"A feeling of aversion or attachment toward something is your clue that there's work to be done." - Ram Dass

Greetings and welcome to yet another tedious episode of our dEGOnstruction (ego deconstruction) series.

Todays satsang will focus on the suffering caused by the mind's dependence and attachment to the possessive … or more simply put, the 'my/mine' construct.


My name
My thread
My post
My thoughts
My life
My idea
My past
My wife/husband/kids
My house
My pain
My beliefs
My sharona
My situation
My feelings
My experiences
My money
My religion
My future
My body
My dream
My grief
My goals
My world
My truth
My opinion
My love
My philosophy
My death
My secrets
My problem


When the mind attaches itself to thought and personalizes it, it strips that which it is trying to express of all truth. For when a thought becomes a personal possession it becomes part of the mind's self defined identity. When a human identifies him or her self through what the mind possesses it is in fact defining everything but what we are as living beings.

To the mind this is what you are: imagine a box that bears your name on it, to the mind defined self all that you are is the accumulation of thoughts and experiences compiled through what it calls MY life. That is all one can be, namely a sum of thoughts.

It's not that thoughts and the mind are merely illusions as some say. Illusion itself, like all concepts, is itself a meaningless concept. And it's not an issue of discarding thought and mind for that is actually impossible, they are part of the truth and they are a vital component of this physical manifestation we call 'life.'

It is more to assign them their rightful place in our existence as opposed to allowing them to define it.
As I have noted on a few occasions, allowing the mind to be in charge is akin to allowing the car engine to steer the car.

Why?
And how do we know this to be true even though the mind resists it?

Well, the fact that the mind is resisting it should be our first clue of the truth contained in that statement.

But more specifically, let us take the example of personal dynamics on ATS in order to highlight the deeper truth across all interactions in our lives.

Think honestly for a second of how you react if your post gets a star, or if your thread gets a flag, or if a staff member is nice enough to applaud you. Think about your first reaction if someone has posted the exact same thread as you. What is your reaction if a mod actions you or moves your thread? When a fellow member is rude to you? How do you feel if you worked on a thread for a week and get no response and someone who posted a random youtube video and barely a comment gets thousands? How about if you get actioned for something and someone doesn't even though they said something worse? One of your friends got banned?

Can you let something go without having the last word?
Can you belief be attacked by someone without hurting you?
Do you get frustrated with others' ignorance?

The above questions are all rhetorical so I beg you not to painfully answer each one.
But if the answer to ANY of them is anything other than honest indifference then such is the consequence of personalized thought … what you call your thoughts.
If someone challenging, criticizing, or applauding "your" thoughts triggers any reaction in you then you are personally attached to your thoughts and define yourself through them.

To be affected by dissent or by approval is an indication that the mind is reacting to either the giving or withholding of another mind's approval.

We know that thinking minds require mutual approval for that is why we have 'like minded' communities, religions, political ideologies, social classes, cultures … and we know what happens when 'like minded' communities of any kind are at odds with other 'like minded' communities. Conflict happens, wars happen, destruction happens.

And all of this happens simply because from birth we are conditioned to think that we are own beliefs.

But are we really?

Can't a thought be just a thought without having it be personal?
Why does anything have to be yours or mine?

All this of course is just an observation …
I'm not suggesting it is the whole truth.
Just a tiny tiny fraction of the truth that despite it's lilliputian mass that unless observed, understood, and realized, sure initiates a great deal of unnecessary suffering. Suffering that can easily be peeled away and discarded simply by disconnecting one's identity from one's thoughts and the mind's need to own them.

There's nothing that I, you, nor anyone anyone else can add as far as information to realize the truth. Information is food for the mind and we've all had plenty of that. This is about peeling learned and conditioned information, one's identification with it, so that all that we all already know can manifest.

And it is all available right now, and you don't have to do anything other than stop adding stuff.


I hear you say: "Sdog just killed my Descartes and has replaced it with nothing. So now what do I do?"

Well to begin with Descartes was misinformed … there I said it!

What he should have said is not "I think therefore I am" … at best he should have said "I think therefore I think I am" … that is if he should have said anything at all.

And as far as what happens when one disconnects their identity from their thoughts?

Everything and nothing … but it happens without resistance, it happens in the present moment, and it happens truthfully.

One final note … all this stuff is simple observations. and could easily be, and if fact probably is, all bullpoop. But I observed it because I have done all that I described and suffered for it, and made others suffer for it. It isn't meant as a lesson nor do I presume any position of authority on the matter. I just was moved to write it down so I did. I hope no one feels insulted by it, and if you do, perhaps there's more truth to what I am pointing to that what you are willing to concede.

In closing ... this is not my thread and these are not my thoughts.

Cheers!

sdog

"If you think you're free, there's no escape possible." - Ram Dass


[edit on 1 Sep 2010 by schrodingers dog]

Paying attention to one's feelings is always a good start getting know the psyche of human being.

Then again, it is all right to fly with "autopilot" on

We are just animals that are blessed (or cursed) with capability to imagine and think. With this capability we either be in hell or heaven (or in between, take your pick).

Cheers for those thoughts

-v

[edit on 1-9-2010 by v01i0]

amazing thread. I battle MY ego on a daily basis, but once you identify the difference between the ego and true self you are on the right track. self awareness is key to defeating the emotions that the ego causes. I look forward to another lesson.

In short, possessions own you, and not just in Soviet Russia!

Sdog your posts always show a degree of intellect that is impressive, but this one crosses over into "scary smart" territory. On any given day I would have vehemently defended our good friend Rene' D. But today I find I must cede that you have have gotten the best of him!

I applaud and appreciate your unbelievably profound thoughts, as presented here. Very well done!

~Heff

Originally posted by schrodingers dog
Can you let something go without having the last word?

and another thing...

I don't know.

Whose thoughts were these if not yours?

And if they weren't your thoughts then did you choose to adopt and put your own personal touch on these thoughts?

And if you didn't intentionally choose to adopt and personalize these thoughts than maybe I have no idea what's going on in this thread.

In my limited understanding of reality, we own our thoughts and our interpretations of other people's thoughts. Human beings have brains and these brains generate intellect. I have to believe that there is a reason for these brains, and a reason that supersedes their being a crutch that we're supposed to overcome.

I'll never understand why these eastern religions insist that we shut down our thinking. I just don't see it as being helpful.

[edit on 9/1/2010 by NorEaster]

I did not star and flag your thread, SDog, my id did, because it felt to attempt to approve of your musings, and in doing so, to elevate itself in equal to your intellect, even though that approval was not sought, nor is the relative intellect important nor measurable.

Id did it for me, not you.

My superego remains strangely aloof. Rat bastard it is; no respect. No respect at all.

The point is not to hate the ego or to disavow it. The point is to recognize it for what it is and to be aware of it.

We all need our egos to survive, eat, work, write threads on ATS etc.
But if we get too caught up in our egos and let it dominate us and our actions then it can be problematic. Take a brief look at the world today and you'll see exactly what I mean.

One of the main reasons eastern religions advocate "turning off our thoughts" is that when we do this, we detach ourselves from our egos and we begin to realize that we are not our thought and emotions. We are consciousness EXPERIENCING these thoughts and emotions.

My favorite version of the old Descartes fallacy "I think therefore I am" is simply "I am" - to simply be aware of existing. To me that is about as close as we can get to a basic definition of consciousness.

Thanks for the thread SDog, now don't let it go to your head

[edit on 1-9-2010 by MrVertigo]

I too struggle with ego on a daily basis. For years it has been a constant battle to "win". But as I have grown older, I now realize that there is no need to "win" or to "be right". Our culture has advanced leaps and bounds throughout history; not just in technology but how we relate to and live with each other. The subtle nuancies that flood our current person-to-person relationships have shaped our ego in ways that make it very hard to let go. When we live in a society that is essentially built upon a foundation of ego-worship, then it does seem like an impossiblity to escape from this perversian of an ancient tool.

I believe, IMHO, that the key to all of this is balance.

Balance in the sense that ego is apart of us whether we like it or not but that does not mean we are completely under it's control. We are not. Just like adding a key ingredient to a reciepe, too much will over-do-it while adding too little will underwhelm it.

Originally posted by keepingtheblade
I believe, IMHO, that the key to all of this is balance.

Exactly, balance is what is needed.

Anyone trying to destroy their ego is bound to fail as once you acknowledge that it exists, you have given it power over you.

You will not be able to "destroy" it, but balancing it is an entirely different matter.

Thanks SD for giving me another thread that causes me to think.