11 / 27 / 2011

The art of Persona

"The talent of the actor is to make the audience feeling emotions that he doesn't feel himself." Sacha Guitry

The ego does the same, except that it is not immune to its own emotions. As for the actors, one can sometimes doubt that they are always capable of it, Hollywood, for instance, is pretty well-known for its madness.

As a thumb rule, we do not play with emotions, we do not play with the mind, and we play as little as possible with the Persona because it's a very dangerous game that always ends badly. In other words, we don't play with Karma because we cannot know what we are really doing. So better to "keep it simple", not to make it complicated for stupid reasons such as masks, roles and false pretensions, but on the contrary, to rebalance it. In that context, the concept of "purification", that is to say readjustment and authenticity, might be interesting.

Karma, the relation of cause and effect, means among other things in contemporary culture "psychology".

12 / 3 / 2011

Life of the ego, living with "I" and me, that is to say living with myself

To think something in its head. To say something else with its mouth. And to act differently with its body. And sometimes, of course, the ego loses its mind, it's not surprising indeed !

The ego, "I, me and myself", is not human, it's a psychological and spiritual entity incarnated in a human body. And it enjoys it as much as it can for the better or for the worse. You and me are this "I" who thinks and acts with a body and mental faculties, a very sophisticated space suit perfectly adapted to the world we live in.

The mind projects an identity called the ego in order to express itself personally. And that personal identity becomes very quickly kind of psychological entity perfectly conscious of itself, which means that the mind is conscious. If you think to be different from your own ego, you have not understood what the identification process is, and which allows the mind to think or say "That's me !". Consciousness would never think something so foolish, what for ? Its presence is self-evident.

There is no false or true "I" and self, illusory or authentic individual consciousness, ego different from the personal identity that expresses what the mind thinks, from "I" writing those words and "you" reading them with your own brain and mental faculties. We are those conscious entities, souls if you will, searching for our true nature, happiness and liberation.

The obvious question that arises then is in fact very simple, and moreover it already contains the answer: "What could be the true nature of a mental phenomenon, which is obviously conscious of itself as an entity separated from its body and mind ?" Who could sincerely claim : "I am not conscious of myself and what I embody" ?

The answer is simple, the true nature of a mental phenomenon, which seems and is by all means conscious of itself, can only be consciousness itself, a consciousness therefore impersonal. But what is much less simple is to realize what this consciousness really is independently of all that it's aware of or in other words, what its true nature is. And that's the purpose of what is called Self-realization.

12 / 5 / 2011

The big show

_ Ego !

_ Do you mean "Never enough" ?

_ The ego is far too egocentric to imagine for a second that consciousness is not a mental faculty at its disposal. Actually, it's consciousness that makes use of the ego and mind to somehow entertain and admire the big show of reality, the world and the person living in.

_ Maybe, but for what reason if it's only to enjoy a very sad show ? Is there anything else than suffering and dissatisfaction ? Sincerely speaking, it's kind of show that no one really admire and find entertaining.

_ Suffering is the most subtle of every possible show, it doesn't allow us to imagine that we could live without. When we are suffering, we are absolutely sure of existing personally, of being something very real, which therefore can no longer be questioned. "If I suffer, I am..., and I am absolutely aware of it. And moreover, I even become extremely important, at least to myself." It's a vicious and mental circle. So we can finally wonder what's the point of such a self-importance if it's only to suffer and be in the center of the world.

Today, we have found another name to hell, it's called narcissism, but we prefer in trendy spiritual circles the word ego, it's probably less psychotic. And guess what, we don't even have to wait for death to get in.

12 / 8 / 2011

Permanent dissatisfaction

The cult of the self or worship of "I, me and myself" should be a very solitary celebration, but it never is.

If we like to hurt ourselves, it should be a very personal matter, why to share that with others ? Just to make us more interesting ? Does our inner suffering have finally any another purpose ? Who sincerely needs to suffer for nothing, for reasons that, by definition, are completely useless since they cause suffering, for a past we don't really remember and a future that is usually very different from what was expected.

Self-importance is, of course, great and very complex, but at the end of the day, if it's only to think "I suffer" and find that unconsciously "I love it", it's complete nonsense, but that's how the mind and the ego work.

If suffering was not completely useless, why should we try to free ourselves from it, and meanwhile, enjoy it ? If our inner suffering has absolutely no mental function, it would not manifest at all. That's also something that we can realize in order to be free from it. In that context, suffering means "Me, I am".

Le best ego mantra, the most lovely

"Never satisfied, never happy."

And when the ego is satisfied and happy, it's still worse. Very fortunately it never lasts. And so the ancient Greeks were used to say : "If you are not happy, it's your fault."

That's what could be called "instant psychological stripper" for people who don't like wasting their time because they probably have better things to do in their life. But the real experience of mental life seems to show that psychology is not so simple. Is it or isn't it ?

We have our whole life to discover it. And after, we'll see if all this suffering really had any reason to be. If it takes so much space in our life and thinking, we can assume that it is not useless even though it's very unpleasant, and we would live much better without.

"If you're not happy, it's your fault." Finally, psychology doesn't tell us more than that. Such a crazy sentence may seem pretty cheap, but it surely does its job, and it might even be a good idea... to remember it.

12 / 10 / 2011

Inner Hell

Narcissism makes it possible to leave reality as it is in order to live in a world of illusions. But can we live really outside this damned reality, beyond this world of ordinary and daily realities, so repetitive that they become boring, unbearable and finally a real hell ? If this world of ordinary realities that the ego perceives mentally as such was nothing more, humanity would be really crazy or at least suffering and incurable.

Whether we like it or not, it's the ego that seeks its own liberation, to free itself from a reality that it doesn't stand, it's not the true being that we embody and who is obviously living in reality as it is, which is neither a hell nor a paradise, but just in between. If our quest for liberation was not the expression of a supreme desire for happiness, what would it be ? Desire or ego, what's the difference ? Desire or hell, there is no difference either.

12 / 15 / 2011

Knowing or believing in it

"You know that I know that you know. And I know that you know that I know. And yet, you want to go on with that same stupid game. What for ?"

The ego is delighted with its own ignorance while thinking that it has understood everything till the day it realizes that, in fact, it understood nothing, absolutely nothing, nada, zero, zip, zilch ! And now at last, it can feel very liberated... or completely depressive. The ego is really unbelievable, it can take its own realizations very well or very badly.

12 / 17 / 2011

Paranoia

The ego with all its fears and anxieties in order to only survive, and have no doubt about its own existence, actually feels really good when everything goes wrong. In today's world, it should therefore be very happy, but usually it's not, not very often indeed. One of its existential peculiarities, maybe ?

When everything goes wrong, the ego can, in fact, only do very well, and even tell others : "You see, I told you. You never listen to me, and yet I knew it." Who would think that the ego is not incredibly smart and happy ?

If we are really smart, we must be happy. What would be the point to use our intelligence in order to be unhappy ? Intelligent should mean happy. And we might also take it in the opposite way in order to realize what it means.

Inner Fortress made of rotten ivory

Friendship is to give and receive freely, it's to communicate both ways openly. For the ego, it's pretty difficult, if not impossible. Freedom and forbearance are not its very best qualities, but rather impenetrable refuges.

Loneliness is therefore delightful, nobody can disturb it. But the ego might feel it a bit stuffy and sickening. It's always difficult to know what it really wants.

Self-love

Respect yourself as a god, and you will respect others as yourself. Respect others as if they were gods and know that you are also a god.

Lack of dignity or mere recognition of self-importance ? The ego sometimes chooses the very best in order to get the worst, and vice versa, of course. But it has a serious problem to forget itself. We could also wonder if it's capable of.

Just to forget itself in order to see ! But to see what, the existential emptiness of its own life ? It must be said that when it only stops thinking, there is already not much left of it.

12 / 28 / 2011

Let's talk about for a change

_ So many talks about the ego. But what is it ?

_ Very easy to explain and understand, it's you !

_ But...

_ No..., it's you and nothing else.

_ But...

_ There is no but. As long as you don't understand this very simple truth, you will be on a false spiritual path. It is you who search for liberation. It is the "I, me and myself" that desires to live an extraordinary, non-ordinary, spectacular and senseless experience. It's the ego that seeks in its imagination and fantasy something fully satisfying, and knowing that nothing will ever fulfill its appetite and desire.

True liberation is the least of its concerns, it would mean reality as it is. The ego is not the point in any spiritual quest because it's the one searching for liberation, and without, there would be no search nor liberation, but just life as it is.

1 / 5 / 2012

Deaf as a door post till the door breaks

The ego is clever enough to convince itself that it has realized the Self. It can easily imagine that it is awakened, enlightened, liberated and fully done, and why not God ? To teach others, it will be at the very least the king..., but of what ?

Dreaming is all that it can really do. So dear ego, have sweet dreams and don't complain when you will meet your alter ego. It also has a little story to tell you, and you'll have to listen to. The ego, the alter ego, the super-ego, the transcendental ego..., what the hell, can we ever be alone at home !

So desirable perfection

_ "What would a perfect life be like ?"

_ "Any life, except mine !" would say the ego.

1 / 12 / 2012

Satisfying dissatisfaction

The ego would say :

"I love when it's better. I don't like when it's perfect because it's fake. Nothing is perfect in this world, I know it very well, I live in it 24/7 since I'm born."

We may guess that there would be more suicide if everything went perfectly well, according to the idea that the ego has of perfection, of course. And yet, he wants so much to be perfect that we could almost wonder why it is not. But at the end of the day, is it not perfect in its own way according to its personal conception of perfection and truth ? We could easily say that, in fact, it is perfectly imperfect. No wonder the ego lives in a world of duality that doesn't really make sense, and that some search for nonduality where they will never find it.

2 / 23 / 2012

Wake up, zombie

"Wake up, big toe !" ("Kill Bill" by Quentin Tarantino).

If "I, me and myself" are only a concept, how can I decide what I'm going to do ? Do I really have the power to choose anything and do what I want to do ? Or do I know what I'm going to do before deciding and doing it, and then think I can choose to do it ? What I really know is that in case of emergency, I do not need to think and choose what I'm going to do otherwise I would already be dead a long time ago.

It's quite obvious that we need body and mind to go beyond the body and the mind. But it's difficult, if not impossible, to understand that we need to be the ego in order to go beyond the ego, that is to say to choose, decide and act accordingly.

But to embody and know the truth, we don't really need anything. In fact, we need absolutely nothing. We only have to be ourselves and stop identifying to our personal story, in other words, stop lying and deluding ourselves. Any personal story is always far too subjective to be true and not kind of psychosis, it cannot be otherwise.

And it is then that an ego without personal story starts to be very interesting. It's still the very same ego, of course, but with a very peculiar potential, a spiritual power, the one of knowing reality as it is, not especially good and not especially bad either. It might be something else. As a matter of fact, what would be a personal story without story... nor headache ?

Creative lie

Lying is like breathing, there is nothing easier for the ego. Even the worst moron can do it. It's even the first thing we learn to perform on our own.

"No no, it's not 'me' who ate the cake," he says with the face smeared in chocolate.

I am an expert

To appreciate the quality of a music, it's quite enough to hear it. There is no need to study music or be a musician.

To love or hate a specific food, it's enough to eat it. We don't have to be a cook or culinary cordon bleu.

To express our views on anything, we only need to think about. The ego will always have opinions on everything and will be proud of them.

Unsuspected humor

"I'm losing interest in myself" is the biggest lie of the ego, and some believe it.

Nevertheless, it's necessary to make a clear-cut distinction between narcissism and psychopathy, which are at the very least a serious mental problem, and basic self-centeredness and egotism resulting from a survival instinct, which is indispensable to express ourselves intelligently.

To be, reintegrate or realize kind of universal Oneness is a big joke, only the ego could believe it. If someone really did it, he or she would be absolutely unable to think about. We cannot believe in anything without thoughts.

2 / 26 / 2012

Ego and intelligence

Could we say that at its origin, the ego is the expression of a self-consciousness, that is to say, of an individual consciousness, born out of a survival instinct in a context where vital necessities cease to be the main concern of that faculty of being conscious, and thus to know one's own physical as well as mental existence ? In other words, the ego as it is now conceived and experienced would therefore be more an intellectual, social and cultural identity than an instinctive, vital and necessary one.

If we agree with the theory of human evolution, the formation of the ego and its egocentric, narcissistic and ultimately destructive mental development would correspond to a point in time where humans have gone from a sort of nomadism to sedentary lifestyle, from gathering and hunting to agriculture and livestock farming, from wilderness to a reorganized nature, that is to say partially destroyed and then reconstituted according to collective and societal necessities. The ego would therefore appear at a moment of history when nature was reorganized according to so-called civilized human needs. And what could be more human, natural and needed for Homo Sapiens than to exist, that is to say, to be and especially be conscious of themselves, which, outside of any wild or civilized context, simply means "I exist, and I will be and do everything to at least survive as long as possible and in the very best conditions, and of course, by any means" ?

But the real question concerning Western spirituality and the so-called "Evolution of consciousness" would rather be to know if we can really conceive that the survival instinct could still work without self-consciousness, that is, without ego, without personal identity, and without at least a basic sense of individuality, which makes a clear difference between oneself and the others or the outside world, in other words, without the notion of an independent spirit gifted with physical and mental faculties, and expressing of course "That's me, I and myself !".

If this survival instinct and the genetic program, which allows any living creatures to evolve according to their own nature and survive as long as possible and in the very best conditions, and of course by all natural or technological means available, are inseparable from self-awareness or self-consciousness, this would mean that all living beings, no matter how big or microscopic they are, are aware and conscious of their own individual and separate existence. Every being would therefore determine the existence of some kind of spirit or mind gifted with a basic intelligence, that is to say, the presence of a conscious entity since it is at least able of surviving by means of maybe very basic and yet intelligent faculties.

But if we think about more carefully, this survival instinct or program of self-preservation doesn't only concern humans, animals and insects. Everything is somehow programmed in the vegetal and mineral world to evolve naturally and preserve itself as long as possible. A stone, for instance, doesn't suddenly turn into sand or dust without reasons, and especially without causes, which have nothing to do with nature and its natural evolution. Can we therefore speak of the mind or spirit of nature as such, the one of a tree, a mountain or a valley, of the intelligence and self-consciousness of a planet or even of the entire universe ?

When we talk about ego, that is to say a self-aware or self-conscious life form, as an entity separated from everything "I, me and myself" don't determine, we all know what it's all about. It simply means "That's me and not someone or something else". And although the concept of collective consciousness is abstract, it has a meaning for us because that sort of consciousness is made of a group of conscious human beings, and it's very easily to witness how it manifests in different cultures. Chinese people, for instance, don't survive, live or preserve physically and culturally their own identity like the Americans. We all are the embodiment of a very conscious, personal and cultural entity only, for instance, by the language we speak. Where this concept of separate consciousness and identity, or in other words, of spirit different from its environment, becomes more difficult to apprehend, it's when we introduce it into a context that is not human, like the one of nature in general, for the simple reason that we consider ourselves the only intelligent beings in the world and even in the whole universe, which, incidentally, we have not yet explored.

When we take into consideration the idea of ego, that is to say of mind, individual consciousness or spirit, we systematically associate this concept with the notion of personal intelligence. But how does that human intelligence really express itself ? We can easily notice that since the dawn of time, we all try to survive and preserve ourselves as long as possible and in the very best conditions, nothing more, in fact, than using our intelligence in order to personally last and improve it, but without really knowing whether it's getting better or worse. And how do we accomplish such a feat ? We create, preserve and destroy the environment, body and mind, everything that can manifest physically and mentally, that's the only purpose of all our researches and inventions. As far as destruction, body and mind are concerned, it's quite obvious that we tend to eliminate everything going against life and self-preservation, such as physical and mental illness, for instance.

Can we therefore say that an animal, an insect, a plant, a rock, a mountain, the planet or the entire universe are also intelligent since all are able to do the same in their own ways, and very fortunately otherwise we would not be able to survive at all ? From there, we could easily infer that everything in the world is somehow conscious and determines according to its own needs, the presence of an intelligent mind or spirit, an intelligent life form.

Such a vision of reality may seem animistic. It doesn't really matter how we qualify it, it would simply allow us to understand that everything in our civilized world and in nature in general should be respected and preserved because it's obviously the only purpose and program of the whole creation. The notion of destruction should be associated with the one of time only, and not kind of privilege the ego takes for granted.

5 / 10 / 2012

In fact, there is no self-consciousness as such

Do we really live permanently with the sense of self-consciousness as such, of a separate entity aware of itself ? Of course not, when we get absorbed in any activities, actions, thoughts, feelings or emotions, any perceptions, that self-consciousness or self-existing being as such disappears instantly. But if that is true, it never appears either. And to say "I'm never conscious of myself" would also be complete nonsense. So how can we know what's true ? The practice of meditation can help a lot if we don't forget what we are really trying to understand.

The "I, me and myself" or ego is illusory because it determines a sum of phenomenon and perceptions, which are always changing, and with which self-consciousness identifies in order to get kind of personal and constant reality ; identification can only take place with physical or mental manifestations that never last. On the other hand, consciousness itself is an irrefutable and permanent fact as long as we are awake, and it does not need to identify with anything in order to be self-evident. That's what any type of practice of meditation reveals if we pay attention to it.

We also generally consider that we perceive the world manifested by the mind with, because of and somehow through our mental faculty of being conscious, and that reveals the remarkable illusory power of the ego and the reality it lives in, a complete nonsense, because if that was true, it would mean that the ego is totally independent, detached and separated from the mind and all its mental faculties, and yet quite able to perceive and know what the mind manifests. But how and by what means could it do something so extraordinary if itself has no mental faculty at all ?

And even more absurd, if this "I, me and myself" or ego actually holds that faculty of being conscious and knowing reality with, because of or through it, that would mean that the ego itself is not conscious at all. So what kind of being or entity would it be if it has no reality and moreover if it is completely unconscious ? It simply doesn't make sense.

"If I have the mental faculty of being conscious, which somehow seems pretty obvious, it however means that I am neither conscious nor unconscious, that is say, I am nothing and cannot exist, and not even know it."

6 / 1 / 2012

The big dream

The ego always has great expectations. And without ambition, its life would be exactly the same. It can always be proud of its projects, success and accomplishment, but it will also notice that they are above all the outcome of chance and circumstances, in other words, of a Karma that it didn't choose right from the beginning of its life, its birth. Keep dreaming, my friend ! The ego may have free will, it also has a destiny to live, and it surely doesn't choose it. It simply means that whatever its life is, it is going to learn. But learn what ? Only the ego will know it. Learning, but ultimately, for what purpose ? A big mystery for some, and knowledge for the others !

6 / 6 / 2012

Ego or ghost ?

The concept "A ghost in the machine" offers the choice to be the ghost or the machine. What would you sincerely prefer ? Ghost or ego, it's exactly the same concept. So "My ego" would mean that you are the machine. Pretty weird conception of oneself, don't you think ?

With such crazy ideas in the head ... of the machine, the only spiritual liberation would be in a garbage dump or heap of scrap, a recycling station maybe, because till now, we don't bury robots in cemeteries and certainly not ghosts.

7 / 11 / 2012

Ego or hypocrisy

Instead of thinking that my ego is responsible for all my faults and miseries as if it didn't really concern me, wouldn't it be a bit more correct to say that it's because of my self-esteem, stupidity, egoism, greed, lies and so on ? To blame ourselves for events that we are not responsible for is complete nonsense and somewhat a psychological problem, but to blame the ego for all our problems is frankly speaking insane and quite unhealthy.

I think, therefore I am, and that means that I am not

All that I think of myself is an illusion for the simple reason that thoughts cannot be what I am. But thinking however determines that I am.

Being, on the other hand, cannot be an illusion because the mere fact of being conscious reveals instantly and without any doubt my own existence, that "I am" so spoken of in traditional and contemporary spirituality.

What about the body and mental faculty of being conscious ? Any identification with body and mind determines what I am, in other words, "I am and exist with a body and mental faculties, and I can rightly identify with them since they are exclusively mine".

But if my existential suffering truly concern that "I am", it's not the problem of any mental faculties or the body, which only express it. If this "I am" is not only the product of an identification process, but is really separated from what determines its apparent existence, that is to say the body and the mind, it actually means that this "I am" exists nowhere, not in the mind and not in the physical world, and yet it is suffering like hell.

So truly speaking, when I say "I am and I exist", it really means "I am not and do not exist" because the self cannot be anything without identification, but that's however what it thinks. And maybe that's why finally that entity or personal identity really suffers from it.

"If I am the one who identifies with body and mind, a fact that I cannot deny, I am not my body nor the mind, and not even the process of identification. But the problem with that kind of reasoning, it's that without identification, body and mind, I am absolutely nothing. " And surely that isn't going to be good for the ego. "Me, nothing..., is that a joke ?"

Does it make sense ?

_ I don’t know who I am anymore. I have this personality, and it’s fucked up, but it’s me. And I see myself becoming this person who does the right thing, who says the right thing, but that’s not me.

_ You feel different, don’t you ?

_ Of course, I feel different. I’m on medication. That’s the whole point. Isn’t it ?

_ Yea, that was the point. You’re just not comfortable with this new person as yet.

_ But I can’t be this person without taking pills.

_ The pills are giving you a breathing space.

_ This feels like everything has just been cover up.

_ I recommend you to carry on this medication, but it’s not my choice. It’s your choice.

In the movie "Prozac Nation" of Erik Skjoldbjaerg.

What's the point of quoting such a dialogue in the context of spirituality ? The patient says, "I have this personality..., it's me." I have or I am ? If I have this personality or ego with a personal story and character, it's not me although ego and "I" are identical. And if I am that personality or ego, therefore it's me because only the personality with its history and specific characteristics determines what I am personally. We have to choose, but it cannot be both and at the same time.

But why does so much confusion reign in the mind of that person and ours too ? We all know intuitively that our true nature, the true nature of simply being has nothing to do with our personality. Personality expresses how the being that we are manifests in the mind and social world. It shows off in many ways and not always the same, but the experience of being is absolutely unique. This "I am" who determines my own presence and existence here and now is the same that it was in the past. Although the assertion "I have this personality, it's me" will not shock anyone, it's nevertheless absurd. We cannot be what we have or had in the past, and moreover be something always changing.

The experience of being and existing and the idea of being or having been this or that are not at all identical. If we want to talk about the self-importance that creates so many problems, we cannot talk about our ego as a separate identity because they are not different. And if we want to talk about our psychological and personal problems, we cannot say that the ego is responsible for because they are inseparable. But the experience of being and existing individually and personally in a real world is an obvious fact that cannot be denied.

That said, when we speak of the ego as we do now in Neo Western spirituality, the least we could do is to clearly define what we are talking about. To confuse the ego with all our personal problems and moreover consider that it is responsible for them makes absolutely no sense, and that would only create more confusion and problems in the future, what nobody really needs.

Problematic egocentricity

To love nothing is to only love oneself, and very quickly regret it.

Modern times, modern ego

If it's never too late to do it right, why not do it sooner ? Why not just do what needs to be done when we have to do it ? The ego wants to free itself from all constraint, except the one of enjoying permanently its life, which means that it seeks systematically and by all means suffering because it doesn't make sense. How could its life be only pleasure since the experience of it shows exactly it is not, including the very idea of pleasure ?

Does it understand the meaning of duality ?

9 / 27 / 2012

Stress

"I would like to finish it before to begin."

If we had to put the ego somewhere in time, it would fit very well in the past and future, but hardly in the present.

The same goes for space. Apart from its imagination and illusions, we may wonder if it ever had a quick peek on the world where its body really lives.

So much so that only consciousness can finally realize what here and now really means. And strangely enough, that consciousness is nowhere and at no moment. So where is it ?

11 / 2 / 2012

Beliefs

The ego has to believe in something, it cannot survive without belief system. It may even come to believe that it believes in nothing. No matter what this psychological entity believes in, it must absolutely believe in order to simply think and believe t least in its own opinions. And at the end of the day, believing and thinking are just the same, but it will prefer to think instead of believing in anything for the simple reason that some words are more trendy than others, nothing else !

The ego will therefore believe in God or that God does not exist. You must believe that what you are reading now is true or totally wrong, or that you have another opinion and that yours is obviously more or less intelligent, probably smarter as the go would think, or whether the sky is blue or an illusion, or tomorrow will be better or worse than today, that you are living and one day you will die, or maybe that you are eternal, etc.

That's not a cultural conditioning, it's just vital because you cannot live without beliefs, without a personal identity, without everything that makes you believe that you exist as a separate, thinking and acting entity. It would be like thinking that you could live without thinking. If it was true, you would simply stop thinking and never think about. What for ? And of course, the same goes with realizing the truth !

"I live without 'I', without me, without ego" doesn't really make sense. And concerning the hilarious claim "I freed myself from my ego and the mind", it's not even worth to speak about. And yet it's in their absence that the supreme truth and sacred knowledge is revealed and enlightenment happens in consciousness. "I, me and myself" is a belief, a concept, words, the personal identity that the mind creates and uses to express itself as a person, a human being, while obviously, the mind is not and cannot be a person or the body of that person. As far as we know the mind is made of mental staff and nothing else, and it is quite a mystery.

The mind is the great magic show, our small inner universe and the outer world of our sensory perceptions, the entire creation, the fantasy, the dream, a crazy performance and illusion in perpetual transformation. But with humans, it can finally forget itself in order to know what it really is. And guess what does it discover when it succeeds ? Nothing, of course !

Spirituality, what for?

Take a poor man, give him wealth and power, and soon he will think and behave just like any other rich and powerful people, and vice versa, of course.

The ego and no one else is the real superpower that governs the world, all the worlds. The Illuminatis or 100 families ..., if you want to call them like that, but before all else, the ego without the slightest doubt.

And what about spirituality in all that crazy world ? Getting out of the wheel of Karma, that relation of cause and effect, which finally always ends badly ! But why should our thoughts and actions always lead to more misery, dissatisfaction, discontent and suffering ? The reason is very simple ; without spirituality, the ego cannot realize what it is and what it's really doing. And it's not psychology that could help it.

By spirituality, I mean, of course, cosmogony, knowledge or model describing what we are, where we are, what we do and why we are doing it, spiritual practices that allow us to experience directly that knowledge and verify its authenticity, and Dharma, that is to say, ethics and morality, which facilitate a readjustment to the cosmic and natural order of life.

Without complete spirituality, our inner universe and the outer world are too vast to understand anything, life simply doesn't make sense. And if we do not understand what and where we are in the world, what we do and why we are doing it, what could really we understand ?

Cosmogony might only be a model and representation of what really is, but at least, it structures and clarifies the mind. Spiritual practices might only be good for the ego, but it makes its life a lot more peaceful. And ethics and morality might only be conventional codes, but they make a big difference between savagery and civilization. And we are just starting to realize it. No need to thank those who make us realizing it !

The empire of narcissistic enjoyment

Today, we don't even need to be two in order to love and be loved, isn't it great ? And we can save a lot of money for almost the same pleasure, and without headache !

1 / 29 / 2013

Compassion is also trying to understand

Compassion is not only a noble feeling or nice emotion, it's also trying to understand others, why this and that happen.

Some people have to spit their poison in the face of others, and usually those who don't deserve it, because they are afraid of those who would need it. But they don't realize that they always carry that poison in their mouth, and that's what really poisons their life and not the others.

To understand that we can criticize and judge without hate, and even sincerely bear those who apparently don't deserve it, expresses more compassion than being positive by any means.

Understanding has that strange power of forgiving what we don't really understand, or maybe just because it's too late anyway.

Daily misery of a poor ego

_ What do you do from morning to night ?

_ I endure myself.

Cioran

2 / 11 / 2013

A snake biting its tail

Who could transcend the ego if not the ego itself ?

We can easily doubt about so-called spirituality that proposes non-ordinary experiences as a spiritual awakening, and instead prefer to focus on the extreme simplicity of life and wisdom, no more than reality as it is. If any enlightenment, liberation or spiritual realization has to takes place somewhere, it can only happen here and now, in our ordinary world and not in another dimension more subtle and etheric, if not quite psychedelic.

It's completely absurd to search for a solution to our personal problems where we don't live, but where however we can go by means a lot more magical than spiritual. Hallucinogens and modified or altered states of consciousness are not spiritual nor therapeutic solutions. They trigger more traumatic than liberating experiences that the ego will enjoy without doubt in the now and might regret later on.

If it is sincerely searching for an authentic spiritual realization, it has to understand that it is not searching for a new experience. In fact, it's exactly the other way round, the end of any personal experiences. Anyhow, the expression "modified or altered states of consciousness" speaks for itself, we don't realize what pure consciousness is by transforming its state or true nature, nor by changing our perceptions of what it's happening in the mind and the world we live in.

To transcend ourselves, reality as it is and the whole world we live in, but at the end, what for ? To realize that consciousness is supreme ? But there is nothing to transcend for that. The ultimate truth is always right in front of us, outside and inside us, everywhere we bring our attention.

The truth is that amazing power of attention, that is to say the power of knowledge. There is no other true realization, and that's not an experience as we usually understand it because it's impersonal. And an impersonal experience has indeed no meaning. Whatever it is, how could we live any ordinary or non ordinary experience if we were not conscious of it ? That's the only question worth asking if we search for the truth. We have to go back to the extreme simplicity, the origin of being and of every possible experience.

The ego will always be able to convert everything in non-ordinary reality, to transcend anything, except one thing, itself, the illusory presence it personally embodies. When an illusory entity has the impression to live an experience, whatever the experience is, it can only be illusory. Easy to understand !

2 / 14 / 2013

Excess in all its splendor

The ego is nothing more than the by-product of our survival instinct, which suddenly takes on a grandiose mental dimension and where it will inevitably find itself in the very center of the mind and nowhere else. Nothing more, but that dimension is so gigantic that it looks like an infinite universe where the ego can only get lost. And that's what it does all the time without realizing it is only contemplating in fact its own navel. Ego, mind and center of the world are the same. For the ego, there is no other world than the mind. No wonder then that sometimes, it might think that the world is completely illusory.

3 / 4 / 2013

To be or not to be… an idiot

If after studying sacred knowledge such as Vedanta called Hinduism, we think to have understood everything about the whole creation, God and ourselves, not only would we be complete idiots, but the arrogance of the ego would have no limits. We cannot forget that our little intelligence in the domain of conceptual knowledge is purely theoretical, and therefore very limited, and that it will never go beyond thoughts, words and reasoning, which can be briefly summarized as a huge blah blah blah explaining indeed nothing since we would always be able to ask "Yes, but why that, what's it origin ?". And we cannot especially forget that we are absolutely nothing in the middle of the universe whose limits are totally unknown if it has any. And that reduces even more our little intelligence already not very big, ad infinitum indeed !

If we think as Vedanta tells us that "I am Brahman, God, the Self, supreme being, pure consciousness and universal intelligence, happiness, love, eternity, the infinite, etc.", and take it personally, it would be much better to study that sacred knowledge a bit more seriously because we obviously did not understand anything about. Let's stop getting crazy with nonsensical interpretations. The Rishis of yore were not psychopaths.

God is God, no doubt about it, but to pretend personally "I am God" is to be absolutely perfect, unfortunately only in the realm of ignorance and stupidity, not to mention the one of delusion pretty crazy, megalomaniac and frankly speaking worthy of a psycho who should go urgently in a mental institution instead of teaching such stupid things as many Neo gurus do nowadays.

Our true nature is divine, the true nature of the self is the Self, if you will. But the true nature of who and what exactly ? Of whatever is not divine nor the Self, of course. "I, me and myself" are one thing, and the Self is another. The ego and the Divine are not the same.

3 / 21 / 2013

Not to say in the Neo spiritual industry

Why to use the word "ego" to make it responsible for our miseries as if our faults, which are the real cause for our errors, did not concern us personally ? If egoism, greed, hypocrisy, arrogance and stupidity cause us inner conflicts and problems of conscience, why throw them on the back of a psychological entity like the ego, which for some strange reasons would not determine anymore the person we are although it's its very function.

How could we sincerely think that spirituality is not the perfect way to face ourselves, really face to face and without shame ? And if that can be reassuring, know that all the faults of humanity are potentially within everyone. You are not alone in having some of them. And even better or worse, what is a fault for someone might be a quality for another. Welcome to the world of reversible duality and honesty, spirituality and quest for the truth !

No no no..., I am not the ego, no way !

What difference could there be between renunciation or "self-denial", an expression as old as the world, and the very modern, trendy and completely hypocritical injunction "Renounce the ego" ?

Only the ego can think with its somewhat very subtle and pretty funny mind "It's mine, it belongs to me, it's my ego." Consciousness is only watching the show without any need to cling to or renounce anything, it's already a given fact even before thinking about !

4 / 7 / 2013

What the ego should know

"The life of everyone is a failure in its own way according to the means and convictions of that person."

Léon Aréga "Le Débarras"

Paradoxical point of reference

The ego is a very smart operational center that always thinks to be independent of its functioning. It's like a clock showing the right time, but which would think strangely enough that all the mechanics inside it are unrelated to the time it gives.

So the question is why the ego or personal entity feels like and really think to be different from its own mind ? If it's the mind that creates, projects and uses that so-called ego in order to express itself, why the ego itself thinks to be personally different and separated from its mind ? It doesn't make sense.

For instance, thinking is obviously a mental process, it's a mind faculty, so why the ego thinks to be the thinker different and separated from its own thinking faculty ? The only answer that would make sense is that the ego must have a specific component or element that doesn't seem related to the mind and its mental faculties of thinking among others, and that component can only be self-consciousness.

That's what we realize, of course, by practicing meditation. And how does this difference become manifest ? Every mind faculty manifests transitory phenomenon, but the faculty of being conscious of them never changes. By its own nature, the faculty of knowing our own perceptions is totally different of every perception. Cognition and perception are absolutely not identical. And that's what the ego truly embodies, a personal and individual consciousness. From that evident fact, we can start to elaborate theories about the existence of a soul, but that's another topic.

Blasé

Fed up with always unsatisfied people who got everything to be happy !

_ You must become somebody.

_ And why not just being myself ! Am I absolutely nothing as I am ?

_ Difference creates individuality, personality, a real identity, and it will also forge your character.

_ Difference is also the cause for suffering, jealousy, egoism, envy, disagreement, mismatch and so.

Everybody knows the same old song, we can even see it in every advertising. But why do so many people feel so lonely if they live all the time with their ego, and even want to free themselves from it ? In order to become a very important person totally unrelated to others although they are already quite important enough at least for themselves, and then finally to be nothing at all ?

Desire for more and always something else, something different and not always better, really destroys what we are personally and spiritually, but without being able to free us from anything.

The big advantage in being ourselves as we are without lying is very simple. If there is something we don't like, we can always change it instead of trying to ignore it because that never works. We know it very well, consciousness doesn't allow us to ignore what we are and what we do.

4 / 11 / 2013

That's a contradiction, not a paradox

There are no mistakes in the creation. The ego is a necessary identity expressing itself personally just as much as the intellect and thinking process are needed to live normally, but that identity doesn't have to be selfish, greedy, hypocritical, delusional and so on, and finally to suffer from its own personality traits, its personal story as we politely say today.

The ego determines a degree of development in the human evolution and the creation, and that personal identity is not synonymous with suffering. Why would it be so, why the ego should only cause suffering since it's quite able of enjoying pleasure ? In fact, it's the fear of suffering that makes it suffer more than usual, and without even realizing that suffering asserts its own identity.

In other words, if "I suffer", the self can no longer doubt about its own existence, and that's the ultimate purpose of all its sufferings because they are much more important and persistent than its enjoyments. Everyone would agree that suffering is perfectly useless since everyone wants to get rid of it, but if it's so common, there must be a good reason for it, a very specific purpose. Suffering has the precise mental and spiritual function that can be boiled down to "If I suffer, I am, and so my own reality cannot be questioned anymore".

When we are happy and having fun, we don't complain. But why ? Isn't it obvious that whatever we experience, pleasure and suffering are inseparable, and that, in fact, should ruin all our pleasures and make them impossible ? The spiritual liberation that many followers of spirituality seek is a dream because they wish to experience a permanent state of happiness unrelated to any sort of suffering, but that's impossible to realize because such a state makes sense only in relation with states of suffering. Simply put, if the mind cannot suffer, it cannot enjoy happiness either. And now, the ego will have to search for something different from its own well-being and pleasure if it really wants to be free from suffering.

Bliss, Ananda, or true spiritual liberation is not a state of happiness that we could compare to suffering, such a bliss or serenity only refer to the true nature of being. And everyone obviously embodies already that being without the slightest effort, which is good to know. As Sri Sankaracharya says in "Aparokshanabhuti" :

"The immutable Self is the substratum of the ego."

When the ego, the self in search of the truth, seeks the true nature of being that it obviously embodies, it discovers consciousness, the simple fact of being conscious as such, because the mind, at the origin of the ego, is the outcome of the reflection of consciousness on the intellect, as Sri Sankaracharya also explains. It may sound a bit complicated, but it's actually very simple to understand. Look at yourself in a mirror or better still, practice Vichara, spiritual introspection for 5 minutes, and you will understand what that means. It doesn't take more to realize a very fundamental truth about being oneself and the Self. Being oneself is nothing more than the reflection of the Self, that is to say pure consciousness, in human intelligence.

The true knowledge that we all seek should not be intellectual, but only relying on direct experiences. No reasoning will convince the ego, that is to say you and me, that all its sufferings are absolutely useless and illusory. But if it experiences a total absence of suffering, just for a short while, it will no longer doubt about it. Then, it will only have to transform its bad temper into a good temperament, which means improve its own existence without even dreaming of becoming a saint. Indeed, it's not because it doesn't suffer anymore, that it has nothing left to do or it just disappears, or that it is perfect, kind of divine incarnation. The ego or "doer" will never be able to stop doing, thinking and acting, no more than human beings could survive without basic intelligence and all sort of relationship with the ordinary world, so better that it does it well and simply, and by doing so, it may discover wisdom, something that will go far beyond any non-ordinary experience and so-called spiritual awakening, beyond anything it could think of.

The ego able to free itself from its own ego does not make sense, it's completely stupid to think that it could be possible. Life doesn't stop under the pretext that a person is awakened, liberated or has realized the Self. Ego, mind and body are not the problem causing suffering, they are vehicles that allow the ego to evolve, to mature if you will.

But how far can the ego or soul evolve ? Is there any end in such a process of evolution ? Obviously, it evolves in order to renew and regenerate itself permanently since we all experience it at every moment, only for instance in the thinking process, but to evolve up to what final purpose ? That doesn't really matter, truly speaking, it's absolutely not the problem of the ego. On the contrary, the concept of constant evolution is its true raison d'être, it is always searching for eternity, that is to say in its own understanding, for continuity. That's its most intimate and supreme desire, and it's a very natural one since the ego is the outcome of its own survival instinct, what motivates that separate entity to think and act for itself, i.e. in a purely egocentric way.

When the ego stops suffering and reach the end of its quest, so to speak, it realizes that it embodies an eternal soul and its substance or substratum is the immutable Self, a universal consciousness that has no beginning nor end. Consciousness itself doesn't need to realize it, it already knows it since consciousness and the Self are identical.

So is there any definitive spiritual liberation really possible in this world for the ego or soul ? Is liberation from suffering and spiritual awakening a process in perpetual evolution without end as some Neo gurus claim nowadays ? It's actually the opposite, spiritual liberation is only possible in this world and for the ego or soul since it's obviously where we can find ourselves and what we are, but very fortunately that liberation and realization don't destroy the ego or soul, which are eternal anyway. As Hindus says, Atman and Brahman are the same, at the heart of the soul, there is pure consciousness, eternal and infinite knowledge. And the Atman found, discovered or realized in the Jivatman or Jiva-Atman, the human being, is also eternal, of course, since it's the same. Never mind all those Sanskrit words, when we speak of a person, an individual, we say that he or she is a human being, a being with the particularity of being human, with a body and mind.

Maha Samadhi, the great liberation at the moment of death, is not the end of being, being oneself and being as such, nor the end of the world, of course. If we realize that the substratum of the ego is the Self, that is to say the substance of the soul and being is immutable and so eternal, the ideas we usually have about reintegration and dissolution explaining what spiritual liberation is supposed to be are completely wrong.

The metaphor of a drop of water reintegrating the ocean is totally false because no drop can get out of the ocean as far as being and the Self are concerned. The image of a wave on the ocean is much better because it shows that whatever happens to this wave, it's not going to change what it is, a form and a name, and it can always change of name and form according to the circumstances. It can become bigger or smaller, and almost disappear. It can take any form and name, and always transform, and as far as the soul is concerned, incarnate and reincarnate from its own substance, which is eternal.

The Divine is eternal, the cosmic ego or universal soul at the origin of every individual soul are also eternal, the entire universe is in perpetual evolution and eternal, the power of life itself that makes us personally alive between birth and death is eternal, body and mind would not survive without. On the contrary, the cycles of creation, preservation and destruction, the spatial and temporal dimension in general, determine only transitory manifestations, what appears and can be perceived for a while. That does not concern eternity and immutability, the Divine and the true nature of the being that we embody. To be and to appear are not the same. The embodied ego can only appear and consciousness never show up.

Free will

Are we able to really do more than reacting like animals or organic robots ? Yes, if we choose and want to by acting... or applying the amazing power of non-action.

This means that "I, me and myself", that is the ego, can react spontaneously because it is programmed mentally, physically and naturally to do so, and especially in order to survive, or it can step back if we may say so, in other words, become aware of the real situation in which it finds itself, take into consideration all the known factors that determine that very situation, think about knowingly and its possible evolution, then take a decision and finally act. We all know that kind of mental process, it's simply called pondering or just thinking intelligently.

And if the "I, me and myself" or ego practices spirituality, it can also develop a very special state of mind, a meditative and fully attentive one. It's the purpose of Mindfulness or meditation in action so trendy today, and act while only watching carefully the situation in which it finds itself, including its own presence in action. In other words, it acts in specific situations without personal involvement, desire, choice and will power, but according to its own nature, if we may say so, and fully conscious of what's really going on.

This means that it can truly act without acting, which is a priori incomprehensible, but which no longer is when we experience it. And that's the purpose of spirituality, to have a spiritual life relying on direct experiences.

"Just watch and let it go."

"Be in the present moment and don't hurt anybody."

8 / 7 / 2013

Stop dreaming and intellectualizing

It is the ego that is the spiritual seeker, it's that entity who seeks the truth because it obviously doesn't know it, it is purely ignorant, it embodies that ignorance and darkness, the opposite of enlightenment.

Without ego, there would be no spiritual quest at all. Who else could it serve ? No need to lie, isn't it "I, me and myself" who seeks the truth, liberation, awakening or anything else of the kind, peace, love and justice in the world for instance, for my own and very personal benefit or at the very least well-being till the end of life ?

And a spirituality that would be of no use would not be spiritual at all, it would be at best kind of philosophy and metaphysics without real purpose if not intellectual pride and self-esteem, only states of mind and thoughts we would forget as soon as we think to something else.

Spirituality is purely practical. If it is only intellectual, better to look for something more entertaining and less repetitive. Spiritual doesn't mean intellectual.

8 / 8 / 2013

How, what and who could personally identified with one's own ego ?

We really hear incredible things nowadays especially in Neo Western Satsang, things so to speak unthinkable, but very much thought, told and even taught as if they were kind of revelations and inspirations coming from spiritual awakenings.

Only the ego can identify with its body, thoughts, emotions, experiences, personality, car, house, watch, shoes and so on. But today, so-called kan-gurus not especially from Australia inform us that we are also personally able to identify with our own ego, which, by definition, determines already all that is personal. In other simple terms, it means that the self would now be able to identify with its own self, and moreover that self would not be the very same self. So what could it be if only the self can identify with anything ?

As it's usually said, we can't stop progress... maybe more than anywhere else in transpersonal psychology and the great evolutionary and nondual spirituality. Not only we can now identify with our ego, but we can also do it with the divine Self, nothing else than God who would have a human experience, and tell the lousy person we embody : "My dear friend, don't take it personally, but I'm going to free myself from you and definitively get rid of everything you are, a defective body and a pretty neurotic and depressive mind."

What a gorgeous project, when pigs will fly maybe ? We can certainly say that spirituality has evolved very significantly in the West since at least Sodom and Gomorrah.

8 / 22 / 2013

The reader is the ego that he or she wants to destroy

The seeker of truth obviously thinks to be an entity separated from the truth he or she is searching for, and as such, that separate entity cannot be anything but the ego. And of course, that ego, self-consciousness or conscious entity, which points to the reader and nothing else, will never accept such a truth after being brain-washed by all those ludicrous toxic teachings claiming that we have an ego and also somehow have to destroy or at least get rid of it. And yet it is "you", the ego, who is reading those words, and who will one day have to realize it, the day you will decide to stop deluding yourself. By the way, it's also "me", the ego, who is writing those words. So take it bad !

If it's not "I, me and myself", the self and the ego who are searching for the truth, but who could that be ? When one seeks the truth, it might be a good idea to stop getting crazy and believing in any sort of so-called spiritual teaching.

10 / 3 / 2013

Initial program preserving the universe from self-destruction

Physical universe or mental universe, it doesn't matter. Somehow, they are the same.

_ The only thing you can count on is that people will do anything to survive.

_ I just want to live, I don’t care how.

In the movie "The island" by Michael Bay

Evident truths but incomplete

"That which does not kill us makes us stronger." Nietzsche

Some have understood the lesson very well, but they didn't understand the consequences of it, the relation of cause and effect, the Karma.

How can we not see further than the tip of our nose and that it's not a proof of intelligence and wisdom. It's at best an open door to power, selfishness, greed, hypocrisy and suffering. What does not kill us can also make us wish to commit suicide, and that will not make us stronger, but completely depressive or really dead.

Incidentally, Nietzsche, so much admired in his lifetime and afterwards for his genius, ended his life very badly, physically, socially and mentally.

10 / 24 / 2013

What’s really my problem ?

The real problem of all problems is that no problematic solution would ever solve any problem. That's the simplest fact that the ego should understand once and for all instead of spending its time complaining if it really wants to spiritualize its life.

Substituting one problem for another will never solve any problem. The ego should limit itself to have only one true problem, which summarizes all the others, the one of never being happy, for instance, and search a true solution for it.

If it understands that the real purpose of its quest, it will instantly solve all its problems. As a matter of fact, if it realizes that its only real problem is to never be happy, it will stop wasting time with such a stupid problem. But the reality of its mental life seems far too complicated to understand such a simple fact. So it will have to simplified its mental life. But how ? By practicing spirituality instead of thinking about.

To teach as many Neo gurus do today that all spiritual practices and disciplines are useless because they assert the identity of the ego, who is supposed to practice, is just as stupid as reading the menu of a restaurant when we are hungry and never walk into for eating.

12 / 19 / 2013

The concept of super-ego

Only the so-called super-ego can be free from its own ego, but still fully aware that it will never be more or better than a megalomaniac aspect of its ordinary ego.

Great, we can say that it has taken a big step in its illusory quest for the truth by freeing itself from its ordinary identity. Now it's nothing less than kind of psychopath who thinks to be liberated while having even more mental disorders, if not schizophrenic symptoms : "It's me the guru, your spiritual guide, I'm awakened and liberated, follow me, I'm going to make you realize the truth by any means, and never mind if I'm sick, pervert or violent." That's what we hear and see today in more or less subtle ways in Western spirituality liberated from any sort of decency and sanity, and of course, dogma, doctrines, beliefs, tradition and so on.

The concept of spiritual liberation, before realizing the truth, cannot go beyond an image of oneself, it's an ego trip in the best case scenario, and in the worst, nothing less than dementia, which, as we know, can result in collective suicides. We must therefore search for something else and especially elsewhere than this kind of spiritual delusion, and stop thinking "I'm going to be free from myself". But to search for what and where ? If we seriously find spirituality interesting, the answer is very simple, it is found in all authentic spiritual teachings, those of Buddha, Lao Tzu, Jesus, all the great sages of all time and traditions, but no one wants to hear it now because it is absolutely not flattering, not at all.

All authentic spiritual teachings explain how to end narcissism in all its aspects, what we call now the ego. That's all that is really necessary to understand. After it's enough to choose a spiritual path with which we have more affinities, the one of knowledge, devotion or renunciation, till we realize that there is, in fact, only one path, the expression of a sincere quest for truth.

Create and destroy

It's always much easier and faster to destroy than create. And it's in this simple fact that a destroyer can think to be far superior to a creator, but never the opposite because in creating, that creator is always in some ways searching for an unfinished perfection that will never be perfect but always in evolution while the destroyer doesn't care. After having destroyed, it may perfectly consider that its work is fully accomplished.

Now watch what is happening in the world, in your relationship with others and with yourself, observe carefully how the mind works with all its suffering, and you will understand that it's much easier for the ego to suffer than to be happy, to destroy than create.

We could almost say in such an analytical model that suffering is the expression of laziness. Anyway, all suffering is by definition stupid since it is useless, so much that we try by any means to get rid of it, fear is stupid, hatred is stupid, pretensions are stupid, hypocrisy, greed and selfishness are stupid, falsehood in general is stupid because none of them can be true and creative.

That said, we can all have very good reasons to suffer, reasons that are right and reasonable, sincere and very human, but that will not change the fact that they can only be in one way or another the expression of self-importance. As far as spiritual liberation is concerned, self-love is of prime importance. Self-love, self-importance or ego are almost the same thing. The ego can only love itself in order to suffer and finally always become more important. It's a vicious circle without beginning and end that can go on and on and on.

Let us be a little bit true

What could really make me thinking that I deserve kind of spiritual liberation or Self-realization, an experience of pure bliss or even a moment of sublime inner peace ? Am I so important and great, so pure, kind and generous, so perfect ?

Let us stop deluding ourselves but start practicing spirituality instead of searching for an unbelievable experience that we obviously cannot live since we are searching for. It's often by stopping that kind of crazy quest that we finally find something even more unthinkable. It can even happen with a bunch of keys.

Simple, but not so simple

No pretension, no problem !

Easy to write on the mirror till there is nothing to see.

12 / 23 / 2013

Evil ego

The process of identification is a mental mechanism quite natural and necessary in order to survive and live normally, and there is obviously no ego without identification with body and mind.

So is the ego or process of identification really the problem causing the suffering ? And what about selfishness, greed and hypocrisy for a change, all those wonderful qualities that we embody shamelessly, and we prefer to totally ignore as if they simply did not exist at all ? No no, not okay, never okay, and we may wonder why since we do not hesitate to speak about the faults of others.

Respect for oneself and others could be the solution to all the problems of humanity without the slightest exception, it would not even be worth dreaming of a world of love and compassion, but the ego would never agree, never okay with such nonsense. As some say :

"If humans stopped being selfish, heaven and earth would be destroyed."

It might be a bit excessive, who knows, but one thing is certain, the ego will always think quietly "After me, the end of the world anyway !".

Some readers will obviously disagree, and we can only thank them. We still need good people, self-righteous people, to make us believe that we hurt and destroy for the sake of art, the art of destruction, and maybe also power, who knows. Only qualities that are overly egocentric or simply narcissistic.

An ego without power, after all, without the power of hurting others and itself, would be like a kiss without mustache, we would not be sure of having really felt it.

1 / 5 / 2014

New paradigm for the mind and its personal identity, the ego

And a very interesting one that might change its whole mental universe !

_ Privacy !

_ Absolute myth, there’s no such thing.

In the movie "Paranoia" by Robert Luketic.

For the ego, everything is private, it cannot be otherwise. So... ?

Bhakti Yoga, the path of love and liberation

_ Bhakti is to be thankful at least for all that we already have and receive daily.

_ Yes, but Hatha Yoga is also very interesting, we can at least keep a nice body. Or maybe Jnana Yoga, it sounds smarter than devotion and dangerous acrobatics.

_ What about Karma Yoga, complete dedication to the happiness of others.

_ Listen, man, I've already enough problem with mine. Quest for spiritual liberation is great, but it should not become a problem even worse than the ones we already have.

_ After all, that's true, if the quest for spiritual liberation is to become a problem, let us give it up right away, which is what some geat Neo gurus teach now. Better to renounce to renouncement before starting to renounce to anything, we will at least know what we are free from and moreover, we will save a lot of time and money. In fact, renouncement is good for those who have nothing to lose, that is to say, those who had nothing before they even started to give it up.

With such thoughts, the ego should wonder if the concept of renouncement ever got any meaning or if it's only a completely crazy and obsolete idea because if we can only renounce if we have nothing to renounce to, it's surely kind of feat that we already perform anywhere and all the time. Let us all be the most selfish heavyweight champion of renouncement, and especially free from such nonsense !

1 / 9 / 2014

Fateful freedom

It may seem very strange, but there is no difference between free will and destiny, that is to say fate. There are only subjective impressions without real meaning that the mind interprets according to the importance it gives to its personal identity, the ego.

Is it therefore possible to be free to choose, to choose one's own actions and thoughts, in a context of destiny, if freedom is only based on subjectivity ?

Before anything else, we have to understand that subjectivity and the mind are identical in order to realize that this type of freedom or free will is a myth. The mind is programmed and perpetually reprogramming and updating itself, so to speak, in order to react in the best possible way and just as it should be according to its own means of understanding. The concept of freedom does not concern the mind at all, so it doesn't know and have any choice of any kind and in any circumstances. Choosing is simply not one of its functions and mental faculties although many of its thoughts might suggest the contrary.

On the other hand, self-consciousness, the individual consciousness that everyone embodies personally and no one would deny the presence as a very ordinary fact, is permanently free to accept or refuse, agree or disagree with what the mind manifests and proposes, and then that proposal becomes a choice, not a choice for the mind, but for consciousness itself.

Practically speaking and in reality, this simply means that if self-consciousness agrees with a proposal coming from the mind, and it obviously has the power to do so, an action will arise from it, and if self-consciousness disagrees with that proposal, the mind is automatically programmed to search and offer another proposal. And if that one now is accepted, it will give rise to another action. And assuming that self-consciousness refuses all the proposals offered by the mind, the mind is programmed to seek by all means a new proposal and wait before acting. It is its function, and the one of the brain, and we can easily verify it in our own thoughts when, so to speak, we "change our mind". It's not the mind and thinking process that change of mind, it's self-consciousness, which signals to the mind and thinking that it disagrees.

It's important to understand that the description of this mental process is not theoretical or hypothetical, we all experience it constantly, and we can easily check it whenever we like to. For instance, do I agree with what I am thinking ? Yes or no ? If I don't agree with, the mind, my mind if you will, will instantly search for and propose another thought. Now do I agree with that one ? Yes or no ? And so on and on, that's what we call thinking, pondering, etc. Therefore, we can easily understand why we do not always agree with our own thoughts, a pretty strange fact indeed, and so search for others. And assuming that I finally agree with one of my thoughts, a thought coming from the mind, of course, the mind will give rise to an action, which is right now writing that very thought.

If we understand this mode of mind functioning in relation to self-consciousness, the ego has in fact no excuse for the errors it makes, even though it is itself nothing more than a personal identity at the service of the mind that has no choice nor free will. It may seem very strange, but the ego, "I, me and myself", is responsible for its own actions, but only under the absolute power of self-conscience on the mind, for the simple reason that the ego as much as the mind itself is inseparable from self-consciousness. In other words, the ego is a tool for that consciousness, and if that personal identity thinks to be conscious, it's not totally wrong.

We all embody a conscious being, which means an individual consciousness or self-consciousness totally different from the so-called universal and pure consciousness, it's impossible to deny it. And we are all totally free to choose, or in other words, to accept or refuse, agree or disagree with what the mind proposes. Don't take such an explanation for granted, but verify it. Just watch how the mind and thinking process work, and you will understand.

3 / 18 / 2014

Update

"The twenty-first century will be spiritual or will not be." Attributed to André Malraux

"The twenty-first century will be the ego's supreme century or will not be." André Malraux reviewed and updated in the context of our Neo spirituality, "The cult of the ego".

My spiritual liberation, my awakening, my realization, my ego, my experiences, my happiness, etc., what's that all about according to you ?

Ego and persona

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth." Oscar Wilde

6 / 23 / 2014

Pretexts for doing nothing

Even though we may think that reality is only an illusion, which, by definition, has absolutely no meaning at all since the real determines in principle what is not illusory, and vice versa, when we help someone who is really in need, it's certainly not an illusion for that person, let alone for the one helping and who will inevitably consider that generosity as kind of sacrifice and maybe also loss of profit.

Such thoughts become even more absurd because if everything was really an illusion, why not spend all our life helping others who don't know it, and laugh with them about it since at the end of the day, nothing would be serious and our entire life would be nothing more than a big joke ? The concept of illusion should logically lead to altruism and total self-renunciation, and not to a quest of personal profit or self-interest : "The more the merrier", as some say, and the happier we should in principle be. But strangely enough, we can easily notice that those who think that everything is an illusion with finally no importance at all are often the most unhappy and selfish, and quite often completely depressive too.

Not to mention that if everything was really illusory, the personal suffering of the ego who thinks so, and its quest for spiritual liberation would be completely meaningless, what would be the point of such an illusory quest ? In short, a good illusion where everybody laughs together would always be better than a bad one, and especially a lot better than sinking into narcissism and depressive moods.

It's good to care about Hindu spirituality, but if it's for the ego to interpret terms like Maya no matter how and especially in the most convenient way in some circumstances and not others, it should better study other types of more understandable spirituality because that kind of interpretation will eventually turn against its own illusory reality and life. Let the ego imagine, for instance, that money is an illusion, what it usually never think, and we will see what happens.

To think that Maya means illusion, kind of dream we would project out there for pointless reasons, if not the pleasure of entertainment, is rather easy and pretty stupid, and it can quickly become dangerous too.

9 / 6 / 2014

Swargatham, welcome to paradise

In other words, to live without psychodrama, psychodra-me-me-me, psycho-I-I-I, without mask and Persona, the others will be in charge to do it anyway.

Why not at least try when we communicate with them. We will see the effect of it instantly, and let us be careful not to laugh too much, it's always embarrassing for others.

Seriousness is too often the expression of an egocentric pantomime : "I am serious because I lament, I've to many problems, my life is a nightmare..., otherwise I joke and laugh." But we know very well that we have to activate many more muscles to scowl than smile. Seriousness is therefore tiring and so boring !

But it seems that there is no reality neither sad nor funny. Life must somehow be at least exciting in one way or the other, otherwise we would believe that it has no meaning.

And what about reality as it is, does it exist somewhere in the world ? Reality as it is, it's paradise because it shows much more than what the go usually can see.

Absolutely genius, lousy or just necessary ego

We could say that there are those who seek to assert a gratifying personal identity, others who deny it by degrading it, and still others who have understood that the ego simply makes possible to express thoughts, which don't have to prove anything on the one thinking them. Thoughts can indeed be limited to an exchange of impersonal information. But the ego will have a great deal of difficulty not to at least believe that its thoughts are right and those of others might always be more or less wrong, and if they are somehow inspiring, they would become its own anyway. No copyright for the ego in thinking matter, thoughts are not a scientific discovery.

Spiritual liberation is not the extinction of the faculty of thinking and reasoning as all the great spiritual Masters prove to their disciples. And nothing prevents them from using words like "I, me and myself" if necessary. "Neo Advaita Speak", which banishes the use of those words and concepts, is completely absurd and laughable. What would we not do to prove that we no longer have an ego, but still need to show off in the eyes of the public ?

Eros

Ego, Eros, Hero, Zero, Xerox..., without comment, it's too easy and crazy !

Weird

If we suddenly become aware of ourselves just as we naturally are, ego craziness ceases instantly and silence reigns in the mind. This relief doesn't usually last very long, but it's still a strange state of mind worth to notice. After having tasted that inner silence and plenitude several times, we can then wonder how to make it last. Why deprive ourselves of it when we know that it's available everywhere and all the time.

But the ego without mental delusion will not appreciate that kind of joke, not at all : "I'm crazy, therefore I am."

Last judgement

_ You can judge me as much as you want, but please do it without "me".

_ Please, stay with "us" !

10 / 9 / 2014

One way ticket to hell

"Self-love, this passion from which all the others are modifications."

Stendhal

12 / 3 / 2014

Always right anyway

The ego is capable of quite extraordinary mental gymnastics. It will always find ways to believe it was right to think and act as it did anyway or find pretexts in order to apologize in thinking that somehow, it was not really its fault, the circumstances might have been responsible for its own mistakes.

But why so many contortions sometimes quite bewildering in its mental working ? Simply because it wants to live in peace and sleep peacefully like anybody else, that is to say, to have a clear conscience and be beyond reproach. However, as everyone knows very well, the problem with such mental structures is that they always collapse sooner or later. And as it sometimes happens, it might very painful and take the shape of psychological disorders.

If a spiritual quest always begins with Dharma, ethics and morality, it's precisely to appease the mind until it becomes silent and relatively balanced, it's not to create more inner conflict and disorder as some believe under the pretext that morality reeks hypocrisy, corrupt religions and the inquisition. Then, the search for the Self can really begin. Without readjustment to the natural order of the good things of life, the cosmic order also called Dharma or Tao, the ego will never understand that it is neither wrong nor right, and that spirituality is truly a teaching, it's not only a way to get rid of what troubles its mental life.

2 / 5 / 2015

Yes, but actually no

_ It's more practical, the outcome is the only point anyway. Who cares about the means ? The how's doesn't matter. "Never mind the bottle, provided that we get drunk !"

_ In the field of business and wild competition, maybe ? And yet, better play by the rules. But when it comes to spirituality, everything counts, everything is important, there is not a single detail that can go unnoticed since your practice is to watch them with keen attention. As they say, "The devil is in the details."

_ What devil ? In nonduality, there is nothing good nor evil.

_ Oh yeah, tell me about it when everything will go wrong.

To be somebody or oneself

Riggan : "It's important to me! Alright ? Maybe not to you, or your cynical friends whose only ambition is to go viral. But to me... To me..., this is… God. This is my career, this is my chance to do some work that actually means something."

Sam : "Means something to who ? You had a career before the third comic book movie, before people began to forget who was inside the bird costume. You're doing a play based on a book that was written 60 years ago, for a thousand rich old white people whose only real concern is gonna be where they go to have their cake and coffee when it's over. And let's face it, Dad, it's not for the sake of art. It's because you want to feel relevant again. Well, there's a whole world out there where people fight to be relevant every day. And you act like it doesn't even exist! Things are happening in a place that you willfully ignore, a place that has already forgotten you. I mean, who are you? You hate bloggers. You make fun of Twitter. You don't even have a Facebook page. You're the one who doesn't exist. You're doing this because you're scared to death, like the rest of us, that you don't matter. And you know what? You're right. You don't. It's not important. You're not important. Get used to it… Dad..."

In the movie "Birdman" by Alejandro González Inarritu.

5 / 1 / 2015

Hero or Zero

If the ego loves so much novels, movies, legends and heroes, it's only because it cannot be anything but the hero unfortunately also and quite often the zero of its personal story and life. And no wonder that it loves when the hero "saves the world", it just saves itself from being ordinary.

Ego and personal story are not identical, but one surely doesn't go without the other. And if it reviews its own story, it will inevitably come to the zero degree of its own existence. Will it finally infer that life was not worth living ? After having experienced it as well as possible, this poor ego would be very hypocritical to come to such a conclusion. But that's what will happen anyway.

It's always easier for the ego to hate than love its life. But at the end, what's wrong with reality as it is ? It really doesn't get it. Reality is nothing else than the manifestation of the cosmic order, how the Divine expresses its omnipotence and bliss.

Obsession or human nature, loser or winner

A strange world indeed !

If we could give one dollar to people who do not talk about their problems when they intend to, we would solve all the problems on the planet, and everyone would be rich and happy.

But if they had to pay one dollar each time they talked about their problems, they would complain even more and, of course, become very quickly completely broke. Is it about money or psychology ? Ask the ego, it's the only one who could know the answer.

Losing in order to lose more and finally have nothing to lose is a pretty weird logic, but it's surely the best way to start winning at last. In today's Western culture, we can only be a winner or a loser. Whoever doesn't care about winning or losing is worse, it's a nobody. God save... the ego, we might say that it wins the jackpot. Somebody becoming nobody, does it make sense ?

6 / 2 / 2015

Just passing by

Let's not forget that we are and will always be the first and very last to suffer from our own madness and problems. In the meantime, the others just go by without really worrying about. And they are absolutely right because they also have their own madness and problems to deal with.

This doesn't mean that we are all mad as psychology claims in order to keep the business running, but that the mind cannot help but hallucinate or simply believe in things that do not exist at all ; hence the concept of reality as it is, a concept that we unfortunately tend to forget in present-day spirituality in favor of a so-called positive thinking, so positive that it can only reveal the negativity of the one searching for it despite its real thinking. Still another madness and problem maybe !

9 / 11 / 2015

Personal identity and spiritual identity

If I think, for instance, "I'm breathing and writing", that "I" asserts its personal identity as a separate entity, that is say, the ego, which is apparently breathing and writing. That's the most ordinary function of "I, me and myself" called in other contexts personal identity or self. And that identity determines obviously the presence of an active subject also sometimes called the "doer" who is in that case breathing and writing.

And when that one considers in the absence of identification, indeed much more hypothetical than factual, that breathing is a natural physiological phenomenon running by itself without its own desire and will, or that the very fact of thinking and writing takes also place spontaneously without its own intervention since it is at present only watching what's going on, this so-called "doer" is, in fact, creating a spiritual identity whose origin can only be "I, me and myself", that is to say the ego who has now the impression of being passive and doing nothing, except watching what is happening in the mind and the world where its own body very fortunately goes on acting, doing and living.

But whatever its real experience in the present moment is, it does not concern the one of somebody else ; it can only be its own experience, a personal experience, which means the experience of the self or ego. It can't deny this fact unless it's hallucinating or simply being consciously or unconsciously lying to itself.

It doesn't matter what its impression really is and what it might think about, the important point is to understand that it's the self who is creating or projecting if you will this so-called spiritual identity that it embodies in order to watch the manifestations of its body and mind without identification. The conscious presence that it thinks and feels to be in its own mind in order to watch what is happening there is neither spontaneous nor natural, only the self or ego can instigate and create it out of nothing, if not its own personal will and desire to stop all identification with its body and mind.

Therefore, what is the real difference between personal identity, the doer, and spiritual identity, the watcher, the witness or impersonal presence capable of only watching ? The description and point of view are obviously different, in other words, the state of mind in which the self or ego is, nothing more because it's always the very same ego who considers to be or not to be the active factor, the one acting, thinking, writing and breathing.

Personal identity and spiritual identity are, in fact, fundamentally the same, but, of course, they manifest in totally different ways. Spiritual identity is even worse, if we may say so, than the personal identity because not only does the ego differentiate itself from all ordinary humans, but it does it also with itself by no longer having the impression of being human, but only a pure spiritual presence, kind of universal and impersonal consciousness watching its own body and mind without identification.

So what is the true nature of this "I, me and myself" or ego as a spiritual identity ? It is obviously not God or universal and pure consciousness, and it's not anymore ordinary and human either. It's in fact only a mental space of pretension and illusion, kind of spiritual ego or super-ego and somehow transcendental ego thinking to be more subtle than the others simply because it doesn't want to be ordinary and, of course, like the others. In fact, it wants to be free from itself.

Such an understanding or side effect of that kind of meditative practice is nothing more than spiritual arrogance, which will surely not solve the problem of its suffering, but on the contrary, make it sooner or later even worse. It goes without saying that all those critical commentaries concern the interpretation we could have of the practice of meditation, Mindfulness among others, and not of the practice itself, which is about the development of attention and mental concentration.

What is the real point of such so derogatory commentaries on the interpretation of what's happening during meditation, a noble spiritual practice ? First of all, they might help to stop getting crazy just because we can watch body and mind without identification. As a matter of fact, we don't realize the Self or awaken simply by stopping to identify with our ordinary self. And they can also help to stop lying, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, and deluding ourselves while searching for the truth, which is already a big step forward in such a quest.

Integrity, honesty and sincerity are the only guidelines we have within our own ignorance and natural hypocrisy to search for what is really true. And as soon as we understand it, that ignorance and misleading delusion are no longer as stupid as usual because the truth of our real experience free us already from many illusions, especially the one of being liberated, awakened, enlightened and so on as it happens quite often nowadays.

We must remain cautious and not interpret in haste the power of consciousness or awareness, and what is called "Mindfulness" or giving full attention to, which sometimes can make us "believe" that we are not the ego or self doing, acting and practicing meditation. As long as the personal or spiritual identity is doing something, including having the impression of doing nothing and only watching mental or physical manifestations, the ego will live in its own illusions. It cannot be otherwise since only pure consciousness can know itself and be the truth.

Watching very carefully what is going on in the body and mind simply means "To be", and that's what the self doesn't really want to know for very good reasons. There is no "I, me and myself" or ego in pure consciousness, the mere fact of being conscious or in the faculty of knowing. There is absolutely nothing, no one, no identity or entity of any kind. There is only watching, i.e. the power of attention.

In pure being, pure consciousness, and pure bliss, there can only be a presence that obviously reveals that being, consciousness and bliss. Consciousness knows itself and cannot stop knowing it because it's obviously its own nature and function. And that's, of course, what can be realized by simply facing oneself and seeking the truth, it doesn't take more than watching very carefully.

To believe oneself awakened, enlightened, liberated, realized... is the utmost delusion. The only one that can really be awakened, enlightened, liberated, realized... is pure consciousness. And that consciousness has nothing to say about it. It doesn't even have the faculty to speak because it is watching that which is thinking and speaking about it. Whatever the self is doing, feeling, thinking or believing, consciousness is only watching the show. It doesn't matter what it is doing or not doing, consciousness is just watching. No physical or mental manifestation, no natural or supernatural phenomenon, no peculiar impression could reveal what consciousness is.

A far as the person who has realized that simple truth is concerned, he or she can be pretty quiet and even serene while enjoying whatever happens during meditation or daily living. What would be the point to get excited about anything since consciousness always remains undisturbed anyway. Such a person surely cares about survival since it's very natural for everybody. What else could be done ? Save the world, another big show and crazy dream ? A person or human being is a physical and mental organism programmed to survive and live a life in the world where it is located. Egoism or altruism are completely out of place as far as consciousness and realization of the truth are concerned.

When self-consciousness, the personal and spiritual identity, that is to say the ego realize what the true nature of consciousness really is, this realization reveals that liberation is completely illusory because there is no more confusion, ignorance and suffering, and nothing to liberate from anything, that's what the concept of truth and reality as it is means. The person embodies what any human being is, a body gifted with diverse mental faculties, and consciousness is what it has always been and will be. And there has never been any conflict between the two.

By pure consciousness, we must simply understand that there is nothing else, it cannot be in the presence of what would not be absolutely pure being, consciousness and bliss.

5 / 6 / 2017

1% only, it's not much, but it could be enough

99% of the talks between egos or with oneself is roughly about

"I'm right, you're wrong."

Once understood, big holidays can begin, 99% of silence and 1% of thoughts, which at last have some meaning. It goes without saying that very few are capable of such a feat.

The greatest genius of thinking is, of course, the one of thinking that the ego no longer thinks.