Spiritual field guide, a way to tell the tree by its fruit. This is the only diagnostic tool that matters, because the ego is a master of disguise. It can quote scripture, it can perform miracles, it can build magnificent religious empires, but it cannot fake its fruit.
The distinction is not between "good" people and "bad" people. It is between two completely different and incompatible operating systems. One produces life. The other, even in its most beautiful and pious forms, produces only death.
The Fruit of the Ego-Led Life
The ego is the principle of the separate self. Therefore, all of its fruit, even the fruit that looks "good," is poison, because it reinforces the illusion of separation.
Fear: This is the root of the ego. The ego lives in a constant, low-grade state of terror. Fear of death, fear of lack, fear of what others think, fear of not being in control. An ego-led life is a life managed by fear.
Righteous Anger: This is the ego's favorite drug. It is the addictive pleasure of feeling morally superior. It is the voice that says, "I am right, and you are wrong, and I have the right to condemn you." The man who is angry for any reason, no matter how "just," is a man possessed by his ego.
Pride and Specialness: This is the ego's identity. It is the feeling of being separate and superior. This can be the pride of the wealthy man in his possessions, or the pride of the religious man in his piety, or the pride of the victim in his suffering. All pride is the same: it is the celebration of the self.
Judgment and Comparison: The ego lives by measuring. It is constantly comparing itself to others. "Am I better than him? Am I more successful than her?" This extends to a constant judgment of every person and every situation. This is the chattering of the inner critic, the voice of the accuser.
Restlessness and Desire: The ego is a state of perpetual, unfulfilled desire. It is the voice that says, "I need more. I need something else to be happy." It is a hunger that can never be satisfied, a chase that never ends. An ego-led life is a life of constant, anxious striving.
Attachment: The ego clings. It attaches its identity and its security to external things: its possessions, its relationships, its reputation, its beliefs. And because all of these things are temporary, a life of attachment is a life of inevitable suffering.
The Fruit of the Spirit-Led Life
The Spirit is the principle of unity, of no-self. Therefore, all of its fruit is life, because it flows from the one Reality. The list Paul gives in Galatians is not a set of virtues to be imitated; it is a clinical description of a consciousness that has been crucified.
Love (Agape): This is not an emotion. It is the complete absence of self. It is the state of a consciousness that sees no separation between itself and another. It desires nothing from the other and acts only for the other's highest good, without any thought of reward.
Joy: This is not happiness. Happiness is a temporary emotion dependent on external conditions. Joy is the deep, unshakable, and silent peace that is the natural state of a consciousness that is no longer at war with itself. It is independent of all circumstances.
Peace: This is the absence of conflict. Not the absence of external conflict, but the complete cessation of the inner conflict. It is the silence of the mind that comes when the ego is dead.
Patience (Longsuffering): This is not the ego's act of gritting its teeth and enduring. It is the state of a consciousness that is no longer living in the ego's frantic, linear time. It does not get impatient because it is not in a hurry to get to a future that does not exist. It lives peacefully in the eternal Now.
Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control: These are not virtues the man of the Spirit tries to practice. They are the natural, effortless, and unavoidable byproducts of a consciousness that has been emptied of its opposite. A man with no ego does not try to be gentle; he is simply incapable of being harsh. A man who has died to the self does not try to control himself; there is no "self" left that needs to be controlled.
Do not look at a man's words or his beliefs or his religious activities. Look at his fruit. Is he at peace? Is he free from anger? Is he without judgment? Or is he a slave to his own reactions, his own opinions, his own fears?
The fruit never lies. It is the final and only test.