Where does ego come from?

[Guest guest]

Ive forgotten which chat list began the discussion of ego - my apologies if

this ends up in the wrong list.

 

From a discussion about death and dying with Zen master Philip Kapleau and

others being trained in hospice work -

 

Nurse: " Where does ego come from anyway? "

 

Kapleau replies -

 

" It has surely been around as long as the human mind. Kapleau begins to

describe the components (clusters) of psychological existence -

 

Form - elements that comprise the body such as sense organs, sense objects

and their relationship, here we have the beginning of individuality and the

division of experience into subject and object.

 

Feelings - the self reacting to its surroundings. These feelings comprise

pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, disquiet and equanimity.

 

Perceptions of discriminating awareness, which comprise the reflective or

discursive as well as the intuitve faculty of discromination.

 

Mental Formations - the forces and tedencies of the will, the active

principle of consciousness. These mental constructs are the consequences of

past karma and progenitors of future karma. They are produced by conscious

volition and are what put things together and build up patterns of

personality and karma.

 

Consciousness - which combines and coordinates all the sensory perceptions.

 

Thus the egocentric self creates its own world instead of perceiving the

world the way it really is. The aim of spiritual training is to see into

the ultimate unreality of the ego-I and to transform these five aggregates

of the confused and unenlightened mind into the Selfless-I

 

The first five consciousnesses are seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and

smelling. The sixth consciousness is the conceptual faculty that

distinguishes and classifies the data of the senses and is what we call the

intellect. The seventh root consciousness is the seat of the persistent

I-awareness and is the source of our value judgments, egoistic opinions,

self-centeredness and illusory notions, all of which give rise to actions

that accord with them. The eighth consciousness is the repository, or

storehouse, consciousness, where the seeds of all mental activity and sense

perceptions are recorded moment after moment. This consciousness, which

persists even after death, retains vestiges of previous existences and the

seeds of new karmic causes. Also to be found on this eight level are

certain memories of the prebirth condition-feelings of floating or flying,

of freedom, of an oceanic oneness with all things. These sensations often

occur in dreams and are usually accompanied by a sense of tremendous well

being. To those sensitively attuned to them, such vestigal memories give a

hint of that freedom of the state we miscall death. The nineth level is the

pure, formless (non dual) Self-consciousness - our True Nature. It is

related to the eight level so intimately that there is almost no difference

between the two. It can be compared to a limitless ocean, in which each

individual life is a wave on the surface. "

 

Well, he has more to say that clarifies the situation of ego/ consciousness

etc - so if anyone has any questions send them along and Ill see if I can

see if he has any comments. Kapleau also says that all is not lost, the

wily creatuire the ego is not to be despised; for when his machinations

become unbearably painful, there arises within us an irresistible longing

for freedom from the restriction and pain, and a desire to attain inward

peace and wisdom. " Ego performs yet another valuable function. Behind all

creative endeavors, be it designing a space ship or uncovering an unknown

law of nature - lies the desire, conscious or unconscious, for

Self-knowledge. And the propelling force behind this desire is ego - the

wish of the self to undertake these activities - ego represents a natural

urge by the life force itself toward an expansion of experience, toward more

life. "

 

Not so bad.

 

joyce

 

Joyce