Thoughts on the purpose and formation of the Ego.

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written by Chandra Mohan Jain(Prof. of Phil.)

Some ideas for your consideration.

http://deoxy.org/egofalse.htm

This kind of psychology is so stupid its almost intolerable. Right off the bat it goes "A child is born without any knowledge, any consciousness of his own self." And how do we know that exactly? When a baby is born it wants to feed. Desire can not exist without innate knowledge or self awareness regardless of how advanced or undeveloped it is. Babies cry because they want attention. Babies in orphanages stop crying after awhile for attention of they are not picked up and held when they need to be. In addition we already know that babies who are still in the womb can feel pain, suck their thumb, react to music, react to the emotions of the mother, ect. . . A baby does not just magically pop into existence once it exits the vagina as this guy claims.

Its the kind of crap that people who have never experienced a healthy dose of psychedelics talk about.

I am not trying to attack you Slave, those are just my thoughts.

I read part of the link, but disagree with it from a fundamental perspective. In my opinion, ego is something that establishes during early childhood, probably by or around the "terrible twos" and evolves over one's lifetime. It is a working model of the individual that allows forward planning of events. Hmmm. This is more difficult for me to explain than I thought. When an individual finds himself in a particular situation his mind/brain runs simulations predicting favourable outcomes depending on what he does or says. Similarly if someone interacts with the individual is this interaction positive or negative - one way of determining this is by comparison to the internal ego model - is the ego supported or negated by the interaction? If someone described you as a nerd - this may be a compliment or an insult depending on your ego model. Thus your response will be ego based. Our minds are continually running simulations about the future or currently happening events - our self referential model in those simulations is the ego. We think that our real nature IS this ego, but that is an illusion, it is merely a mental construct, a set of parameters and conditioned responses that we mistake to be ourselves and our personality.

I have read many of the works of Osho, but he catered too much to a 'western audience' (of which I am ironically a member).

I could have written a book like that myself, based upon the Brihadaranyaka and Chāndogya Upanishads with a bit of the Tao Teh Ching mixed in for good measure (which is all Osho really did there).

In the whole 'essence' of everything....here it goes...

The ego was 'created' (for lack of a better word) to put up a barrier between this false reality (called Maya), the interactions within this false reality (called Mithya) and the total, absolute and undeniable Truth called Brahman or Maha Deva.

When one can 'bypass' the ego (there's too much emphasis on 'dropping' it) and achieve this ultimate realisation that 'Thou art THAT' (even though 'thou' is still egocentric), one has entered the state of Nirvana/Moksha/Samadhi (whatever you like to call it).

We all think that 'we' matter....that 'we' can 'own' things (the local council/taxation office owns everything), but having to accept that all you have ever known, have ever been led to believe is all just a huge lie, many people cannot accept it because they have been conditioned (basically since birth) to simply live the myth.

I learned all this through the total depersonalisation of my ego character at the hands of the rest of humanity...I became a 'nobody', but then I became a 'God', so I should thank my fellow man, really. If it wasn't for their ignorance, I would have remained ignorant also.

Aspies have the natural tendency to instinctively 'know' this stuff. I just decided to take it one step further.

*and before anybody criticises my use of personal pronouns as they relate to my 'ego self', I gotta use the English language somehow.

This is what Osho was talking about (I never followed him though, I belong to the Trika school of Kashmir Shaivism. I am a student of pure Tantra).

I believe I have enough recollection to remember a time I may not have had an ego, although I acknowledge all great works that say you can not.

I believe what I remember was being an "awareness machine" going about on the floor feeling, inspecting, learning; I have some specific sharp memories of this time.

I believe this is where/when you begin to lay down patterns concerning everything, also about yourself. I can see how these patterns, being relied on for our animal existence and safety, might take on a "supreme" position and then come before awareness.

Now your ego is in charge.