Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00089)

The Nature of the Ego and Its Termination

Part I
The Ego as the Center of Conflict

In the prehuman stage consciousness has experiences, but these experiences
are not explicitly brought into relation with a central “I.” For example, a
dog may get angry, but it does not continue to feel “I am angry.” Even in
this case we find that the
Origin of egodog learns through some experiences and thus bases the action
of one experience on another; but this action is a result of a
semimechanical tension of connected imprints, or sanskaras. It is different
from the intelligent synthesis of experiences that the development of
“I”-consciousness makes possible. The first step in submitting the working
of isolated impressions to intelligent regulation consists in bringing them
all into relation with the center of consciousness, which appears as the
explicit limited ego. The consolidation of ego-consciousness is most clear
and defined from the beginning of human consciousness.
Human consciousness would be nothing more than a repository for the
accumulated imprints of varied experiences if it did not also contain the
principle of ego-centered integration, which expresses itself in the attempt
to organize and understand
Formation of egoexperience. The process of understanding experience implies
the capacity to hold different bits of experiences together as parts of a
unity and the capacity to evaluate them by their being brought into mutual
relationships. The integration of the opposites of experience is a condition
of emancipating consciousness from the thralldom of diverse compulsions and
repulsions, which tend to dominate consciousness irrespective of valuation.
The early attempts to secure such integration are made through the formation
of the ego as its base and center.
The ego emerges as an explicit and unfailing accompaniment to all the
happenings of mental life in order to fulfill a certain need. The part
played by the ego in human life may be compared to the function of ballast
in a ship. The ballast in a ship keeps it from oscillating too much. Without
it the ship is likely to be too
Ego arises to fulfill needlight and unsteady and is in danger of being
overturned by the lawless winds and waves. Thus mental energy would be
caught up endlessly in the multitudinous mazes of dual experience and would
all be wasted and dissipated if there were no provisional nucleus. The ego
takes stock of all acquired experience and binds together the active
tendencies born of the relatively independent and loose instincts inherited
from animal consciousness. The formation of the ego serves the purpose of
giving a certain amount of stability to conscious processes and also secures
a working equilibrium, which makes for a planned and organized life.
It would be a mistake, therefore, to imagine that the arising of the ego is
without any purpose. Though it arises only to vanish in the end, it does
temporarily fulfill a need that could not have been ignored in the long
journey of the soul. The ego is not
Necessary evilmeant to be a permanent handicap, since it can be transcended
and outgrown through spiritual endeavor. But the phase of ego formation must
nevertheless be looked upon as a necessary evil, which has to come into
existence for the time being.
The ego thus marks and fulfills a certain necessity in the further progress
of consciousness. However, since the ego takes shelter in the false idea of
being the body, it is a source of much illusion, which vitiates experience.
It is of the essence of the ego that it should feel separate from the rest
of life by
Ego creates divisions and separationcontrasting itself with other forms of
life. Thus, though inwardly trying to complete and integrate individual
experience, the ego also creates an artificial division between external and
internal life in the very attempt to feel and secure its own existence. This
division in the totality of life cannot but have its reverberations in the
inner individual life over which the ego presides as a guiding genius.
While always striving to establish unity and integration in experience, the
ego can never realize this objective. Though it establishes a certain kind
of balance, this balance is only provisional and temporary. The
incompleteness of its attainments is evident from the internal conflict that
is never
Ego becomes source of conflictsabsent as long as experience is being faced
from the point of view of the ego. From moment to moment the mind of man is
passing through a series of conflicts. The minds of great and distinguished
persons as well as the minds of common people are seen to be harassed by
conflicting desires and tendencies. Sometimes the conflict the mind is faced
with is so acute that the person concerned yields to the pressures, and
there is either a partial or total derangement of the mind. There is really
no vital difference between the normal and the so-called abnormal
individual. Both have to face the same problems; but the one can more or
less successfully solve his problems, and the other cannot solve them.
The ego attempts to solve its inner conflicts through false valuations and
wrong choices. It is characteristic of the ego that it takes all that is
unimportant as important and all that is important as unimportant. Thus,
although power, fame,
False valuationwealth, ability, and other worldly attainments and
accomplishments are really unimportant, the ego takes delight in these
possessions and clings to them as “mine.” On the other hand, true
spirituality is all-important for the soul, but the ego looks upon it as
unimportant.
For example, if a person experiences some bodily or mental discomfort while
doing work of spiritual importance, the ego steps in to secure the
unimportant bodily or mental comfort, even at the cost of giving up the
really important spiritual work. Bodily and mental comfort, as well as other
worldly attainments and accomplishments, are often necessary; but they are
not therefore important. There is a world of difference between necessity
and importance. Many things come to the ego as being necessary, but they are
not in themselves important. Spirituality, which comes to the ego as being
unnecessary, is really important for the soul. The ego thus represents a
deep and fundamental principle of ignorance, which is exhibited in always
preferring the unimportant to the important.
The mind rarely functions harmoniously because it is mostly guided and
governed by forces in the subconscious. Few persons take the trouble to
attain mastery over these hidden forces that direct the course of mental
life. The elimination of conflict is possible only through conscious control
over the
Conflicts solved through true valuationforces in the subconscious. This
control can be permanently attained only through the repeated exercise of
true valuation in all the cases of conflict presented to the mind.
If the mind is to be freed from conflict, it must always make the right
choice and must unfailingly prefer the truly important to the unimportant.
The choice has to be both intelligent and firm in all cases of conflict –
important as well as unimportant. It has
Need for intelligent and firm choicesto be intelligent because only through
the pursuit of true and permanent values is it possible to attain a poise
that is not detrimental to the dynamic and creative flow of mental life. An
unintelligent choice, if it is firm, may temporarily overcome conflict; but
it is bound in the long run to curtail the scope of life or to hamper the
fulfillment of the whole personality. Moreover, the conflict will surely
reappear in some other form if it has not been intelligently solved. An
intelligent solution, on the other hand, requires an insight into true
values, which have to be disentangled from false values. The problem of the
conflict of desires thus turns out to be the problem of conflicting values,
and the solution of mental conflict therefore requires a deep search for the
real meaning of life. It is only through wisdom that the mind can be freed
from conflict.
Having once known what the right choice is, the next step is to stick to it
firmly. Although the competing tendencies in the mind may be quieted by
choosing one particular course in preference to other alternatives, they
still continue to act as
Fidelity to right choiceobstacles in making the choice fully effective and
operative. At times there is a danger of a decision being subverted through
the intensification of those competing forces in the subconscious. To avoid
defeat, the mind must stick tenaciously to the right values it has
perceived. Thus the solution of mental conflict requires not only perception
of right values but also an unswerving fidelity to them.
An intelligent and firm choice, however, has to be repeatedly exercised in
all matters – small or great. For the ordinary worries of life are not in
any way less important than the serious problems with which the mind is
confronted in times of
True values must govern all matterscrisis. The roots of mental conflict
cannot completely disappear as long as there is only intermittent exercise
of intelligent and firm choice. The life of true values can be spontaneous
only when the mind has developed the unbroken habit of choosing the right
values. Three-quarters of our life is made up of ordinary things; and though
conflict concerning ordinary things may not cause much mental agony, it
still leaves in the mind a sense of uneasiness that something is wrong. The
conflicts that turn upon ordinary things are rarely even brought to the
surface of consciousness. Instead they cast a shadow on one’s general
feeling about life as if from behind a screen. Such conflicts have to be
brought to the surface of consciousness and frankly faced before they can be
adequately solved.
The process of bringing conflict to the surface of consciousness should not
degenerate, however, into a process of imagining conflict where there is
none. The sure sign of a real hidden conflict is the sense that the whole of
one’s heart is not in the
Hidden conflictsthought or action that happens to be dominant at the moment.
There is a vague feeling of a narrowing down or a radical restriction of
life. On such occasions an attempt should be made to analyze one’s mental
state through deep introspection, for such analysis brings to light the
hidden conflicts concerning the matter.
When the conflicts are thus brought to light it is possible to resolve them
through intelligent and firm choices. The most important requirement for the
satisfactory resolution of conflict is motive power or inspiration, which
can only come from a burning longing for some comprehensive ideal.
Longing for ideal as motive powerAnalysis in itself may aid choice, but the
choice will remain a barren and ineffective intellectual preference unless
it is vitalized by zeal for some ideal appealing to the deepest and most
significant strata of human personality. Modern psychology has done much to
reveal the sources of conflict, but it has yet to discover methods of
awakening inspiration or supplying the mind with something that makes life
worth living. This indeed is the creative task facing the saviors of
humanity.
The establishment of a true ideal is the beginning of right valuation. Right
valuation in turn is the undoing of the constructions of the ego, which
thrives on false valuation. Any action that expresses the true values of
life contributes toward
Disintegration of ego ends in realizing Truththe disintegration of the ego,
which is a product of ages of ignorant action. Life cannot be permanently
imprisoned within the cage of the ego. It must at some time strive toward
the Truth. In the ripeness of evolution comes the momentous discovery that
life cannot be understood and lived fully as long as it is made to move
around the pivot of the ego. Man is then driven by the logic of his own
experience to find the true center of experience and reorganize his life in
the Truth. This entails the wearing out of the ego and its replacement by
Truth-consciousness. The disintegration of the ego culminates in realizing
the Truth. The false nucleus of consolidated sanskaras must disappear if
there is to be a true integration and fulfillment of life.