The Map and the Hammer: The Ego as a Tool, not the Self

Below is a writing I did one morning somewhere between 2 and 3 am. It is different than most of the things I write – more clearly spiritual in nature. It is simply a perspective. I make no claim that it is right. It is clearly influenced in tone by both Abraham and Wayne Dyer – as all things have influences elsewhere. Someone asked me if it was a “Channeled” writing. I don’t know. From the perspective of this writing I might say that “all writing” is channeled – just filtered to greater or lesser degree by the map and hammer…
At some point in your past, unbeknownst to you, your ego made a decision to hide your true identity. Your spirit knows that the ego was just trying to help. The ego was wanting to make sure that you, that it, would be safe from any threats. It wanted to try and prevent it’s self from being hurt in any form. To make sure it would not be shamed, blamed, abandoned, maimed, or in any other way have it’s existence threatened. And so your ego, the part of you that was given a physical fingerprint, decided to be less than it really was – believing that this life was everything. In that moment your ego convinced you to give up your power, to conceal it, to pretend to be a mere mortal in the hopes that you would never discover what you were truly capable of, never discover what the ego truly was… a simple tool to help you discover physical preferences in this life, a simple tool to be used to guide you to joy, in fact really, no more than a map that can be used to guide you towards positive experiences and away from negative ones. Your ego is your access to free will, however, your ego mistakenly believes it is your free will. The ego is designed to see the emotional geography of the world and is connected integrally to the physical brain – a brain designed organically to recognize and solve problems in order for us to develop our physical preferences. The ego as a result of this connection is vulnerable to fear and anxiety as it is connected to the physical mechanism that keeps your physical body free from harm. You are not your brain and you are not your ego. At some point the ego, the spirits tether to the body, meant to simply be one source of information for your existence, convinced you that it was the only channel of information you should listen to. It is important to recognize that the spirit is only a tool given to you as a way of receiving and interpreting information from your physical body. It is important to recognize that the ego is connected to a physical organ which is designed to create problems. It is up to you to access your spirit to filter the ego’s messages, which are really the brain’s messages, and to then communicate back to your ego, back to your brain, so that it will work on the “problems” that you most desire.
Your brain, in the absence of guidance, is like a sentient computer. In the absence of your spirit’s programming it will continually and constantly scan the physical environment around you for data that is focused on ensuring the physical survival of your physical self. Lacking physical dangers it will still take data it receives and find ways to interpret the data so that you will see “potential dangers”. The ego is programed to provide contrast for your desires. It is programmed so that you might identify your true desires and true passions and then map your way to them with your internal GPS.
However when you mistake your brain as who you are, instead of recognizing your brain is simply a tool for the manifestation of your desires, the data on lack then becomes your primary programming. If you have a hammer and do not provide direction to the momentum and force of it’s swings it will destroy everything around you creating holes in the walls and floors and possibly injuring you and those around you. When you provide clear direction for the hammer and put in front of it the proper materials you may build a cabinet to hold your desires, you may create a home to satisfy your desire for a place to live, you may even create buildings that can hold the lives of thousands of people or structures of great beauty. It is all in recognizing that the you are in control of the hammer. You are in control of its force, momentum, and direction. You are even in control of which side of the hammer you are using so that if you see that you have made an error in your current judgement as you are receiving information you may choose to pull the nail out you have just imbedded in order to make a correction.
This is your brain. This is your ego. This is its function. It is a tool. When you use the tool without direction, without conscious intent, it will cause destruction in your life. When you use the side of the ego that is designed to prevent you from the immediate and premature destruction of your physical form before you can carry out the purpose for why you chose to come to this planet as your only tool you evoke fear. You evoke anger. You evoke disappointment. When you use the side of the ego that is a constructive map of your physical preferences in this world and consciously provide it with materials – visualization, conscious choice of your thoughts, and intentional action, you remember your true self.
The ego is a series of spiritual nerves to your spirit to provide you information. It is nothing more and nothing less. When you have experiences that cause you discomfort if you allow the ego to overwhelm you with its messages you will experience fear. You will experience doubt.
If you remember that the ego is simply a tool. No more and no less, then you can communicate back down the pathway of your spiritual nervous system to provide it with direction. So that you can build your true preferences in this physical existence… on as Abraham says… the leading edge of thought.
To do this you must remember to choose positive emotions and positive thoughts. It is not that you should never experience sadness, anger, or discomfort. It is that in those moments where the ego is providing your spirit with information about the negative aspects of your physical existence that you recognize this simply as contrast. That you recognize this as simply information about what you have currently created in your life.
If you recognize this as your current creation, than you can choose to use the other end of the hammer. You can take the nail out you just imbedded and make a course correction. While you can always abandon the project you are currently working on – it is easier to build up momentum and positive thought. While each of you has the power to transform your lives instantly. Most of you in the physical plane believe it takes time to do so. Therefor it is easier, until you learn otherwise, to simply remove the nail and continue to build. If necessary discarding the piece of wood you have used, but not destroying the entire project you have built.
For your spirit it is no more difficult than an adult helping a child to build a structure out of Lincoln logs or legos. Your spirit can see the full structure clearly if you allow it to and can literally build the life you desire in moments. If you wish to the ego which is no more than the bodies tether to your divine self, your bodies spiritual nervous system designed simply to relay information, will respond fully and completely to the direction of the divine. In this way miracles may occur in a moment.
For your spirit is not just connected to the brain. Your spirit is connected to the entirety of the physical world. You may heal yourself or another instantly. You may rejuvenate the hearts of distant stars with a thought and a prayer. You may call the wind into your hair as easily as you call the divine into your heart. With a simple thought.
Do not mistake the hammer for yourself. Do not swing your hammer with your eyes closed, either ineffectually and without the power to make even the slightest impact, or forcefully and without direction so that you create holes in the structures you are building or injury to your physical existence.
While they may be repaired instantly – as was said before – for most of you – you believe that they cannot. So remember the ego, the hammer, has two sides. One was given to allow you to ensure that your physical being did not end prematurely. The other was given as a map of the physical preferences you chose in this lifetime to direct you to your purpose.
No more. No less. Do not mistake either end for who you are. Your spirit is not your ego. Your ego is not you. It is simply a tool placed within a physical body. A physical body designed to respond to your will. Like all tools, yes, it will wear out. Should you desire it another physical form will be available to you. Your existence is not the physical form. Your brain is not who you are. Your ego is the stream of coding between you and your spirit. Do not allow the ego to direct your action. Provide your ego with the programming you desire.
When you live in gratitude, faith, and follow your bliss – then the very world will, as Jung said, open up doors that only you can open
A final thought – Wayne Dyer stated that he did not feel the ego was worth defending. It is not. You do not defend a hammer. For you recognize the hammer is not you. You do not defend a map. For you recognize the map is not you. The ego is a tool. It is not you. It is not even that the ego believes it is you. It is you believing you are your ego. You have come to believe that you are the tool. The ego is just a constant stream of information providing information about the physical form you have currently chosen to take. It provides information you believe to be “bad” and information you believe to be “good”. The information is neither. The information the ego provides is simply information about how closely you are living to the path your chose before you took on physical existence. When you living in service to your divine self you will feel joy.
Even when bad things happen these events are simply information. Some of you as you read these words may even feel shame or guilt feeling that you have not been living into your divine self. These thoughts do not serve you. These thoughts are the way you swing the hammer to hurt yourself. You are a full and diving being who has chosen to have many different experiences. Some of these experiences will in fact be “bad” things. That is because you have chosen to live in a world of contrast in order to understand more fully many things that are important to your spirit. You have chosen to live in a physical world with many choices so that you too, may learn to create. You have chosen to live in a world of contrast so that you can learn to recognize the god in you. “All that I have done the least among you can do and more.”
You are a divine being. You are perfectly created. You are love with a map and hammer. And in this moment and in the next you can create any tool you need to manifest into being the doors that only you can open so that you create the life you have chosen before you took physical form.