Among all the deaths we experience, the biological death is probably the least challenging. Everybody seems to be able to do that. But the death of the ego, which must be accomplished if the Self is to dwell in the kingdom of God, is a very difficult one. It's an ego-cide we must consciously de-cide to commit, for the ego is that organ of consciousness that creates the illusion of security through structure, but the structure is what prevents us from deciding and ultimately from living.
Actually, what's needed is not so much a death for the ego as a demotion, but the ego in its self-centered insecurity sees any kind of change as life threatening. The irony is that once the ego relinquishes its power, it retains a vitally important place in the psyche. We must have strong egos in order to give them up, and there's a difference between a strong ego and a big ego.
A big, inflated ego is an obvious compensation for an inferiority complex.
In the kingdom within, the ego is not the king; that is the proper role of the Self. The ego's appropriate place is to serve as an organ of consciousness, of discernment and identity. But the ultimate discerner of one's true vocation is the Self, and how the Self gets constellated into the world in creative, dynamic, and evolving modes of consciousness.
— Excerpt from The Invisible Church by J. Pittman McGee and Damon J. Thomas
