Life will bring you another teacher if needed..

Ego preservation strategies (1)

Saw this conversation recently online in a 'nonduality' forum:


Questioner: What do people think about the ego? It's hard to find when it is looked for. Maybe these practices are just engaging the ego itself?


Respondent 1: Well I've never found the ego.. I don't know what people are talking about when they talk about 'ego'.


Respondent 2: Who's asking??


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Are these sorts of question / answer sessions really helpful?


No. Neither for the questioner who is none the wiser, nor for the respondent.


What are these sorts of responses, actually?


Ego preservation strategies.


Ego preservation strategy 1) Blatant denial of the ego by the ego-- "It doesn't exist!", "What? There's no such thing as an ego.. find me one!", "I can't find any ego here!"


Ego preservation strategy 2) Over-exertion or over-effort in trying to extinguish the ego by the ego-- "Kill the ego!", "I need to fight the ego, suppress it, and conquer it!", "I need to detach from the ego!"




Stay calm. Keep practicing.

Pure awareness- note.

I recently found a quote with the book 'The Seven Steps To Awakening' (ed. Michael Langford). It contained a quote from the Yoga Vasistha (The Supreme Yoga), an ancient Indian yogic text, that states:


"Consciousness does not truly undergo any modification nor does it become impure."


further,


"Nothing is created in or by cosmic consciousness, for it remains unchanged and unmodified."


I would like to draw attention to the idea of 'pure consciousness', which is spoken about in nondual teachings.


This term does not actually mean that consciousness can be or become 'impure', or that there are two types of consciousness- a mixed, impure consciousness and a pure unadulterated consciousness. It is also not referring to pure in terms of good/bad, morally speaking.


The term is rather a pointer to the idea of consciousness alone. When starting to work with the idea of consciousness (or awareness), a beginning point is often emphasized- to become acquainted with just consciousness, rather than the objects appearing in consciousness. Likewise, the idea is introduced to become more familiar with the subject of experience, rather than objects appearing in and as experience.


This pointer achieves 2 aims- 1) the seeker is led to the discovery that consciousness or awareness must be prior to the appearance and disappearance of objects that arise in one's experience, and 2) consciousness cannot be denied or negated, since the very denial must also appear within consciousness. There is also the added bonus that allows one to become less identified and enchanted with objects, events etc. appearing in one's experience, and more interested in the actual source of such objects and events in one's experience.


Ultimately however, it may be seen and experienced with increasing duration, that consciousness cannot be separated from the objects that appear in experience. Can a border between subject and object be found? Likewise, the search for consciousness is being conducted by consciousness itself, which has no observable characteristics, being self-evident only. The practice of self-enquiry and self-investigation (e.g. "Who am I?") is a practical and useful way to investigate and repeatedly experience this point.

Joel Goldsmith - Immortality

Self-inquiry and Maturity

SELF-ENQUIRY AND MATURITY

The devotee: “It is for that, is it not, that Bhagavan says that the best thing to do is to follow the path of Self-enquiry of ‘Who am I’?”

Bhagavan: “Yes; but in the Vasishtam it is mentioned that Vasishta told Rama that the path of Self-enquiry should not be shown to anyone who is not sufficiently qualified. 

In some other books it has been stated that spiritual practices should be done for several births, or for at least twelve years under a Guru. 

As people would be scared away if I said that spiritual practices had to be done for several births, I tell them, ‘You have liberation already within you; you have merely to rid yourselves of exterior things that have come upon you’.

Spiritual practices are for that alone. Even so, the Ancients have not said all this for nothing. If a person is told that he is the Godhead, Brahman itself, and that he is already liberated, he may not do any spiritual practices, thinking that he already has that which is required and does not want anything more. That is why these Vedantic matters should not be told to spiritually undeveloped people (anadhikaris); there is no other reason.” And Bhagavan smiled.

- Letters no 158

(Ramana Maharshi)

Verse from Guru Vachaka Kovai - on self-inquiry

GURU VACHAKA KOVAI

394 Since pramada, forgetfulness of the Self,  is, in truth, 

death, for those who are attempting to attain immortality, transcending the death that frightens one and all, it is essential at all times to destroy pramada, the real nature of death, without giving it the slightest scope to survive

There are therefore no rules to the effect that the jnana-vichara performed to know and attain the immortal Self should be practiced only during specific periods.

Muruganar: 'Attempting to attain' here means making uninterrupted effort, with the entire attention focused on the endeavor one has embarked upon, until it takes one to the goal. 

Bhagavan: "Destruction of mind alone is tapas. This alone is one's duty. One who is doing his own work will not pay attention to anyone else's work. One should never give room for swerving from the thought of the Self. However many duties one may have, at all the other times not meant for performing duties one must perform only self-enquiry.

While standing, sitting and taking food one can do vichara, can one not? If the mind happens to forget the enquiry 'Who am I?' because of vasanas, when it remembers the enquiry, it should try not to lose hold of the enquiry again. 

– Who am I?;  an early draft

Is effort required for self-inquiry and Self-Realization?

From Michael James' blog "Happiness of Being", on the topic of whether effort is required for self-inquiry and self-attentiveness.


Is effort required, as do assert some traditional paths of awakening (e.g. early Buddhism, traditional Advaita Vedanta etc.), or is no effort required for what is already present, as do assert neo-Advaita teachers and some modern proponents of 'nonduality'?




1. We are always self-aware, but we must make effort to be attentively self-aware

We are always self-aware, because self-awareness is our very nature (what we actually are), so we do not need to make any effort to be self-aware. However, though we are always self-aware, we are generally not attentively self-aware, because most of our attention is taken up with being aware of other things, since we find it more interesting and appealing to be aware of other things than to be attentively aware of ourself alone.

This self-negligence or lack of self-attentiveness is what is called pramāda, and it is the root of all our problems, because it is the very nature of the ego and the means by which the ego seems to rise, stand and flourish. Therefore all our efforts should be directed towards being self-attentive and thereby overcoming our pramāda.


~ Michael James