Verbal Virtual Ego- 2- best of Lewis

[Guest guest]

P: If I may point out, although all these tricks could indeed be used

by

> the brain in order to preserve the illusion of an entity inside, you

seem

> to be falling for one of those very tricks in the paragraph above.

That's,

> writing about the ego as if it were capable of awareness, and

understanding.

> What we call ego is simply a complex of habits, tricks, beliefs,

emotions,

> and

> memories that the brain conjures from time to time. They appear moment

> to moment, and most of the time they are not there. Their main

function

> is to serve as a flag, or a figurehead to fight, defend and acquire

for.

> Sort

> of the " for God and Country " of the body/mind organism.

>

> It seems to me, that if we clearly see ego as a discontinue series of

> responses,

> the back of the mirage is then broken, because what gives ego its

hypnotic

> hold on

> the brain is the illusion of continuity. Without this belief in the

> continuity of

> a person who owns the life of the body and the virtues and faults of

the

> brain,

> the self-preservation tricks begin to spin its wheels in the void.

In

> this

> way,

> anger may come, fear may come, together with other ego considerations,

> but without the hypnotic effect of a 'this is happening to me.'

>

> Excuseme for butting in,

> Pete

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

There is no sense of butting in at all, Pete. Your flow is always

welcome.

 

To the points of interest. In this thread, ego phenomena have been

discussed in conceptual terms and in terms of the experience of ego

phenomena. On one line, there is agreement among most participants that

ego is a concept and has no existence. What ego as concept points to

is phenomena.

 

The second line follows descriptions of this phenomena. In various

places, the phenomena has been described in ways closely following the

description provided above minus the assertion of brain origin/location.

In other places, the ego phenomena is described as " imagined agency. "

This is not trivial. Ego as concept or phenomena has no agency

whatsoever. It is not conscious. It has no awareness. It is blind. It

can do nothing for it is no thing. However, the illusion of such

" agency, " the deeply rooted intellectual, affective and habitual

attachment to this illusion and associated illusions and habitual

behavior make ego a formidable phenomena to dissolve as it may be done

with other concepts. What you pointed out is trickery for " calling out. "

This will be described below.

 

The dissolution of this concept constitutes a third line in the thread.

In this, it is clearly noted that ego cannot dissolve itself by any

means. It is no thing and so what can it do? Yet, the illusion of a

personal identity persists being held together by the collection,

remembrance, use of memories and experiences over an imagined time span

and located in space. Attached to these are habitual mental, speech and

body behaviors, and constant thinking, repetitive and otherwise, on

these and other illusions as " real. " The intellectual and affective

attachment to these illusions and to the sensations and perception tied

to these illusions finishes the ego soup.

 

The ego " appears " to think, feel, will and act. It " appears " as a person

an entity. But ego is not singular by any means, it is a patchwork of

concepts memories, behaviors, etc. Ego also has many formations.

 

Since it has no awareness how does ego come to appear to have awareness

of itself? Such awareness is illusion and it occurs through the mind's

formation of sub egos each coming into " stimulus-response " relations to

a " main ego " the commonly experienced " I " " me " in the field of

consciousness, the stage upon which we experience mental phenomena.

These sub egos and the main ego exchange concepts in

stimulation-response patterns so that there is an appearance " internal

discourse " and continuity of identity by the S-R relations between

aspects of ego personality (the good side, evil side, selfish side,

altruistic side, criminal side, law abiding side, enlightened side, the

confused side, the a passive side the aggressive side the passive

aggressive the silly side, etc.) each of which is tied to ontologies,

opinions, moralities, ethics, desires, and so on. There are not only

dualities but multiple conceptual aspects and worlds interacting in

stimulus-response patterns.

 

Each formation appears different in each mind/body. For some there is

the appearance of thoughts with words which go back and forth in

stimulus-response patterns established over the mind/body's existence.

In those less heady, feelings, more than thoughts are exchanged in

stimulus-response patterns. In action types, desires lead and interact.

When any of these patterns or combination of these patterns become

habitual and well formed giving satisfactory feelings, the ego as

" persons " feels stable, comfortable, in control. When these patterns are

interrupted, disrupted or otherwise prevented from occurring there is

instability, insecurity, fear, anxiety, frustration, anger, rage, etc.

To deal with such interruptions or threats to pattern disruption,

mind/body adaptations occurs and reformed or new stimulus patterns can

be made to encounter unexpected changes and to protect continuity and

and prevent breakdown. Such mind/body adaptation is variable. Some can

and some cannot adapt well to pattern disruption. When these patterns

are substantially interrupted, ego disintegration begins.

 

Ego disintegration proceeds without interventions by the experiences in

life (trauma, death, failure, humiliation, etc.) and is completed by

what is. It is hastened by the mystical, yogic and other traditions that

target ego for elimination in one way or another. It is blocked by

habitual mind/body s-r patterns that lead to illusion and attachment to

them.

 

But what happens when mind/bodies and such egos encounter the mystical

and yogic traditions? To participate in such traditions there already

must be some degree of ego disintegration so that " what is " " peeks

through " the gaps in various disintegrating stimulus-response patterns.

This " peeking through, " this awareness is what Nisargadatta said he was

talking to and appealing to. But what could Nisargadatta possibly teach

what is. Absolutely no-thing. What he and others like him through the

ages have done is provide the tools, the trickery, the skullduggery, the

dictums, the practices that lure the ego (mind/body S-R patterns) into

an adaptation that is supposedly better than what the mind/body

possesses. So there are promises of enlightenment, Nirvana, Heaven,

Self-realization, Perfection, True Self and all these lofty, lovely,

higher being states, which are given to be intrinsically superior to

ordinary unenlightened mundane life. Such promises tempt, lure, and

deceive the ego (mind/body S-R patterns) to move within the realm of the

traditions. Once in, what is uses these tools, which are generally just

words, concepts and practices designed to break rigid mind/body S-R

patterns, and manipulates the mind to disintegrate the ego (rigid

mind/body S-R patterns). The ego " thinks " it is doing it. But it is

doing no-thing. What is is doing it.

 

Even so, the mind/body's effort to adapt to these goals and practices

creates new egos and sub egos (rigid mind/body S-R patterns) that match

the new conceptual world taught in the mystical and yogic traditions. So

the mind/body moves and recreates the conceptual world of its teacher or

what is read or observed as it did in the old conceptual world it

inhabited by creating illusions and more important the attachments to

them. The machinery does its work well.

 

What was pointed out above is what the ego " appears " like to the

mind/body. That is, mind/body S-R patterns can come to imitate all the

states described in the traditions. Even to the point of the imitative

or constructed experience of " apperception " or awareness without

awareness.

 

How does this imitation occur. It is rather simple. The mind/body enacts

the dictums and protocols say of the " Hsin Hsin Ming " or " I am THAT "

(neti, neti) by adapting S-R patterns that resemble the described states

of " non-doing " or " no thought. " To create no-thought is a simple

exercise.

 

It occurs this way the mind/body reads a work. " What is " is reading

since ego cannot read (concepts don't read) but previous mind/body S-R

patterns filter, distort the meaning and attach to the pleasurable, so

that instead of taking it in and leaving it without attachment, there is

the sensation that it must be held in the mind to be effective, a

previous mind/body S-R pattern of controlling, possessing, owning. This

is undesirable but this occurs when the for example when a student has

not lost affective attachment to ego and its illusions, before beginning

jnana yoga.

 

So, what is is " blocked " by such deep affective attachment behavior and

develops a work around. It uses this opportunity to use the mind, which

is a machinery, to artificially embed a dictum (i.e.. " By neither

favoring nor disfavoring, holding no opinion, all thought cease. " ) in a

new mind/body S-R pattern that will disable mind/body affect. " What is

focuses the mind on the dictum, repeating the dictum, meditating on the

dictum to creates a S-R patterns that follows this simple rule. When a

thought appears, the mind automatically darkens it, putting it aside.

 

This is what is' artificial contrivance with the result being a blank

mind. This state can be endured but for so long. With thought stopping

comes the loss of affect. Numbness and depression set in. Eventually the

mind/body cannot maintain this artificial state and it breaks down

sooner or later depending on how stubborn the mind/body is. Thought

stopping was not the goal. The goal was " beyond ego " it was the

deadening of affect and affective attachments, which will allow what is

to " peek through " more often and more easily.

 

In this kind of experience and others like it lessons are learned an

what is expands as " foolishness " is lost and what is moves on to trying

again to disintegrate the ego. All during this time however ego is

imagines it has done something or has arrived somewhere. This pattern

will continue until the ego is fully dissolved and the fluid S-R action

occurs without the binding of illusions and the illusions are now

created and manipulated by what is.

 

So what is described in the very beginning of this message is now

detailed a bit more. The first passage (repeated below) is the trickery

designed for " calling out " or " arousing " minds/bodies that are in

imitative and delusional ego states of " being, " " non-doing " and

" apperception " and that still are firmly attached to ego illusions and a

fixed mind/body S-R pattern that hinders the appearance of what is. It

is a aid for recognition and dissolution of an imitative ego state.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

" But this to is an illusion for ego is aware that it is aware of the

objects and is making effort however slight to be nonattached to them as

they appear and disappear in the field of consciousness. It tricks

itself and " being " in this way is an illusion, delusion. But the ego

goes further knowing that the ultimate state is " apperception, "

awareness without being aware and thus seeks to use this trickery to

trick itself and begins " doing without effort " that is acting without

thought ( " being " ) and guided and responding to sensations and

perceptions that appear in front of it (non-doing). However, ego is

simply hiding itself in the darkness of " no thought " or " emptiness " (to

which it is ardently attached) thereby tricking itself into sensing

" awareness without awareness. " "

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

How does the " call out " work. It is read and taken in by what is, placed

between an imitative mind/body stimulus-response pattern, which

disrupts it, creating internal dissonance. Feelings of uncertainty and

doubt, insecurity and fear arise that " say, " more or less, " I " AM not

" THAT " which I thought I was? (for example). Questions arise and simply

put (though not always so simple) and " Am I this? " " what is written

here. " This is a fall into self-reflection, the basic indication of an

operative ego and arousal from illusion occurs as what is points it out.

A new effort can then begin.

 

If there is no imitative state, there is no dissonance and the attendant

feelings and thoughts.

 

If the imitative state is well established and rigid, the description

will be blocked altogether, will be misunderstood, and all responses to

the threat of exposure of " imitative behavior " will be denied with the

production of " cockeyed, " delusional, defensive what not.

 

What is has no response such as these or others. It is trickery and that

is all. There is no ego so there are no fears, doubts, uncertainty.

 

A clear " intellectual " recognition of ego as concept and illusion and

its attendant illusions, sensations, perceptions and behavior is a

beginning. Such clear recognition indicates the presence and movement of

what is. But there also needs recognition and elimination of the

affective attachments to ego as illusion and to all of its attendant

illusions, creations, desires, sensations, perceptions and possessions.

This is not a task suitable to the use of the mind's faculty of

intellection. So what is uses a different trickery for these mind/body

s-r patterns. Then there is the movement to more " advanced "

trickery......

 

All of this you know well.

 

Lewis