Ego

The third step in the Spiritual Journey

What is this ego? It is such a wonder that just thought can create such a powerful illusion, which results in weaving multiple worlds based on this illusionary self.  If we dig deep into this topic, we may find many fascinating theories and explaining the ego-self. In this context, I am sure many of us would have come across a popular theory, that there is just one mind - the universal mind and the individual minds are just reflections of that whole.

As mentioned earlier, I would like to emphasize that it is good to know these theories. Still, their usefulness is only when we can realize or experience this through our practices and experiments.

There are many practices available and recommended by various masters.  I followed the practice of mindfulness.  Hence sharing the same here. 

We can practice mindfulness by sitting in silence, watching the thoughts, and mindfully letting them go and not getting attached to any single thought.

After 3 months into this practice of sitting in silence for 45 minutes every day, I followed the same mindfulness while doing every activity.  Initially, being mindful is going to be very difficult. Nonetheless, through continuous practice, this can be achieved to the extent that you can catch me, I & mine thought pretty much every time that arises.

Doing this practice, soon enough, one can notice that the body's activities happen by itself; as we all know, it has been so well-conditioned, and these activities happen effortlessly.  When we insert the doership, one can see clearly that these activities appear like a humongous task and create various problems.  This deliberation of doership is done by most of us most of the time.  It is very deep-rooted conditioning; hence in due course of time, the mind will achieve some perfection level.

During this practice, the first wonderful aha moment is the realization that the ego-self does not think, but the thoughts arise in such a way that gives an illusion that this ego-self is thinking.

Once we attach ourselves to any single thought, multiple associated thoughts start flowing like a stream of water.  These thoughts are said to be coming from the memory field (in the universal mind).  This memory field is a collective field that binds and connects the entire beings of this world.

It is fascinating to note that these thoughts are like individual frames in a movie, though separate but appear like a single story.  With consistent practice and determination, the stream of thoughts can be channelized, and one can reach a level of perfection where one really begins to "think. Thinking has been so loosely used in common parlance without understanding its real magnanimity.  Thinking is what differentiates the human species from other species.  At this level of perfection is when the individual (illusory) mind connects with the universal mind and brings discoveries to the world.

Scholars have propounded every great insight only through this connection with the universal mind.

Hence there is no illusory self, and it doesn't do anything in this world. The Maya (nature) brings about any change according to the need of the hour in this universe channelling through this body-mind complex called human beings and makes possible the various discoveries.

There are no new inventions but only discoveries.

After continuous mindfulness practise with the knowledge of Self, another great revelation dawns upon oneself that Life is happening on its own, and I am just witnessing and experiencing it.  On the dawning of this realization, the mind-body complex goes through various sensual experiences.  Those are definitely fascinating to study but only serve the purpose of entertainment. These experiences are purely based on individual mind-body complex conditioning; hence, no generalizations can be made.  As there are numerous subsets of the superset, so various permutations and combinations can be provided as examples, but this is purely individual. Hence spiritual experiences are not a topic of discussion but can be used in the privacy with one's master to understand it and use it to progress in this journey.

In Maya, as we get the illusion of a separate self, we get the illusion of free will as well.  Hence the only will is to realize this Truth.  All this is merely a play of Maya; it chooses the ego-self, conditions it, and graces each one of us with this realization.  There is no effort of an individual self, and this knowledge is acquired only through Divine Grace.

Thanks!