Monday, September 19, 2011

Morning Thoughts 6 "Ego"

The concept of “self”. Ego is historically acknowledged as referring to self-identity or the “I” you mention. Sigmund Freud distinguished three major parts of the “self”, one of which included Ego.

He said Ego is our conscious trying to make sense of self, reality, perception, personality, awareness, judgment, tolerance, control, planning, defense, intellectual function, and memory. Ego desires to find balance between 1. Primitive Drives, 2. Reality, and 3. Personal Passions. Trying to find harmony among them brings out “anxiety”: Real anxiety in Reality, Moral anxiety with “Super-Ego”, and Neurotic anxiety with I.D.

I.D. = Personal Desires and Impulses/ Instant gratification and Self- interest

Super Ego = Governs goals, ideals, spiritual growth, and consciousness. It criticizes I.D. and our drives, actions, feelings, and fantasies that fall outside of our “ideal self”. Super Ego aims at Perfection.

Ego –the one put in charge of I.D. and Reality and Super Ego –tends to favor I.D.

So when I.D.’s issues conflict with reality, Ego likes to gloss over reality and make it appear nicer, while still believing it to be the full reality. Super Ego punishes Ego for doing this with Guilt, Anxiety, and a sense of Inferiority.

To overcome these insecurities Ego then uses defense mechanisms to cover them up: Denial, Displacement, Fantasy, Addiction, Projection, Over-rationalization, Elitism, Regression, Repression, Suppression, Dissociation, Idealization, Introjections… Especially when I.D. conflicts with Reality over issues of Society, Morals, Social norms, Expectations, Taboos…

Then Freud went off on a tangent that’s harder to explain. He said, since both men and women are raised and brought up in a world of both men and women, they have natural bisexual characteristics and both masculine and feminine tendencies.

Because a girl is has natural, masculine tendencies, if she is raised in a way where she feels confined to hyper-feminine roles, some girls react by acting or dressing more masculine and/or becoming lesbian –subconsciously as they grow up.

Boys, especially those raised with aggressive/controlling/dominant father figures, grow up instinctually fear conflict and inferiority among stronger males who will compete over females the boy is potentially attracted to. Animals are the same –fighting over females. He is then subconsciously more prone to feminine behavior and/or homosexuality.

Anyways, back to “Ego”. Ego via Buddhism and Spirituality is similar to Freud’s theory, but less detailed.

Ego =Conscious, instinctual reaction to reality that masks the Subconscious, True Self (or lack thereof). Ego thinks/worries about Past hurt and conflict and Future assurance of existence.

True Self = Being in this Current moment. (Hence the Buddhist emphasis on “Being Present”)

Samsara (the annoyingly redundant ocean of suffering through life we experience only to be reborn again and again and again…) is the True self dominated by Ego doomed for Reincarnation instead of Enlightenment.
Ego = an illusion. Ego is not aware of the True Self, only of itself and its own needs and desires.

To overcome Ego,

(1)            You need to be aware of your thoughts and emotions as they happen.

(2)             Slowly overtime you will become more aware of Ego and learn to overcome it.

(3)            Emotions and thoughts will then become more depersonalized and let go of. They are no longer attached to your True Self making you suffer from by the illusion of Ego.

(4)            Your own personal back story then becomes irrelevant. You focus more on your actions and achieving your goals.

(5)            Worry, stress, fear doubt, anger… no longer flood your mind.

“Atman” in Hinduism –a.k.a Being –is transparent, clear, impersonal, real, True, self. “I” is a collection of psychological defects whose only reason to exist is ignorance.

To be Being is to be Divine.

Being does not have a beginning and therefore will not have an end. Being is what Being is. Being is what has been and will always Be.

True Spirituality is divided into two separate parts. Ego is the mask Being is hidden behind. To overcome Ego you must observe, understand, and transcend the root of Ego’s motivation –which is to be a mask itself.

Ego wants to exist and rule over your Being. Since Ego creates a separation from True Self and attaches itself to reality, the past, the future, objects… it leads to Hate, Fear, Craving, Jealousy…

Since Hate Divides and Love Unites, Real Love Dissolves Ego.

This is why God led me to have 8 hours of sitting at a receptionist desk with nothing to do but look up things on Wikipedia.

Since I acknowledge Reincarnation exists, then who “I” am or who “I” have been implies several things:

1.    I led an entire life’s worth of existence once before –I suspect more than once actually.

2.    Who knows who “I” may have been before or what “I” may have done.

3.    None of it really matters. This current life is all I will have in this current moment. I will continue suffering Samsara until I rise above it through Love and Enlightenment.

4.    I need to detach myself from my Ego. Compassionate Detachment. Then I can succeed at my Eternal Existence.

5.    I’m going to be the best Being I can be. I will lead a spiritual existence, since that’s really all I am. I am a Spiritual Existence.

6.    I want people to grow spiritually as well. This means addressing their basic needs, help them overcome Ego, and find their True Selves.

What if this is Hell? It might as well be. We suffer here. We are not embraced in the Divine Light of God. We are souls trapped in a physical plane of existence. We are controlled by our flaws and the flaws others impose on us. We suffer emotionally, physically, and spiritually. And we have to work to pay our way in this place. We are essentially stuck here until we uplift ourselves to where we are truly meant to be. This is Hell. I want Up.

3:37pm September 19, 2011

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” - Albert Einstein
Added 3:45 pm November 30, 2011

2 comments:

  1. Nah, this place isn't hell. Hell is the place where God is not. A place where this is absolutely no satisfaction, no fulfillment, no happiness, no light ---- I know this place on earth seems bad but the graces, blessings, friends and God help us through.

    Imagine a place where one ever, ever gets what they want...where one never ever gets what they need...

    ...

    That's hell.


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