-Mother Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi)
Love Always
mudra
The ego and its partner the superego are internal mental voices that appear to determine who you are. As the I am this body thought (ego) determines your individual reality, the thoughts that determine how your ego is doing, how it could be better, or why it never will be better, as well as how others are doing, are the voices of your superego. Your ego is a simulation, a virtual reality of I am, based on perception, sense experiences, and learning. Your superego is a simulation of authority designed to control your ego. It is based on feedback from others in your life.
Both ego and its further development, superego, are wondrous phenomena. There is nothing inherently wrong with them. Both have an extraordinary role to play in the theatre of human consciousness. The development of ego is miraculous and the formation of superego is perhaps even more astonishing. The problem arises when they command most of your attention and life force. Your opportunity to spontaneously and authentically experience life is then preempted by attention to the internal war: the voices that state, "I am this or that," versus the counterpoint, "You are not enough of this or that." Some voices say you are good, beautiful, and kind, while other voices say you are horrible, ugly, and miserable.
A simple example: If you bang your head accidentally, after the initial shock and sensation of pain, what mental voices do you hear? Do they deal with blame? If so, do they blames you or someone else or some object? These voices arise from your superego's attempt to assert control, usually through verbal punishment so that head banging won't happen again. The superego is your internalized authority, where part of your ego splits off and calls itself "God" or "Mother" or "Father" or "Guru." When you recognize this split, a great inner battle is exposed, especially in the "spiritual" arena where the superego desires to get rid of the ego. Only the superego wants to get rid of the ego. Getting rid of the ego is the ultimate control. Only your supergo needs war. These warring thoughts are of course reflected in our collective world as well as in our individual world. However, for our purpose here, put your attention on what is going on in your egoic reality, not because it should or shouldn't be happening, but simply to discover what is being thought of as real.
... and the door isn't where the window should be, and the window isn't where the door should be ... This is all SO confusing!Floyd wrote:At last...a thread about lego
oops..sorry
Floyd wrote: At last...a thread about lego
TRANCOSO wrote:
... and the door isn't where the window should be, and the window isn't where the door should be ... This is all SO confusing!
We can cherish the freedoms granted by family, culture, and government, but they are ultimately meaningless if we are bound internally by a simulation of authority. Reliance on superego is buttressed by our fear of what we would be without it. In short, we generally have a deeply embedded distrust of our core self. We actually distrust the freedom we crave.
The question is, can you recognize a mistake (banging your head) and can you know what is wrong (acts requiring moral choices of conscience) without a punishing or rewarding fabricated authority? Regardless of the appropriate functions of ego/superego in the past, in this moment are you willing to trust what you have learned? And even more radically, are you willing to trust the integrity at the core? If there is an ambition to be egoless, it is a red flag. What is wrong with the ego? Who has a problem with the ego? Does awareness have a problem with the ego? Only the superego has a problem with the ego, and it is a huge problem. The superego wants to control the ego.
In recognizing the tendency of the superego to dominate the ego, without then having to establish a super-superego, you can simply welcome ego with its ambition and needs. In this moment, you can welcome them all - ego, superego, internal and external illusion - into the limitless consciousness that you truly are. Then you can experience yourself as a very limited human being with limited propensities.
Another very common battering ram of the superego is the idea of "worthlessness," especially in spiritual circles where there tends to be a great fear of arrogance. But arrogance and worthlessness are just two sides of the same coin of ego. Neither experience needs to be avoided. Both can simply be met and directly investigated. If you just allow yourself to be fully and completely arrogant for one second, you will see the absurdity of arrogance, its posturing, its emptiness. It is exactly the same with worthlessness. If you fully and completely experience one second of true worthlessness, worthlessness will become nothing. It will reveal itself to be just another weapon of the superego, having nothing to do with the truth of who you are. Whether you run from arrogance, worthlessness, or any experience, you are constricting the life force. You are desperately attempting to be what you think you should be, while being haunted by what you think you are.