Yesterday I was writing about ego in between friends. Unfortunately here in the west I see too many times that ego becomes bigger than any friendship, relation or love. When ego and friendship clash, many even accept the pain of breaking and separation instead of leaving their ego. Sometimes I really wonder why it is so much like this here.
As you know I am the witness of two cultures. It seems this material-oriented society is built on the base of ego. Somehow people in the eastern culture that I see, seem softer. They are more humble and can be happy and satisfied in small things. Their needs are smaller. When I compare this to here, people here have bigger needs, which makes it very hard for them to be satisfied. Sometimes I think that this can also be a reason why the level of ego is so high that they cannot even satisfy that.
We had a very nice Darshan today here in Essen.
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What to do when your Ego just got hurt – and you need to react? – 1 Oct 13
Ego – everybody has it, nobody wants it – 30 Sep 13
Ego and Perfectionism – a dangerous Combination – 7 Dec 12
Criticizing and taking Criticism in the Light of Ego – 6 Dec 12
Proud of being the most humble Person – An Egoist displaying his Humbleness – 30 Nov 12
How to Reduce or Increase Your Ego with Vedanta Philosophy – 24 Mar 11
Choosing between Love and Ego – 5 Jul 10
Ego in Relationships – Separating mine and yours – 4 Jul 10
i have broken many friendships from unhappiness, it is sad that this happens so often. Usualy the friendships i’ve broken are with really wonderful people but our egos come to a point where we can’t stand to be together. It is a sad phenomena.
Some people that I know do not have one friend who they know the heart of, nor one member of the family like this. It would be very sad to live this way.
Eastern people do seem to have smaller needs, which is interesting because Western people have so many “things” so many objects.
You make a great point, Swami, that the size of your needs relates to the satisfaction of your ego. In the West, we have so many material fulfillments that we become hungrier and hungrier for something real… not just empty material fulfillment. The more we need, the less satisfied we are with simple things. In the East, fulfillment in life isn’t focused on material. People feel fulfilled with simplicity, and therefore, people don’t keep searching for it in their friendships and demanding too much.