Another way to look at ego and shadow is to lump them both together, which is what Eckhart Tolle does in A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life's Purpose. While his approach may be driving some Jungians crazy -- It's not that easy! I can hear them holler -- it does have a certain 'practical shortcut' appeal.
Your ego is your persona, the masks you wear every day when you go outside in public, who you think you are, who you tell people you are.
Your shadow holds the parts of your personality you don't want showing, the parts you would never consciously tell anyone else about.
Since Tolle's aim is to get people to go beyond thinking to Being, he lumps the ego and the shadow together. And it does work for the purposes of his discussion, because neither is your true essence. Neither is "a metaphor for a mystery that absolutely transcends all human systems of thought," as Jospeh Campbell defined God. (Campbell also defines God as the Ground of Being, which is my personal favorite since I'm a gardener. )
But in Tolle's approach I miss the poetry of "the brighter the light, the darker the shadow." My dualistically-conditioned-mind responds immediately to images of Jekyll and Hyde, light and shadow, what I show vs. what I hide, what I must project onto others vs. what I can face in myself.
Thank goodness we don't have to make a choice. We can learn from Jung, and we can learn from Tolle.
K
