father God, be done." it is better to eventually say: Father God, it is my will that Your Will (within me as well as above) be done !" This is active son of God participation in the Personality Circuit of God the Father-Infinite I AM.

Eastern religions sometimes falsely teach that the ego-self-identity of a human must be destroyed and blend into an "Absolute IT IS" as a drop of water loses identity in an infinite ocean. Thank God that He/She/They (Trinity) will not allow this ! You are becoming more Real every day as you seek to to know and to do God's perfect will Spirit within you - as an eternal "I am of I AM" and I choose to remain in Him forevermore !

The above was my brief attempt to convey a little; for much more free material to long peruse, email me.

**i am Sirius***

May I quote from the Good book of "Thrice Greatest Hermes"? Here he uses the 'soul' as the ego (I believe).

"For never, my son, can an embodied soul that has once leaped aloft, so as to get a hold upon the truly Good and True, slip back again into the contrary.

For when the soul [once] knows the Author of it's Peace, 'tis filled with wondrous love, and with forgetfulness of every ill, and can no more keep from the Good.

Let this be, O my son, the goal of piety---to which if thou attain, thou shalt nobly live, and happily depart from life, for thy soul no longer will be ignorant of whither it should wing it's flight again.

This is the only [Way] , my son---the Path that leads to Truth, [the Path] on which our forebears, too, did set their feet, and, setting them, did find the Good.

Solemn and smooth this Path, yet difficult to tread for soul while still in body.

For first it hath to fight against itself, and make a great dissension, and manage that the victory should rest with the one part [of it's own self].

for that there is a contest of the one against the two---the former trying to flee, the latter dragging down.

And there's great strife and battle [dire] of these with one another---the one desiring to escape, the other trying to detain.

The victory moreover. of the one or of the other is not resemblant.

For the one doth hasten [upwards] toward the Good, the other settles [downward] to the bad.

The one longs to be freed; the other loves his slavery.

If [now] the two be vanquished, they remain deprived of their own selves and of their ruler; but if the one be worsted, tis harried by the two, and driven about, being tortured by the life down here.

This is, my son, the one who leadeth thee upon the 'Thither' Path.

Thou must, my son, first leave behind the body, before the end [of it is reached], and come out victor in the life of conflict, and thus as victor wend thy way towards Home."

Peace and Blessings always...

A great sage once said to me; "Your ego is nothing more than a vehicle, love it and cherish it. Apologize not for the love you have inside yourself for yourself, for there is a great love for yourself and you are confused by it. It is not your ego that separated you my dear, it was your belief in negative & positive energy. When you fail to love your own ego, you will feel trodden upon. However, when you learn to love your own image, love yourself, it will feel like caresses... like love that is beyond your wildest dreams and imaginations."

What he was essentially saying is that energy is energy, all that is, simply is, and beyond this material realm, there is no wrong or right, good or bad, negative or positive. Nothing holds us, nothing conditions us, it's all just learning and experience. So to answer your question, yes, there is most definitely a use for our ego once we've "put it in it's place" so to say, and that use is to love ourselves. Without ego, we could not do that.

~ namaste ~

Depends on which meaning of 'ego' you're using. If you mean the conditioned ego, then, although that gets smashed to bits, (as I understand it), at the moment of Awakening, we still need to be on our guard against its machinations until it has been completely annihilated. If, however, you mean what we might call our personality, then that remains until we die. Buddha had a personality, as did Christ. Just their egos were booted into touch.

Edit.

For my American brethren, the phrase 'booted into touch' comes from the game of rugby and means to be kicked off the field of play

I think yes,

without it,

it would be too difficult for the being to deal with the collective subconscious.