“Contemplation is a sudden gift of awareness, an awakening to the Real within us.”
— Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation
Step Eleven is not about acquiring a new spiritual skill. It is about consenting to what may have always been true. We are accustomed to living from the surface of ourselves — from thought, from reaction, from the small self that believes it must interpret and manage everything. Contemplation can gently expose that surface as partial.
The “Real within us” is not an achievement. It is not something we construct through effort. It is what remains when we stop insisting on being the center of the universe. In silence, in prayer, in simple, sustained attention, we may begin to recognize that we are already participating in a larger Life. The ego does not disappear, but it can begin to be decentered.
Over time, this shift can change how we inhabit the world. We may respond with less fear because we are no longer working so hard to defend a fragile self. We may listen more deeply because we trust there is something deeper listening in us. Step Eleven becomes a daily practice of remembering that we are held within the Real — not separate from it.
Egos Anonymous is offered in an experimental spirit—an invitation to see whether there’s interest in a shared way of working with ego, self-will, and control. The language, structure, and practices are still forming and are meant to grow through lived experience.
This is a soft launch. The hope is to eventually gather a year of reflections into a book, but for now they’re simply being shared—one day at a time—to see what resonates.
If something feels useful, confusing, incomplete, or off, feedback is welcome and genuinely appreciated. This work is meant to be shaped together.
