Ego is basically identity. Anything that is rigid has a side effect of restricting the flow of life, resisting it, on some level. There are many layers of ego, and it’s delusional to think one’s ego is completely destroyed in self-realization.

In the separated state, we identify with our mental self-image. Some people think the separated state is the state of identification with the body, but it’s not true. Such descriptions come from a realized state, yes, but not from complete realization (see below). If that was true, people would never say “I have a body”, they would only say “I am the body”. But for most people, “I have a body” is a much more natural thing to say. So this “I”, which “has” a body, this idea of yourself doesn’t actually exist anywhere but in your mind, and it’s your mental identity, your self-image. This identity corresponds to the “bull” in the famous Ten Bulls pictures of Zen. There are all kinds of clinging to what type of person you are or should be, how life should be for you, how others should treat you, what is “good” and “bad”, “right” and “wrong” etc. This is the separated state. Most people are in this state and they recognize and relate to each other’s egos.

In self-realization, this identity is seen to be false. One’s identity then moves to Consciousness, Love, Being, God. One basically becomes love itself as the ultimate witness of Existence. Everything is beautiful, there’s joy everywhere, and tons of compassion to other sentient beings that haven’t yet realized the simple truth of life that everything is love. This is sometimes called God Consciousness, and it’s the state of a Bodhisattva, or Jesus Christ. It’s also referred to as “loving awareness”, or Reality/Consciousness/Bliss, Sat-Chit-Ananda. This is Atman, the soul. Osho’s “the death of the ego is the birth of the soul” refers to this state. In the Ten Bulls, it corresponds to #7, “The Bull Transcended”. Sayings like “I am not my body”, “you are me” come from this place. There is no doer, Being moves you. There’s still clinging to Being, to life, to love and beauty at this state. This is “I am”, the beginning of non-duality. It is possible to recognize someone in this state since he embodies unconditional love.

But underneath all that love and beauty there’s still pain, hatred and the fear of non-existence. So, in what is most often called enlightenment, even this identity is seen to be false, and so the identity moves to Brahman, the totality of all existence. Atman and Brahman are seen to be one. This identity is way beyond the manifested consciousness, it is unmanifest. This is the state of non-Being, Buddhahood, complete aloneness. Sayings like “I am nothing” come from this place. Maharishi’s “where can I go, I am always here” also comes from this place. There is no love, no beauty here, just emptiness, Shunyata, because only ugliness can remember beauty and only hatred can remember love. As nothingness, one becomes infinite. All emotion is transcended here. One is completely at peace with his fate to dissolve into nothingness from which one has appeared. This is sometimes called the Cosmic Consciousness, the ultimate level of consciousness. In the Ten Bulls, it corresponds to #8, “Both Bull and Self Transcended”, an empty circle. There is no doer, things just happen. It is sometimes called The Absolute, but it’s not The Absolute. There is still a subtle clinging to non-Being, to infinity, and to death at this state. This is “I’m not”, the deepest state of non-duality. It becomes very hard to recognize someone at this state because only a subtle hint of ego remains here and it’s very hard to relate to such person.

But that’s also not all, because the identity of Brahman is also a false identity. Once it is seen, Being and non-Being, manifest and unmanifest are seen to be one. There is no more clinging to life as one truly accepted death, and there is no more clinging to death as a subtle hope that some experience of Brahmanic bliss lies beyond it. This is The Absolute. In the Ten Bulls, it corresponds to #9, “Reaching the Source”. Osho called it “beyond enlightenment” and described it as “my body and my Spirit are finally one”. In Hinduism, they sometimes refer to it as Para Brahman. Euphoria of existence and emptiness of non-existence merge together. Nothing can be said about this state, because this is when one becomes completely, utterly ordinary again. There’s only life, exactly as it is, in its absolute such-ness without either overwhelming love and beauty nor personal detachment of a witness. The identity finally moves to where it belongs - to the body. One is simply his body as all other animals are. The human condition is transcended. This is the end of non-duality and infinity, one becomes finite again. Nothing that doesn’t exist in the physical world, including Brahman, exists anymore. One becomes the doer again, just rid of all the illusions of life. This is what the last picture in the Ten Bulls, “Return to Society” is about. This is Enlightenment. It is strictly impossible to recognize someone at this state, because his identity is his body and everyone has a body. Even people at various stages of non-duality can’t relate to such a person, and he appears completely ignorant to them.

In the words of Kabir, “self-realization is when the dew drops into the ocean and you can’t find it anymore; in enlightenment the ocean drops back into the dewdrop and you can’t find the ocean anymore”.

Of course, not everyone’s unfolding of the dream will be linear as I described it here, and mine wasn’t either. It can be a messy process, but all of that will become obvious in due time if you go through it till the end. The lesson, as usual, is not to cling to anything newly found and always be willing to go deeper and deeper into the truth of your nature, the state of the ultimate relaxation, the ultimate let go.