 47. Ego-I |
The Heart of the Ribhu Gita by Ramana Maharshi
The concept "I-am-the-body" is the sentient inner organ, the mind (brain). It is also the illusive bondage to identification with birth and death. It is the source of all groundless fears. If there is no trace of it at all everything will be found to be the Reality of the Supreme Absolute Being. The CONCEPT "I-am-the-body" is the primal ignorance (or original sin, greek, to miss the mark).
It is known as the firm knot of the heart. It gives rise to the concepts of existence and non-existence. If there is no trace of it at all everything will be found to be the Reality of the Supreme Absolute Being. The "ego" or separate soul is a CONCEPT. God, the world, the mind, desires, action, sorrow and all other things are all concepts. Abiding without CONCEPTS is the undifferentiated state. It is inherence in the Supreme Being. It is wisdom. It is Liberation. It is the natural and true state. It is the Reality of the Supreme Absolute Being. It is the Supreme Formless God. If there is no CONCEPT at all everything will be found to be the Reality of the Supreme Absolute Being. The body and the various functions of manifest existence are only CONCEPTS. Hearing, reasoning and contemplating are CONCEPTS. Inquiry into the ultimate nature of one's own existence is a CONCEPT. All other things are also CONCEPTS. Concepts give rise to the world, the separate souls, and God. There is nothing whatever except CONCEPTS. Everything is in truth the Reality of the Supreme Absolute Being. The mind is unreal. It is like a magic show. It is like the son of a barren woman. It is absolutely non-existent. Since there is no mind there are no CONCEPTS, no Master, no disciple, no world, no separate soul. All CONCEPTS are really the Reality of the Supreme Absolute Being.
The SELF CREATED PERSONALITY because of individual SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS, (not to be confused with SELF AWARENESS) of the physical body-brain is know as:
- The Ego
- The Ego-I
- The psychological ego
- The psychological person-ality
- The first man (Christian Bible - I Corinthians 15:47-49)
- The man of dust (I Corinthians 15:48)
- Narcissus (Greek Myth)
- Agnostos
- Infidel (Islam - An unenlightened person separate from God-union, not just a person who does not believe in God or any faith)
- Demiurge (The self created false god (the Ego-I) who makes the structures of a materialistic society)
- Devil (The self created one who tempts the pure self, the soul, you, to rely only on material creation and physical sensory inputs as its master and source of life)
- Jinns (Arabian mythology)
- Anti-Christ (The false personality of the body-brain that tempts, possess the soul, or inner you, and keeps the soul entangled in its OWN CENTER (the Ego-I center) from which it (the soul) always seeks truth, love, God and reality but can never unite with what it seeks).
- Gog and Magog (Egoic leaders & egoic followers - more research required)
Every ego-I is active as the opponent of all opponents. But there is no final victory – and every opposition is an irrational (or fruitless) "search" for equanimity, peace and love. The ego-I always tends to "desire" & "seek" an ego-made refuge from irrational opponents. That strategy of "self-preservation" is entertained in temporary pleasures and solitary places. But it is not finally attained. Only the ego-I, the separate and separative body-mind-mentality is opposed and opposing – and every opposition is an irrational search for freedom. Therefore, the great "other" – whether "it" is called nature or nature's God – is your opponent, not your refuge. And every perception and conception of "difference" (or otherness) is the sign that the ego-I, rather than truth, is the presumed basis of apparent (or conditional) existence.
