For years I swore I’d never talk about any of this. (Which goes to show how much good swearing does.) But then in December of 2014 Spirit (or Source, or the Is, or Life, or God, whatever you want to call it) had its way with me. What I’d learned from 30 years and some 20,000 hours of meditation wanted OUT! And I realized my reluctance to talk about what I knew was a bunch of ego crap in reverse … namely my own false humility surrounding the word “enlightenment” and my fears around admitting I actually knew what the hell it was. And Source was having none of it.
Basically I got shaken down good until all the words were on the page. The E Word is the result.
So what do I know and how do I know it? Basically, all that very intense inner work (I spent years alone living in isolated cabins in the woods with no plumbing meditating) had bludgeoned me into the state of “no self”—the much sought-after state of consciousness better known as enlightenment that is, as it turns out, something that actually can’t be either sought or acquired because the very act of seeking solidifies the false “reality” of the illusory self seeking enlightenment in the first place. (A strange conundrum that only becomes obvious after enlightenment.)
Anyway—eventually “I” —Cate Montana—came back from that particularly abyss. And in the eight years since, I’ve been given a LOT of information about the ego.
Beyond any shadow of a doubt, not understanding what it is and how it (inevitably) feeds us the false perception of separation that arises living in a body is THE #1 stumbling block to humanity’s evolution. If we can get a handle on the ego identity—the lie that physical perception gives us—and grasp how it can be trained and expanded to see and live by the ultimate truth of the union of all life as ONE in spirit—then we’ll be out of the woods. The survival of the human race will not only be assured, we’ll actually begin to enjoy the experience of living here on Earth for a change because we’ll no longer be at each other’s throats and on our own backs all the time.
So here’s the good news: heaven and the ego are not mutually exclusive. The ego just has to be educated and brought up to snuff. Which is why I wrote the book and am doing everything else. Enough of the misery and suffering already! Let’s get on with good stuff!!!