Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich, and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life. Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye. In our desperate attempts to make sense of the world, we tend to label everything, and usually understand what things ARE by figuring out what they are NOT. Cold is not hot, happiness is not suffering, dark isn't light, et cetera.
So, even if we deeply believe in the Buddhist teaching of non-duality: that we are all one and everything is interconnected, and as much as I think labeling is what causes segregation, hatred, and even war, maybe we can use our labeling habit and dualistic perspective to work to our advantage. Here's what I mean: saying "Namaste" means the divine within me acknowledges the divine within you. It's a reminder that divinity resides in all of us, and the greeting helps us regard everyone as holy.
This is easy to do when you are surrounded by loving, generous, and considerate people, who treat everybody with kindness and compassion. But what happens when you come across someone rude, hostile, impatient, and greedy? It gets difficult to think of them as divine, which is precisely why I think we need a term for the opposite of Namaste. Something that says, "The ego with me acknowledges the ego within you." It would immediately make them more relatable, and it would stop us from falling
into the trap of thinking ourselves superior to anyone. I've been half-jokingly toying with this idea in my writing and public talks for a few years, but the more I think about the benefits of having a term for the opposite of Namaste, the sooner I believe we need to start using it.
Like everyone else, I have also acted out of ego numerous times in my life: I've been selfish and inconsiderate of other people, and in many instances, I have surely overlooked the pain and suffering that my decisions inflicted on others, by either knowingly or mindlessly buying clothes or electronics that were made through slave labor, for example, or when I ate certain food because it tasted good, even though its production was harmful to the environment or to other beings
on the planet. I admit I am no saint. So, whenever anyone else acts out of ego, there is no judgment because I totally get it. I've been there. I understand. That's when I wish we had a word for the opposite of Namaste: the ego in me acknowledges the ego in you. It would eliminate discrimination, judgment, and belittling of others because we wouldn't see them as any different from us. We would, of course, need to face our own demons, but that's also a step in the right
direction. It's why I often say "Do not criticize what you haven't even made the effort "to understand, for once you understand, there would be nothing left to criticize." So whenever anyone complains about somebody else's behavior, be it their neighbor, a family member, or a political figure, it's usually because they haven't even tried to understand the other person. They forgo the effort of trying to
understand them, and jump straight to judgment. I truly believe that if we start seeing everyone through the ego within us, we wouldn't condemn anyone. Well, if we ever do, it's probably because we have a superiority complex, and if that's not the ego's most obvious trick, I don't know what is.
Self-improvement requires a certain level of maturity, of course. If someone tried to point out to me that I was being selfish when I was younger, I would have gotten defensive, found ways to justify my actions, and written that person out of my life forever. Now, I would actually contemplate their perspective, rethink my ways, and strive to improve.
The next time you are upset with someone for saying or doing something you think is absurd, disturbing, or downright wrong, remember that we all have an ego within us that sometimes takes over the divine. The ego seeks to serve itself as it craves outward recognition, and it sees everything as a competition. The ego's main concern is self-preservation at all cost.
It is not concerned with healing, altruism, or the journey, because the ego is goal-oriented, and the destination is to make itself happy. So, now, from that perspective, can't you already better understand so many people in your life? Maybe even see yourself a little more clearly?
As soon as I shared the written version of this piece in my monthly email and on the Buddhist Boot Camp Facebook page, many immediately jumped on the opportunity to come up with an actual word or term to say out loud when acknowledging
the ego in another. But the reason I didn't specify a term for us to use is to make sure we avoid any impulse to actually call someone out on their ego, but to do this process internally as a reminder that ego resides in everyone, to calm down, and to work toward understanding rather than judging. The hardest thing for us to see is ourselves, so it would help to see ourselves in others; the good, the bad, and the horrific, not just the divine.
The ego within me acknowledges the ego within you, and the god within me loves the whole of you, ego and all. Timber Hawkeye is the bestselling author of Faithfully Religionless and Buddhist Boot Camp. For additional information, please visit BuddhistBootCamp.com, where you can order autographed books to support the Prison Library Project, watch Timber's inspiring TED Talk, and join our monthly mailing list.
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