In Part 7 we looked at innocence (pre-ego), the ego error we are now stuck in, and post ego maturity that we are now shifting into. To understand this shift we will be going back and forth between both paradigms.
In Part 7 we looked at innocence (pre-ego), the ego error we are now stuck in, and post ego maturity that we are now shifting into. To understand this shift we will be going back and forth between both paradigms.
The human predicament is stranger than fiction. We consider ourselves the most intelligent animal on earth, but over 99 percent of us are caught in a trap created by that very same intelligence: ego-mind, a mental parasite. The servants have taken over the household. We are trapped in mind and have forgotten our way out.
The gross imbalances in our minds and emotions are destroying the environment. To get out of the trap we must understand it. Unsustainability of the ego lifestyle demands that we break free.
Our attention has been hijacked by ego mind. Society demands it: for 12 years in school and daily afterwards, we are force-fed concepts. Caught in thought we would never survive in the wilderness; so ego has created its own artificial environment to fit its addiction.
The attention map shows vastly overgrown brains and stunted senses. Trying to get out strengthens the trap: all trying is ego. The classic Zen Paradox.
The ego trap is insidious because we identify with the false self. Ego mind is a simulation chamber: self-concept and world-concept. The conceptual ego can never touch reality directly. Concepts are always one step behind direct experience. Ego-mind is in fact a barrier to direct experience, called the “veil of illusion”. Scientists use “stimulus-response” as a basic indicator of aliveness. Under ego domination we go “stimulus-mind-response”. The conditioned mind interprets, projects, biases and judges reality. Psychologists call this “object-relations”. Ego creates suffering because it cannot be fresh and alive. It is like eating the menu rather than the soul food.
Part of ego’s strength comes from its compounding history. Ego grew as civilization grew. It is now monstrously unbalanced. Even so, the ego is just a very complex program that we identify with because it was expected of us in early childhood. In fact the false self displaced our true Essence early in life.
When we understand the ego-mind, not only conceptually but experientially, we see that it is a paper tiger (program) that has led us around by the nose for thousands of years. It is formidable because it is addictive: it has become our “second nature”, i.e. reflexive: faster than thought.
We cannot fix the ego, but we can deflate its chronic mind chatter by shifting attention from mind to heart and senses. While the mind “muscle” has become pathologically muscle-bound, our attention to heart and direct experience have become weak and stunted from lack of use. But this is the opening we have been looking for to get out of the trap! W can do this without feeding the ego. Separating from an illusion is not a separation but and integration. We need to come back to our senses.
We will discuss this opportunity in future articles. There is nothing more important to do in life than becoming free. The juvenile ego is biologically designed to end at adolescence. This is our species adolescence!
• Arius Hopman lives in Hanapepe. This column, part of a series, was adapted from his manuscript ‘The Ego Empire Exposed.’
