Proponents of bringing ego down insist that liberation from yourself should be executed to the extent when there are no manifestations of individuality left. Go for no-mind, humble characterlessness, and absence of presence; go for the hard-core. Any manifestations of ego should be curtailed immediately —freedom is acquired by conquest exclusively. Maybe that is why, when I told one seeker that ambitiousness is a good thing to have on the Path, he was astounded and eagerly accused me of betraying the bright ideals of enlightenment. I told him that premature castration can be unhealthy, especially in case if you want to reach maturity; and that it's better to have healthy ego than damaged and feeble one, and the same is true of mature versus immature ego.
If entire communication with God is to be carried out via making requests, then how does absence of thereof possibly help with one’s furtherance? Ambitiousness represents a desire to become the best of the best in the area of expertise, and inter alia, gives one the motivation to achieve excellence in practices. Clearly, ambitiousness is contraindicated for individuals who suffer from neurosis, as they have a predisposition to overthinking and excessive self-criticism, but after all, they never possess any ambitions. Ambition is a feature of healthy ago, and perhaps, Lord forgive me, of excessively healthy ego.
In the early stages of the Path, an aspiration to become the best at what you do can be of great help: I know seekers who invested maximum effort in performing practices and arrived at direct communication with the Creator within a reasonable amount of time. He, as is known, does not like slackers but likes those who are willing to exert supreme effort. Some want to be placed next after God, others want to become the best one for Him.
In the later stages of the Path, ambitiousness becomes redundant, because it carries a trait of comparing ourselves to others and a quite sensible smell of vanity. It is not possible for one to be better at following the Will of God better than others—it doesn’t work this way, as Will is given individually; you can strive to execute it the best way possible but then it would be more about perfectionism than ambitiousness.
Anything can become a trap on the Path, ambitiousness is no exception. Inner wrestling with those who are walking the Path along with you or were there before yourself is so captivating at times that the only way to desist from it is by denouncing your successfully achieved enlightenment and ceasing to monitor the progress of other seekers. Yet, if one is not entirely devoid of intelligence, he will not engage in inner games of the sort. Instead, he will direct his ambitions toward achieving self-awareness and see his vanity; then he will discard vanity and thus get closer to the ideal of a proper seeker.
Absence of any ambitiousness can become a trap as well, and a person then begins to deny their need in the Path, efforts, and everything. Pure enlightenment here and now—what else to wish for? More so, laxity and overrelaxation are easily mistaken for complete absence of desires. When you want it really bad, you can mistake anything for anything else.
Everything is to be tossed into the furnace of self-awareness; any inner state, any trait help fuel its growth. No need to be afraid of any of your manifestations, however wrong they may seem to you. The Light of Consciousness will burn everything unnecessary; the transformation will change whatever needs to be changed—and much anticipated enlightenment will come before you know it.