You are not your thoughts but the awareness that is aware of thoughts. This “awareness” is what Gary Zukav calls “the seat of the soul,” other traditions refer to as “the witnessing presence,” and Genesis describes as “the breath of God”(Gen. 2:6-7). It is Being itself, the “you” beneath and beyond your mind, thoughts, and body.

So, the first key to overcoming ego is to know who you really are beyond thoughts, beyond your body. You are the consciousness beyond both. If I say, for example, “I caught myself thinking,” am I one or two persons? Who is the “I” who catches “me” thinking? You, of course, the deeper you…the “I” that is closer to the truth of who you really are than the thoughts you think.

Today, see how often you can catch yourself thinking. Then, practice dis-identifying with the mind. Observe your thoughts, your mind, as you would observe the antics of a child playing on the floor. Know that, when you are aware and so observe your thoughts, you are getting closer to what Saint Paul meant when he said, “Have THIS mind in you, which was also in Christ…”(Phil.2:5). And what “mind” is that? It is the self-less consciousness…the universal oneness…the Eternal Presence itself…the You in union with the Eternal Presence…the “I” who YOU REALLY are.

This is the beginning of enlightenment, what the New Testament calls “salvation” and what I call in The Enoch Factor, “the Awakening.”