In A Course in Miracles (ACIM) Jesus tells us not to be afraid of the ego but he also has this stark warning: “Think not the ego will enable you to find escape from what it wants.” T491. And that is why one of the aims of the Workbook lessons of ACIM is to get us to stop seeing things from the ego’s point of view, and to change our perspective by using our “right minds”, in which the Holy Spirit dwells. As it is not easy to rise above the ego, we need help from outside the ego’s thought system; that’s why we call upon the Holy Spirit.

It is interesting to note that spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle in his book, A New Earth, deals at length with the ego and how to rise above it. On page 111, we read: “…anger or resentment strengthen the ego enormously by increasing the sense of separateness, emphasizing the otherness of others and creating a seemingly unassailable fortress like mental position of ‘rightness’…”  Eckhart Tollé says the key to overcoming the ego is to become aware of it, because when we are aware of the ego, we are no longer ruled by our egoic minds.

This means we need to be extremely vigilant and watch our thoughts, especially negative ones. In ACIM, Jesus asks us to observe our own minds and whenever we notice a negative emotion or a judgement of another person or situation, we should hand that over to the Holy Spirit by calling upon him. He says that there are only two emotions, love and fear, and we are being taught in ACIM to choose love instead of fear.