In summary, the ego is bad and egolessness is good. Consequently, spiritual paths are structured around the eradication of egoism and cultivation of egolessness.
In contrast to this orthodox interpretation of the spiritual path, unorthodox traditions such as Zen and Dzogchen have pointed out that all spiritual methods and procedures are predicated on the belief that we have something to gain through our spiritual labor. They observe that continued application with any spiritual path or psychological system presupposes that we are concerned about ourselves - i.e., self-centered. If you doubt this then just listen to the official stories and anecdotal reports about how rewarding it is to live the spiritual life. From this perspective, the pursuit of an egoless state only serves to maintain and perpetuate the ego.
By rejecting our ego we only give it more power, since we grant it the capacity to control and dominate us. Indeed, trying to alleviate our suffering is the worst thing we could possibly do, since this only feeds the ego's need for comfort and security.
Given the credible possibility that our search for an egoless state may in fact be regressive, this presentation will expose the dualistic nature of egolessness. In parallel we will also disclose the distortion in fixating on an experience of oneness or transcendence. In so doing we will reveal a way of being wherein egoism and egolessness, duality and non-duality, embodiment and transcendence cease to be obstacles or achievements.
It is not that the self is unnecessary. Of course it is necessary given the nature of human beings. A child grown with an uncertain sense of self can be very disturbed; an Alzheimer's patient without a memory of self can be terrified. However though we need it, it may be less solid than we think. Some spiritually oriented psychologists today are beginning to acknowledge that the conscious mind may collect around it a self as a survival mechanism: a means to interpret and relate to the world and thus to negotiate a safe journey through it. As we rely on it, it has to appear to be solid, trusty and reliable.
In the spiritual path, the self is seen as an obstacle to real knowing. It contracts consciousness around itself, and prevents us from dissolving in the sea of global awareness - the cosmic consciousness. The habit of self is extremely strong; strong enough block this experience of dissolution ('laya') for almost everybody. The strength of the habit of self lies in the need that we have to relate to the world from the position of the self; it is continually reinforced by every thought and experience through which the world is interpreted. Our fundamental insecurity, which requires us to construct the self in the first place, supports it by attachments and aversions. Further, the continual re-inforcing of the self is an unconscious process. Most of the habit of self lies in the unconscious out of reach of our conscious intention. Indeed most of our life we simply identify with the self, react from it, but never actually notice it.
All spiritual practices make the self-process less automatic. Devotion, suffering and transference on guru or teacher can help to make the self less dominant. There is a story of a student asking his rabbi why, today, people cannot see God any more as they used to. He answered 'because today we cannot stoop so low'. We are caught up in our big self, in the head, and cannot get underneath it. Another way of looking at this process is one of cleansing; our contact with the world is contaminated by the self and its need to interpret. We must purify our perception. As William Blake said: "If the doors of perception were cleansed, then everything would be seen as it is, infinite."
However the Buddhist and non-dual paths take a rather different approach. There is no need to climb up the mountain because you are already on the top. In every moment of perceiving the world, there is already a pure cosmic contact. The self appears only in the process of recognition and interpretation. This process of recognition and interpretation requires memory and discursive thought, and is therefore not in the present moment. The present moment is essentially self-less, and so the gateway to the wisdom of the infinite. The loss of self occurs in the moment of true attention. And what is this true attention? As Krishnamurti says, if you see a snake in your room, that moment is a moment of true attention! Buddhist practices of awareness require the practitioner to repeatedly enter a space of being fully present in the moment. Every thought, every perception, every feeling, is allowed, received, and acknowledged, without the usual responses and interpretations that are the essential food of the self-process. Starved of its usual diet of attachments and aversions, the self-process loosens its grip on perception. Eventually a more expansive global kind of knowing takes its place.
Living and acting from this panoramic perspective is the joy of spiritual life.
Consider the fact that when two persons walk down the street together, each notices different things, depending upon the mental commentary passing in their mind.
Where do such mental commentaries, daydreams, fears, desires, and dissatisfactions come from? The Yoga Siddhas and modern psychologists agree: from the subconscious mind, that place where all of our memories, habits, desires and fears are stored.
Patanjali has defined yoga in verse number 2 of his "Sutras", nearly 2,000 thousand years ago as:
Their prescription for our mental illness is summarized in the following statement: "The amount of happiness in life is proportional to one's self discipline". Another surprising statement, particularly in the context of our modern tendency to associate happiness with indulgence. Rarely do we associate the word "discipline" with "happiness". "Discipline" in our Western materialistic culture is usually associated with something imposed upon us by those who have authority over us. But the Siddhas were speaking of "self discipline". One has only to consider again the happiest day of one's life: why did the happiness disappear?
Holding onto happiness is like trying to grasp water: it slips through our fingers. Its fleeting nature causes us to continually seek more favorable circumstances where it can be retained indefinitely. As long as one continues to seek it in transitory external circumstances, which come and go like dreams, one is bound to be disappointed.
Most of us are like persons who go to the cinema and get involved in the film-show. It is not until the end of the film that we realize that it was a film; so also, it is not until the end of our life that we realize it was a dream-like film. However, a few individuals realize in the middle of the film, that it is only a film. What is real is the screen upon which the passing film images are projected. We call this an awakening. Awakening from the dream is to never lose sight of the fundamental Reality, the Presence of God.
What prevents us from awakening? The ego. The ego is the habit of identifying with ones thoughts. Most of what we do or think is based upon habit. Self-discipline involves acting and thinking with awareness. We may have thoughts, but we are not the thoughts, and maintain an awareness: mental activity itself becomes the object of observation.
"Kriya Yoga" is a series of techniques to bring awareness into all 5 planes of existence: physical, vital, mental, intellectual and spiritual, through 5 categories of corresponding techniques or "Kriyas". These include physical postures of relaxation, various practices of breathing and meditation, the use of mantras or potent sounds syllables repeated in silence, and the cultivation of devotion.
The goal of Kriya Yoga is summarized in the words of Babaji Nagaraj, that great Himalayan master who developed it:
With regards to the dissolution of the ego, the teachings of the 18 Siddhas, whose members included two of Babaji's gurus may be illustrated by citing from Siddhar Thirumoolar's "Thirumandiram: A Classic of Yoga and Tantra". We have published it for the first time in an English translation:
Thirumandiram, Verse 2082
Think of gold jewelry,
Thought of gold metal is not,
Think of gold metal,
Thought of jewelry is not,
Think of sense organs, Self is not
Think of Self, sense organs are not.
Think of wood
Image of toy elephant recedes
Think of toy elephant
Image of wood recedes
Think of elements five,
Thoughts of Param recedes;
Think of Param (the Supreme)
Thought of elements recedes."
Thirumandiram, Verse 2289-90
Into the thousand-petalled lotus (in Sahasrara)
The Kundalini fire shot up fierce
And as with the fat of my heart's love,
I made it blaze.
She the Sakti appeared,
She the Jewel of worlds all;
The one, he died, my Egoity
And the One, He appeared, my Siva."
Thirumandiram, Verse 2978
"When you have, limitless become,
Who in limit, are you to see?
When you have, yourself,
He become,
Who are you to think of?
The Eyes that vanquished the God of love,
When are they in longing to look for?
Tell me, yourself, the real Truth."
Thirumandiram, Verse 2954
We deeply believe that we are what we see, e.g. the body, the mind, the emotions. Since our childhood, the family and society have taught us that our identity is what is written in our administrative papers: age, size, morphological description, sex and social position.
These data are usually not questioned.
It is only in specific situations that we can be lead to inquire into the reality of these beliefs.
After a trauma or during some moments of special intensity, sometimes we become confused by what we think ourselves to be.
When the usual references to the past, the memory, are upset, a perplexity arises, inducing a need for a deeper exploration of what we are.
At this moment, the question of "who am I" becomes acute.
Until we know the answer to this question, death will remain an anxious problem.
The belief that we are this body, this object that we can observe, and the thought "I", goes with an instinctive fear of disappearance. Conditioned patterns are set up for protecting this body and identity.
Has this belief a basic reality or is it only a reaction to fear?
A feeling of insecurity is present and pushes us to constantly look for situations which release our anxiety.
But can a security be found?
The body must die or be split up into its former elements.
Can death be approached from another perspective?
This will be the aim of our dialogue.
In order to view things through the eye of the ancient Chinese tradition, we will make use of the word combination that unites the currents that run through this culture: Yin and Yang. These two words describe reality and emphasize the unity of contrasts, the relativity and holism that are linked together. They constitute a model that allows for the arrangement of phenomena and their efficient categorization. For example: space/time, day/night, body/soul. The bringing together of East and West, allows for the presentation of Ego as Yang, namely the external/active/mental. The Yin as the internal/ passive/intuitive.
A further approach to these word combinations allows for the view of ego in a further light, the story of creation according to Chinese cosmology: First there was chaos - a potential that held all possibilities, yet lacking all division and distinction. Lighter "matter" rose to heaven and formed a reservoir of Yang. Weightier "matter" descended to earth and formed a reservoir of Yin. Thus came about the division that created polarity and duality. Then the Yang descended from heaven and the Yin rose from earth, and thus were created the beings of our world.
In order to describe the Yin and Yang, the traditional painter takes a round piece of wood and paints it black. This is the initial Yin. Using red paint, he then indicates the north, which symbolizes the beginning of order, the beginning of time. With the same red paint, he draws the red fish which represents the Yang. Simultaneously, and passively, the black fish is formed which represents the secondary Yin - as opposed to the initial one. Creating the symbol clarifies their different meanings, and, despite the differences, they work together to nurture the cycle of life.
In the development processes of the human psyche there are a number of stages which can be understood with the use of this model:
I think that this conclusion is supported by the psychological insights of the founder of analytical psychology-- Carl Gustav Jung, and by the respective religious legacies of the three Abrahamic faiths as well as various spiritual teachers who break open insight into personal wholeness, meaning and thus the source of inner peace.
A prerequisite of getting in touch with our God-image is first in being still-- of being quiet within, of being aware that in our silence we are bathed in Holy light and stand on Holy ground. I have long thought it most important that the first word in the Shema is the imperative to LISTEN. "SHEMA!" You--Listen! ... be quiet ... be still. Cease all activity. Listening, being still is a requisite for the discovery of inner peace.
Psychology can assist theology because, in Jung's words, "the archetypes of the unconscious can be shown empirically to be the equivalents of the (imprint) of the God-image" 1. The human psyche reflects the typos (type) of the God-image. While religion looks to the imprinter, psychologies investigate the imprint. Together we shall be looking into the imprint and the nature of the imprinter 2.
Even if our orientation is atheistic or agnostic there is a God-image to reject, and something always fills that void. Most often that something is our Ego. Jung was aware of this reality. When our Egos become our God-image there is what Jung speaks of as "inflation"-- an expansion of the personality beyond its proper limits by identification with the persona. (Jung's term for the masks we wear in life in our manifold life roles). It produces an exaggerated sense of one's self-importance and is usually compensated by feelings of inferiority" 3.
In a letter Jung wrote a distressed woman patient he noted: "Yes, your trouble has very much to do with the dissolution of the ego. It is the ego that doubts, hesitates, lingers, has emotions of all sorts, etc... The ego wants explanations always in order to assert its existence. Try to live without the ego... Don't allow yourself to be led astray by the ravings of the animus (the masculine principle in the unconscious of woman; men have the female counterpart -- the anima in their unconscious)" 4. The animus (in woman) and (the anima in men) will try every stunt to get a person out of the realization of stillness, which is truly the Self.
Jung's insight was that religious expression itself is a part of the collective psyche and not, as Freud claimed, a neurotic illusion.
For Jung the personal self, yourself, involves a dynamic image of a Higher Self and this image of you, your Higher self, is based on your God-Image.
How, you ask, is this image encountered? How does this awareness take place? We each have our stories for they are all personal and individual yet, within each, there is universality.
In his youth Jung had a dream in which he was moving slowly and painfully against a mighty wind. Dense fog was rolling in everywhere. His hands were cupped around a tiny light that threatened to go out at any moment. Everything depended on his keeping this little light alive. When he awoke, he realized that the light was his consciousness. Though infinitely small and fragile in comparison with the powers of darkness, it is, Jung writes, a light our only light and the sole treasure that each of every one of possesses 5.
Our individual God-Image, encountered in our Stillness, is unique and yet universal. Unique in the sense our understanding of our "light" is internal and private and universal in that every person comes to his or her understanding of this light. Such moments as these are those of Holy insight.
Our encountering and awareness of the light within, the Divine within, the Holy within is the energy and understanding which produces inner peace. Inner peace is the result of internalizing this spark of light, spark of the divine which is our essence.
It is always a enlightening experience for me when I take a question to the Abrahamic scriptures found in the Torah and Writings of the Jewish Scriptures, and to the Bible of the Christian and the Qur'anic writings holy to Muslims.
Why take off one's shoes? Yes, we've come to understand this act as one of reverence. This is true, but perhaps much more. Shoes protect the feet from stones, and pebbles which may be on the ground when we walk. We walk more carefully when we have our shoes off. Metaphorically we walk more softly, more carefully before the Holy-- the source of Being itself. We need not fear that which insulate us from walking softly with God, of listening acutely and beholding the Holy in our lives .
We each may have things we need to protect us from the Divine. We wear shoes to protect ourselves. We need not be afraid to encounter the Holiness of the Divine within.
In the Qur'an, we read (Ch. 6:128): "For them is the abode of peace with their Lord, and he is their Friend because of their works". Peace is one of the names of God, in this expression the "abode of God is the presence of God".
Our sense of inner peace, as whole human beings, is rooted in our internalized and integrated personal understanding of our God-Image.
During this conference, we are privileged to hear from many who have sought and been nourished by this light of consciousness, as Carl Jung remarked in one of his dreams: "... the sole treasure that each of us possesses".
May we gain wisdom and insight during our shared time together. Amen.
Notes:
Going towards death
A walk in the understanding of death
Man as an image of God
Man as a person
Man before the electing God
The 'death' of the Ego in Christian tradition
Submitting to the hands of the divine vinedresser
To be opened to fruitfulness.
Freely to abstain from all what is not conductive to wholeness
Glory as our destiny
The riddle will only be solved when we see Him face to face.
"Now I know only imperfectly, but then I shall know as I am myself known". (1 Cor. 13:12)
E.J. Gold, an eclectic American spiritual master, tackles this subject in his Sufi 'Book of Sacrifices'. According to Gold, the very first sacrifice to be made on the path of transformation is the Loss of Peace of Mind. Until you have lost your peace of mind, until you have been deeply disturbed, you have no chance of further awakening. This is a sacrifice which you, actually, don't make - it has already been made for you by the effort of the others. It is because of their work that you have been disturbed. Thanks very much! But this is a necessary step. I would say that it is like losing your virginity: once it is gone you go on from there. It makes no sense to go back and try to reconstruct it (1). The next sacrifice, and the first one that you can make voluntarily, is the Sacrifice of Comfort. You give up your attachment to you creature comforts. Eventually you will have to sacrifice your sense of self as well, but trying to do that prematurely has little value or no value.
In traditional Sufi teaching, we find the term 'fana' which means 'annihilation' of the self. The master that I follow, Murat Yagan, represents a Sufi tradition that traces itself back to the Caucasus Mountains, not only before the Prophet Muhammad, but before Father Abraham. According to Murat, 'fana' is the Station in which you recognize that you are nothing separate from God. According to Murat, this being 'nothing in God' is different form being 'nothing in creation'. The image that comes to my mind is that of an apple. You can take the peel off an apple, removing the outer cover which contains certain nutrients and prevents it from turning brown. You can try to get ride of your ego. But the experience of 'fana' is more like removing the core of the apple, leaving an open center.
According to the oral tradition of the Prophet Muhammad, God says: "I was a hidden treasure which yearned to be known". God also says: "Neither My seven heavens nor My seven earths contain Me, but the heart of my faithful believer contains Me". The 'I' of God already exists at the core of the creation, within us. It is our task to uncover 'It'. The way to God is through the self. Muhammad also said: "Who knows one's self knows one's Lord". But for our purposes, his most important saying may be this: "Our task is not to be harmless. Our task is to be useful".
Every spiritual master I have studied with, and every tradition that I have studied, has an ego of its own. Saying "You'd better give up your ego" could be just a way to get you to serve somebody else's ego. I am not saying that this is to be entirely avoided. There may be a value to submitting yourself to some framework outside yourself, but surely there's got to be more to it than that.
At this point I think it's time we asked, what exactly do we mean by "ego"? Murat defines ego as "the self-righteousness of the intellect". The Arabic word amr carries the same double meaning as the English word 'order'. It means both making order out of chaos and giving commands, ordering people around. We use our intelligence to make sense of the world, and then we try to impose the story we've worked out on our surroundings - whether or not it happens to fit in a given situation. That whole tendency of imposing our concept of order and defending it mentally is what is meant by ego. So according to Kezbeh, the inner tradition of the Caucasus mountains, as well as according to certain Sufi teachings that reflect those original teachings, the idea is not to try to get rid of this whole apparatus. The idea is to allow ego to be transformed, under the influence of divine grace and guidance.
There is one power which has the ability to transform ego, and that is love. But what do we mean by love? There is the love of the lovable, which ranges from the love of sensual pleasure to the love of things that have sentimental value, including reassured doctrines and philosophies - all of which are different from the love of love itself. What exists beyond ego is not egolessness, nor the corporate ego of a certain person or institution, but what might be called true will, or the Will of God.
But how do we get from here to there, from ego to will? How do we transform our own ego, respecting ourselves and others, respecting the world of form instead of throwing it away? The process is one of exposing the ego to love, and letting love work on ego directly. The experience of this process is often embarrassing and unpleasant. The problem is that we often don't know the difference between our ego and the expression of our love. It is by expressing ourselves and observing the impact we are having on others and our own state, that we learn. Ego in action can be refined by love - not killed or rejected, but refined. I have no short-cuts for addressing this process that I can propose at this point. But I can say that transformation is a process that we learn by doing, by opening and exposing ourselves within the field of love.
The work of this non-profit association has been developed in several ways:
Rambana Institute for Self-Realization
Email: spiramed@essence-euro.org