Reality is Not What We Perceive
Everyone has their own unique perception of reality. Reality is filtered through our ego and it is unique and different for everyone. It depends on the genes we have been given, and the environment we have grown up in. The culture, the circumstances, our family, school, work, etc. This also means that reality is therefore different from how we perceive it. You can change reality by changing yourself. This insight alone changes your reality enormously.
The Ego
Our ego drives us, because the ego is the essence of what we are: a desire to receive. It is through to the ego that we take action, we want something and we go after it to get it. We always want something better than what we have now. This applies to us as individuals as well as to humanity itself. After the desire is fulfilled, a new and greater desire arises and in this way our ego grows. You can also see this development in humanity throughout the ages.
The Desire Grows
You may wonder what the purpose of this ever-growing ego is. I can tell you that the ultimate purpose is to become completely fulfilled. We as humanity are at a point in our evolution where we find that more material things will not give us that ultimate fulfilment. We find that it is never enough and that after one desire is fulfilled, another desire arises. We are now approaching a point where we realise that no material thing can ever fill us. It is a time when we need a different kind of desire that will bring about a great change in us.
Purpose
We begin to ask ourselves what fulfilment really means. Filling ourselves with material things feels increasingly empty. Slowly but surely we discover that giving is more fulfilling than receiving. When we look at nature, we can see that we as humans are different from nature. Nature is abundant and giving, and we are almost exclusively concerned with how to get more for ourselves. Of course we also give to others and we discover more and more that this is much more fulfilling. We come to the second stage in the development of our ego. Instead of only receiving for ourselves, we begin to think about giving back to nature.
We Search for Answers Until the Answer Finds Us.
It is like the awakening of a small point in our heart. Out of all the desire for ourselves, a point of desire for giving arises. This is the beginning of a great change in us. We can only be truly happy when we give to others. This sounds very obvious, but it is much harder than you think, because we are born with a desire to receive. That is our nature, so we have to go against our nature, and the ego is not happy with that. We go through a process of always having to rise above our ego. But like all difficult things, it is worth it!