Attachment is to emphatically be someone.
Nonattachment means the freedom to be no one.
-
Nagarjuna
In the spiritual
sense, ego means holding onto a false sense of identity. It is attachment to an embodied self which is
limited in space, time and possibilities.
In that attachment we forget that we are multidimensional beings with
the physical body being the outermost shell.
It is like believing that we are the clothes we wear or the cars we
drive. It is belief in a fictional
narrative, a hypnotic induction aided and abetted by our friends, family and
culture. In this sense we can understand
yoga as a means of dehypnotization.
Waking up is scary
business for most of us simply because we have become so deeply imbedded in our
personal storylines. We are emotionally
invested in our BS, our belief systems.
The ego is a false belief system that has lodged in our unconscious mind
and created a false reality. Our
essential nature is not influenced by our thoughts and beliefs. It simply is.
It doesn’t subscribe to categories such as time and space or you and
me. There are no sinners or saints,
worthy or unworthy, good or evil beings.
There is only awareness.
There is a lot of
stress involved in being an ego. We have
to work full time to maintain the illusion of a self. It takes constant mental energy to create,
revise, update and keep our storyline going.
We have to prove ourselves, compare ourselves to others, compete, judge
ourselves and others, worry about our appearance, social status, finances,
health, etc. Ego is the source of desire,
anger, greed, jealousy, pride and fear. Ego
can never afford to relax because it feels itself to be constantly threatened
from within and without.
The Yoga Sutras
outline five kleshas or afflictions that beset us in this existence, five
things that condition us to suffer.
First of all is avidya – ignorance of our true nature as beings of
consciousness. Out of ignorance the
second affliction, asmita – ego attachment arises. Ego is then conditioned by the other three
afflictions: raga – desire, dwesha – aversion and abhinivesa – the fear of
death. Once we have forgotten our spiritual
essence we descend into the dark world of the ego.
When we are
identified with ego we look outside ourselves for fulfillment. We seek happiness in other people,
possessions, accomplishments, etc. The
problem is that real happiness cannot be found in any of the ephemeral objects
of the world. Real happiness is latent
within us waiting for us to recognize it.
We spend our lives seeking for approval, gratification, security,
enlightenment, etc. All of these are
already within us as our true Self.
Instead of looking for happiness we are the source of happiness. Instead of seeking love we are love. All of the things that we are obsessed with
in this world become irrelevant when we recognize our true nature as
love-bliss-awareness.
Western psychology
sees the ego quite differently. However,
there are some similarities. Freud was
responsible for developing the concept of the ego as a psychological
entity. He wrote, “The ego is first and
foremost a body ego . . .” So, in a
sense there is a general agreement that our sense of identity is rooted in our
physical form. From here we can
understand that one’s ego develops through the potentials within us – physical,
vital-emotional and mental. In other
words developmental psychology recognizes the first three koshas, or layers of
our existential being. Because Western
psychology is based in the truncated world view of scientific-materialism it is
resistant to recognizing the higher/deeper levels of our beings.
From the Western
perspective healthy ego-development is the epitome of psychological
health. It is very true that we need to
learn to control our impulses, relate rationally and learn to accept life on
its terms to some extent. In fact it is
essential before we can enter true spiritual development. Spiritual development begins when we are able
to turn our attention away from the objects of the world and look within. This is not at all the same as retreating
into fantasy (primary process) in order to avoid facing reality. Meditation leads to the development of a
transrational process associated with the ability to observe one’s mind
objectively. The mind is not the
observing self; it is not consciousness but an ever-changing object of
consciousness. The ego is basically a
self-referential construct within the mind.
It is a handy construct within our day-to-day affairs but it is a
cognitive and social fabrication.
Patanjali defines
asmita, “egoness”, as a mistaken identification of consciousness with the
instruments of knowing, i.e. mind and senses.
The body and mind are a means through which we experience this dream
that we call reality. They are the
“instruments” of experience. They are
very valuable instruments. A healthy
body and a sane mind are true gifts for which we must be grateful. On the other hand, our essential being is
neither body nor mind. It is pure
awareness. Or as Ram Dass and Rameshwar
Das put it, “The ego is based on fear, but the soul is based on love.” (Be Love
Now: The Path of the Heart) As we move
from our identification with the ego-self to a more expansive awareness we
naturally become more open, loving and happy.
In a May 2013 article
in Psychology Today entitled This Is Your Brain on Meditation, Rebecca
Gladding, M.D. outlines changes in the brain’s functioning which occur through
meditation practice that reduce the activity of the medial prefrontal cortex and
its connections to the insula and amygdala.
She describes the medial prefrontal cortex as the “Me Center” of the
brain. It is involved with the process
of self-referencing information. The
insula is associated with bodily sensations and the amygdala with fear. Looking at the “Me Center” and its
connections the body and “Fear Center,” we can see how the brain mirrors this
ego concept quite literally.
Meditation also
strengthens the functioning of the lateral prefrontal cortex or “Assessment
Center.” It is the part of the brain
that allows you to “look at things from a more rational, logical and balanced perspective.” As Dr. Gladding further explains, it is “involved
in modulating emotional responses (originating from the fear center or other
parts of the brain), overriding automatic behaviors/habits and decreasing the
brain’s tendency to take things personally (by modulating the Me Center of the
brain . . .)” Here we have a research-based neurological model of the
fear-based ego and the means of transcending it through meditation.
The ego-center of
the brain is implicated in states of depression and anxiety which are based in
self-referencing in negative ways. When
we engage in constant comparison and judgment, dwell in the past or continually
try to imagine the future we create these distressing states of mind. When we are fixated on “I, me, mine,” we are
prone to defensive fear and aggressive violence. This is the primary problem in
relationships. It is the primary problem
in society and in the world. Our collective
consciousness is seeking to evolve beyond the narrow, narcissistic fixation of
the ego. We are seeking the shift into a
new consciousness, a new awareness.
Meditative practices are essential in helping us in this direction.
Love actually
requires that we are able to be rational and objective. In order to experience love we need to step
outside of our compulsive self-referencing and allow a greater force to enter
our lives. Love is not passion although
passion can be involved. Love is
definitely not possession, jealousy, envy, pride or anger. Our emotional responses are tied into our
ego-identity. Love allows us to let go,
transcend ego and open to the expanse of being.
At the same time loving awareness allows us to accept all of our
thoughts and feelings without fear or judgment.
We recognize them as temporary states of our evolving identities. That is, up until we realize that we are none
other than the love-bliss-awareness itself.
Reference: www.psychologytoday.com/blog/use-your-mind-change-your-brain/201305/is-your-brain-meditation
