Your Three Voices

Ego: This voice is not “bad” it only becomes a problem when it is becomes overly critical. This voice is the voice of your desires, appetites, goals and hopes. It does not control your body but uses anxiety to spur your will into action. It is your taskmaster that spurs you on when you need it. Sometimes though it goes overboard and leaves you feeling anxious and dissatisfied by never allowing you to feel satisfaction when one goal is completed. It often just gives you another goal or picks apart your actions.

Will: This voice controls your actions. It controls your body. No other voice does this. Here is an example: You need to be at class at 10:00 am. You are tired. Your alarm rings at 6:30. Ego says “get up”. Will says “not yet” and pushes the snooze button. Your alarm buzzes at 7:00. Now ego amps up the pressure and you feel anxiety again ego says “get up” and “you are going to be late”. Despite the anxiety you press snooze again. Ego says “GET UP. YOU ARE GOING TO FAIL THIS CLASS” and the anxiety is amped up to greater heights. Yet for all of this ego cannot make you get up. It must act on your will and it does this by the use of fear as a lash. Finally you get up because the act of getting up is less of a pain than the pain of fear.

Watcher: This voice is quiet. It never compels you or tells you what to do. It never competes with ego nor does it force will. It is just a guiding voice. The voice of intuition. The voice of conscience. The inner voice of wisdom. It just says quietly “this is the right thing to do”. It is your moral compass and it always points true. Often you ignore it. Sometimes you don’t even hear it over the noise and clamor of your mind but it is always there. Guiding you. You have only to listen.

Samsaran