"The ego is only an absence of awareness"

[Guest guest]

Hello All,

 

I don't want to start the old ego argument again... just to state once

more my understanding of the word... it has been used in so many very

different ways.

>The ego is only an absence of awareness

> - Osho

 

"Ego" is the Latin word for "I." We usually use it to mean the kind of

separative consciousness we have of ourselves as individual beings...

rather than the kind of true group consciousness we're told plants have. A

message from Findhorn says that we were once like the devas or elementals -

group-conscious beings - and then were given the gift - and burden - of

separative, individual consciousness for a purpose, so that we could

develop a new and different kind of awareness.

 

"The Ego" is also used to mean the mechanism or function in us that creates

the separative consciousness of "I." I prefer this meaning; I see it as a

necessary part of our paraphernalia to manifest as human beings. It is the

"I-making faculty." If brain damage destroys this function or the ability

to use it, the person is still conscious and aware but has no sense of

being an individual separate from others, no sense of an "I."

 

In this sense, the ego does limit our awareness... it must limit our

universal awareness in order to create awareness as individuals. This is

not an unhealthy or bad thing, but is the precondition and the means of our

being human.

 

As the child grows up, he develops his intellect and his image of himself.

If he is fortunate in his parents and/or childhood experiences, he develops

a healthy and strong ego image. This is important and necessary, a

foundation for the rest of his life. As my mother once said, when accused

of "spoiling" her child with too much love and attention, "It's easier to

correct a strong ego than a weak one."

 

So the young person develops his individual intellect and emotions... and

ego image... an entire personality. If he is fortunate, he learns to

correct personality problems and be an even stronger person... he develops

a balanced, strong personality.

 

Then the time comes when he turns inward. Jung said this comes at the

midpoint of life, which he saw as about 30-35 years of age. I think what

we are seeing now is that the midpoint of physical life is coming later and

later... and the time of turning inward is coming at younger ages for many

people.

 

This is when something causes this being to look within himself and begin

to see that he is more than the personality... it can come as a natural

process or as the result of some sudden happening... sometimes the result

of guidance and some revelation from the spiritual guru... even the

emergence of memories of other lives in which he functioned as very

different personalities.

 

He begins to understand that the personality is like a mask, and that he is

a much greater being... the one who is wearing the mask. And he looks

behind the mask to find out what's there... what he truly is. His focus

of consciousness is no longer contained within and limited to the

personality and the personality levels - body, emotions, and intellect. He

finds he can move his conscious focus into the subconscious and into higher

levels, where he eventually "hears" or makes contact in some way with his

spiritual guru and/or his high self... So the boundaries of what is

conscious... that is, what is available to the conscious focus... expand

in both directions.

 

At the end of this "process of individuation," in Jung's terms, the man's

conscious focus is established in its normal functioning in a new center on

the borderline between conscious and unconscious, from which the man can

look in either direction... or both at the same time. Jung called this

new center, this new seat of the movable focus, the Self... and he cited

Jesus as an example of the fully individuated man.

 

The DK/Bailey books use Ego as synonymous with the Soul, which is viewed as

midway between personality and spirit.... from the viewpoint of

personality levels, the Soul is an energy or force... from the viewpoint

of spirit, the Soul is another body in which it manifests. This seems more

or less synonymous with Jung's "Self."

 

And it is in this sense that some say that what we seek to clear or "kill"

is the karmic debris that overlies and obscures the Ego like caked mud on

glass... and that when we finally clear away all the blocks, the karmic

stuff, the Ego is transparent to spirit.

 

In this sense, what we are altering and changing in our "spiritual" work is

on the personality levels... clearing away the physical, emotional, and

mental blocks and karmic debris that hide the true Ego and the spirit

manifesting through the Ego.

 

The DK books say that the time comes in each one's development when he

gives up even the Soul... and what is left is spirit manifesting in human

bodies... physical, emotional and intellectual.

 

The time does come, when each one knows himself to be pure spirit... and

as spirit, one with all spirit... and then knows himself as Brahman, the

unmanifest, the All... and he is THAT... in manifestation as a human

being.

 

If he continues in manifestation as human, the Ego is still there... the

"I-making faculty." That is how he can function as a separate person who

is _in manifestation on the lower planes_ not the same as all others, but

an individual expression of spirit. If Ego is the Soul, it has disappeared

in the sense of becoming transparent... and the man is spirit manifesting

as human.

 

He will still use personality elements... he would seem like a robot if he

showed no emotions or individual thinking. The easiest way is to use the

personality that was developed in this life... but the cleaned-up and

perfected personality. But he could also choose to use a peraonlity

developed in another life... or to build a new one... but that would take

much more effort.

 

So I never talk about "killing" the Ego... if one could do that, it would

mean the destruction of the sense of "I"... the destruction of the ability

to function as an individual human being. It may be that some people have

done this... in India, such people would be revered and cared for...

given food... in the WEst, such people would probably be in mental

institutions.

 

When we talk about someone having "an inflated Ego," a "big Ego," a

"swelled head" or "big head," we are talking about the _ego image_. Jung

said that it sometimes happens that when a man suddenly realizes that God

is not something separate from himself but is within him, it can result in

the internalization of the God Archetype and thus the injection of

tremendous energy into the ego image, producing an "inflated ego." This

can be expressed in various ways, depending on the personality the person

is "wearing" and identifies with.

 

But what we want to correct is personality problems... ego image

problems... We do NOT want to kill or destroy the Ego itself, but wash

away all the mud and karmic stuff, so that it functions at its optimum and

is transparent to the spirit at work in the world.

 

Love,

Dharma