Not I - From the Paradoxes of Love

[sophia]

I've sometimes wondered how we could live in this physical world without any ego. I've imagined that those without their ego or mind would be like automatons or robots, comatose even.

I think to survive we'd have to live with two consciousnesses - that of the not-I and that of the I. I found this clipping from a book I was skimming through:

"Using the higher mind to remember what we really
are, we bring into ordinary consciousness the truth of
the ego’s non-being. We know that we are not what we
call “I.” In our everyday life the ego remains as a
vehicle of consciousness, a vehicle which we need in
order to function in the world. But gradually it ceases
to be the center of consciousness. This is what is meant
by the “death of the ego.”" ~The Paradoxes of Love, by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee books.google.com/books?id=8DWoCZHYSssC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0

[lightmystic]

That definately makes a lot of sense sophia, but my experience is slightly different (for what it's worth).

I find that ego is merely the concept that we are separate from everything else. This doesn't point to the feeling of it, bit it's a lot like thinking you are your finger dealing with the other "separate" fingers, or maybe other separate parts of the body, and then discovering that you're actually you: the whole body. What, then, happens to the finger? Well, it still functions. It's still you, but it's functioning more in the context of the whole. Effortlessly, as easy as lifting a finger. But what happens to "you" the finger? Well, you never were just the finger, you were always the whole body, functioning as the whole body, but just identifying with the finger.

The ego or "lower self" is merely the idea that the finger is a separate entity than everything else in the "body" of the universe. But it isn't true, it's a false conception. It isn't true this very moment. You are perceiving non-dually as you read this, but there is some other stuff on top that appears to separate. There's the quiet idea of a separate self doing separate things that is believed to be the truth, but that isn't really the underlying experience for anyone, even if it's very hard to recognize it. i.e. you already ARE the whole body, just identifying with the finger.

[sophia]

Hi Light,

I like your analogy of the finger. It's similar in a way to something I imagined at one time to help myself picture this idea. I used an amoeba. Under a microscope it looks like a little jelly-like glob. It moves around by forming temporary "feet". These "feet" are called pseudopods (i.e. "false feet"). I've thought of these little feet as analogical to little egos, or little "people" if you like, but the feet are still part of the amoeba, in fact the feet retract back into the globule, disappearing into the goo.

[lightmystic]

Haha, that's a great analogy. Although I have to admit it's a bit hard to personally relate to, as I don't recall ever being an amoeba before. But what can I say?

Nov 6, 2008 22:50:01 GMT -5 sophia said:

Hi Light,

I like your analogy of the finger. It's similar in a way to something I imagined at one time to help myself picture this idea. I used an amoeba. Under a microscope it looks like a little jelly-like glob. It moves around by forming temporary "feet". These "feet" are called pseudopods (i.e. "false feet"). I've thought of these little feet as analogical to little egos, or little "people" if you like, but the feet are still part of the amoeba, in fact the feet retract back into the globule, disappearing into the goo.

[sophia]

Well, you've never been a finger before, either!

[lightmystic]

hehe, well, I am "partly" a finger!

Actually, I was appreciating even more that analogy as I thought about it Very nice.

[swamicollins]

Sophia if you had read my Free Ebook www.experientialknowingnes.co.uk you would have found in the chapters devoted to "EGO" that EGO is a Physiological definable centre in the Brain that direct Glucose and Oxygen Rich BLOOD to the Brain Centres that are in action andc definitely NOT the misleading descriptions that yiou write-

[mrsnacks]

I just joined and I hope to learn and grow in the journey that I am on.
I ws taught by my teacher years ago , a Christian philosopher that God is separate from His creation as a painter is separate from his /her painting. The painter is in the painting in a sense but not the painter. As I am a newcomer to this site is that the painter and the painting are one is what I have read here.
And that we are one with the world. This is difficult for me to grasp. And I know in the Bible it says God is all in all. So even the Bible says that God is in all. There is another scripture that quotes Jesus as saying He is one with the Father and one with us. We are His body. So Scriptures are full of passages that say we all are one. God is not a trinity as taught by Christendom but wants a family. He is sharing Himself with all. In fact God is all. But I have a hard time looking in the mirror in the morning and saying I am God . I don't feel perfect for throughout the day I do and say thikngs that are not what a perfect being should do or say. I stub my toe and get upset. So am I just in process ? Am I becoming ? Maybe some of you can further my understanding on this. Thanks

[lightmystic]

Perhaps it's not that you, as an individual, are God. Perhaps it's that God, is who and what you are. By God I mean the non-individual, but still personal, Being who is the source of everything and yet is everything also. Perhaps that non-individuality that is all of life is who you have always actually been, but just been accidentally and innocently limiting yourself through this very vivid and ingrained concept of individuality. That is my experience. There is no person, only an idea. That is all it has ever been, although I certainly didn't realize that before. We are very accustomed to our functioning and feeling like an individual, so this process needs our utmost compassion and gentle attention.

Does that make sense?

Jan 11, 2009 0:30:28 GMT -5 mrsnacks said:

I just joined and I hope to learn and grow in the journey that I am on.
I ws taught by my teacher years ago , a Christian philosopher that God is separate from His creation as a painter is separate from his /her painting. The painter is in the painting in a sense but not the painter. As I am a newcomer to this site is that the painter and the painting are one is what I have read here.
And that we are one with the world. This is difficult for me to grasp. And I know in the Bible it says God is all in all. So even the Bible says that God is in all. There is another scripture that quotes Jesus as saying He is one with the Father and one with us. We are His body. So Scriptures are full of passages that say we all are one. God is not a trinity as taught by Christendom but wants a family. He is sharing Himself with all. In fact God is all. But I have a hard time looking in the mirror in the morning and saying I am God . I don't feel perfect for throughout the day I do and say thikngs that are not what a perfect being should do or say. I stub my toe and get upset. So am I just in process ? Am I becoming ? Maybe some of you can further my understanding on this. Thanks