An Attainable Goal

August 4, 2008 By Tom

My teacher Andrew Cohen’s latest Quote of the Week:

Q: Traditionally, enlightenment has often been described as “ego-death.” Is it possible to attain a state where the ego actually dies?

A: Well, I’ve met one or two people in my life in whom it appeared that the ego had literally died. But in those rare cases, I don’t think it was a result of the individuals’ own choices or efforts — it was more like a spontaneous combustion, an act of grace. So I do believe that the death of the ego is possible, but I don’t think it is an attainable goal. If something like that is going to occur, it’s beyond our control, and it’s extremely unlikely for most of us. I don’t personally think it’s possible for anybody, through the power of their will alone, to eradicate the ego completely. But the point is, it doesn’t really matter. If you are willing to face and take responsibility for your ego’s self-centered motives, conditioned responses, and often irrational impulses, to such a degree that you are able to choose not to act on them, they might as well not exist. If you don’t act on them, the world is never going to know about them. There won’t be any karmic consequences. And that is a reasonable, realizable, attainable goal. So I am convinced that, in this way, it is possible to transcend ego to a profound degree, simply through the power of one’s own awakened intention to do so.

To read the full piece that this quote is excerpted from, click here.

And if you want to hear an exclusive audio excerpt from Andrew’s retreat in Italy, which is happening right now in the hills outside Florence, you can stream or download “Faith, Strength, and Consciousness.”


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