Food for your mind, or ego?

 
 

X-Sender: bala@mail.apic.net (Unverified)
Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 21:40:21 +1000
To: agamicpsychology@egroups.com
From: Bala Pillai <bala@tamil.net>
Subject: [agamicpsychology]
 
 

Below's Dr Loganathan's response.
anbudan../bala

Rajan wrote:-

I, me and my ego

The problem with ego is its fragmented view of the world. That's it. There is no other problem, whatsoever. The usual complaints against the ego being selfish, proud, etc. don't matter.

>>>>>>>
Loga

This is not the central problem. The problem with Ego is its reluctance to face its own death, it's continuous DESIRE to be ASSERTIVE and in that producing various views of its own construction called ThaRpootham in Tamil. The DEATH we talk about is actually the BACKGROUNDING of the ego functioning of the self and FOREGROUNDING      the   BEING (God) functioning which can be real only if ego functioning is withdrawn. The views are not simply fragmented, they are asaththu, .i.e. always pointing towards something other  than itself and possibly HIGHER like a step while climbing up on a hill. Each step while providing  a vision of its own,  also shows  there are the YET TO BE SEEN
waiting yonder as a possibility for oneself to SEE . The Asaththu points towards the  Saththu and both together the SIVASATHTHU, the ABSOLUTE
>>>>>>>>>
Rajan

Hindu writings, mostly, as well as most other religions, in general, frequently speak of the folly of ego.
But why on earth should we get rid of it? Unless you seek the truth of everything around you, the true truth and no less, we don't have to concern ourselves with the so-called problems caused by the ego.
>>>>>>
Loga

The truths found with ego functioning of the anma can NEVER be absolutistic for it always come with CUTTU, referentiality, always within a " this" or "that". Hence always with some kind of TIME consciousness either in the form Physical Time or Temporality, the Psychological Time. Whatever understanding that churns out notions within TEMPORALITY can never be the absolute but only something that  can be displaced and subverted. This is the problem caused by the Ego---   a strong desire to function within spatiotemporal notions. To be without TIME is NOT easy at all but this is the MEANING  of all our struggles specially the religious.
>>>>>>>>>>
Rajan

If we do seek the truth of everything however, the ego is undesirable in the most unequivocal terms. It interferes,   and clouds the issues involved by participating in the investigations into truth and having its own puny demands on the results of the discoveries of our investigations.
>>>>>>>
Loga

What really interferes and cloudies the understansding is MAALAM and its derivatives maayaa maalam and kanma maalam. These are extrapersonal but within all interfering continuously with the cognitive functioning of self. These are the agents of DISTORTION, of  EVIL and DEATH. The self that is
assertive functions with these cloudying elements that  distort the SEEING and generating understanding that can be wrong, misleading , prejudiced etc.

>>>>>>>
Rajan

Mostly, the true truth is revolting to our ego and mind (which in man in general is no more and no less than the workhorse of the ego.) To presumethat we can reason with our mind, and that we can disengage our ego from our mental deliberations is incorrect. The first order of the day is to struggle with the mind, understand its nature (not its thinking processes, ideas, etc.) and come to a realization that the mind as we perceive it is a projection of the ego; the master of the mind always remains the ego.

>>>>>>
Loga

The " mind" is not the projection of the Ego. The self funtions with the Ego-sense producing psychic structures: manam, buddhi ahangkaaram and siththam. Here manam is the self functioning one-wtith the sense organs of the eyes etc.The reasoning and refelective acts  sets in when the self functions with Buddhi and which happens when the senses provide enormous amount of informatiom. Then arises The 'I"ness i.e. "I see " I like" "I don't like".  When the self functions with Siththam, the I'ness is lost and
the self  functions as dictated by the Unconscious. When it dislodges even this Siththam, the self is with BEING and is motivated to act further only because of Thirothakam, BEING concealing itself in order to initiate the genuinely metaphysical developments. The 'mind" fabricating structures manam etc are always there but only that self dislodges itself from functioning with them gradually.
>>>>>>>>.

Rajan

We've got be real vigilant that our reasoning and deliberations of the mind do not nullify or reduce the importance of the ego. The consequences of the ego turning its fury on its disobedient servant, the mind can be horrendous. How often have we known and heard of men and women entrusted with high office very suddenly and unexpectedly turning around and committing a crime that is so very poignant in its clash of opposites?

>>>>>>>>>
Loga

Need not be horrendous provided there is philosophical education of the right kind and the genuinely religious life is followed in existence. There will be pain and sorrow but the religious kind of life is such that there is always HELP of kind that avoids personal disasters of the serious kind. We must also realize that development follows the SObAnamuRai,i.e. something that takes place  in slow stages . One cannot simply LEAP towards the higher just like that.
>>>>>>>>>>
Rajan

What then?

The mind taking on a struggle against the ego has 2 requirements.

On the one hand, the person attempting this has to be a very strong individual who is highly evolved mentally and already struggling very hard in the battle to dethrone the ego and put the universal spirit in its place. Secondly, the mind has to be already evolved sufficiently to perceive that there is a universal higher mind far different in nature from the sense-mind, a derivative of the ego.
>>>>>>>
Loga
Agreed. Only that I wouldn't  call the higher as a universal mind though universality is an  essential ingredient. I use the term BEING which is the real meaning of SIVA, that which provides beings variuos kinds of Being-in-the-World as such.
>>>>>>>>
Rajan

Any attempt with less than these requisites will create a backlash from the ego so horrendous, it could lead to eventual insanity, pure and simple

.>>>>>
Loga

Caution is necessary but NOT fear. A simple unassumimg RELIGIUOS LIFE avoids all such fears. Allow BEING to instruct you , take you along and you are very safe.
>>>>>>>>
Rajan

Our deliberations could lead us to believe that man is wrong in everything today. We could will ourselves and struggle to rid ourselves of undesirable habits, characteristics, etc. Unless our nature is already highly evolved and consequently ready to shrink and eventually topple the ego from its alter, the ego will demand its full pound of flesh and more, and reduce each and every one of our principles, premises, thoughts and deliberations to less than zero. The convoluted reactions of the affected person will be totally along the original demands of the ego, and with the mind now totally defeated, could well be the action of the devil.

>>>>>>>
Loga

We cannot avoid thinking and constructing. But when we are OPEN and ready to allow the NEW to shape our understanding  and assume the HERMENEUTICAL attitude and LIVE by the UNDERSTANDING that is generated as we  go along, we shall go deeper and deeper, discard the previous and reformulate it and atthe end LEARN that it is not necessary to do that. The intellectual strugles comes to a natural cessation when the PEAK is reached.



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