A powerful spiritual practice is consciously to allow the diminishment of ego when it happens without attempting to restore it.

To love is to recognize yourself in another. The other’s “otherness” then stands revealed as an illusion pertaining to the purely human realm, the realm of form.

The ego, and particularly the collective ego, strengthens itself through emphasizing the “otherness” of others. In other words, the ego needs an “enemy” for its continued survival. Hence its refusal to compromise.

Give up defining yourself—to yourself or to others.

heaven is not a location but refers to the inner realm of consciousness. This is the esoteric meaning of the word,

Somebody becomes an enemy if you personalize the unconsciousness that is the ego.

“There is something that needs to happen in my life before I can be at peace (happy, fulfilled, etc.). And I resent that it hasn’t happened yet. Maybe my resentment will finally make it happen.”

do not tell them they are unconscious and in the grip of the ego. That will likely make them even more unconscious, because the ego will take up a defensive position. It is enough for you to recognize that it is the ego in them, that it is not who they are.

Nothing is going to make us free because only the present moment can make us free.