More on 'The Soul'

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.....From our previous post...

“This ego, which is but a ghost without a form of its own, comes into being by

taking hold of a form; keeping hold of the form and enjoying sense-objects, it

waxes greatly in strength: if the truth of it be sought, it will run

away.”.."."

[To continue...}

 

"We need to study this teaching carefully. There is no ego in sleep, but only in

waking and dreaming. In both these states the ego manifests by taking hold of a

body, saying ‘I am this body.’ That is, there is a perception of the body, and

at the same time there arises the thought ‘I-am-this-body.’ That body is taken

as the self, or as the abode of the self, and the other bodies and objects that

are seen at the same time are taken as not-self. When again sleep comes on, both

the body and the ego disappear, and with them the world also vanishes. Thus the

ego is simply the ignorance that limits the real Self to a single body out of a

multitude of bodies, all of which are its own creation; this world which it

creates is thus divided by the ego into two parts, as self and not-self, the

former being a very small part, and the latter a very large one. From this

arise the twin notions of ‘I’ and ‘mine’, which are the substance of bondage."

 

this is from Chapter Six, called "The Soul" in the book Maha Yoga: the entire

book can bedownloaded free-of-charge from the website of Sri

Ramanasramam.http://www.ramana-maharshi.org/anbudanJohn