This article was first published in "The Power of How" by Daniel McGowan.
The Ego’s Role and Attributes
Mind is pure Awareness and as the ultimate ‘I’, the Overself, it is pure Thought. Consciousness is attentive awareness from which the ego springs as a thought.
Baby-mind to Ego-mind
When the individual is in the infant stage of development he reacts to the environment as if it were part of himself; he understands it as himself. The baby cannot separate the self from the not-self. He cannot recognise the difference between subject and object. That is why he puts every object given to him into his mouth, an act of survival he had learned much earlier during former incarnations in his desperate search for food that would ensure he stayed alive. Only later, when he reaches ego-consciousness and becomes aware of himself as the ‘I’ distinct from the not-’I’ – the environment – is he able to interact with it as a separate reality. The infant becomes the growing child, able to distinguish himself, as an individual ego, from all other people and things. He achieves self-consciousness, ego-consciousness. This self-consciousness, however, creates the illusion that the individual is separate from the environment.
On reaching the adult stage, the individual knows that he is conscious, has the sense of ‘I’, and is able to think abstractly.
Some Attributes of the Ego
In the constitution of the human being the ego was the first and foremost thought that sprung from the World-Mind – via the Overself – and it was destined from that moment to change permanently. Movement and change would be its only constants. The ego’s sense of ‘I’ springs from the Overself. The ‘I’ was blessed with the wish to develop through evolutionary compulsion into whatever the World-Mind had planned for it. The ‘I’ in turn used the power of creative thinking to evolve into what it is today. It is the first thought from which all subsequent thoughts spring.
The ego is also the most persistent thought that appears within Consciousness. It is the witness of the activity of the intellect. It is infinitely inquisitive, always curious, always seeking new knowledge. In the manifested world it is the very basis of the make-up of a human being. It is the centre of the individual as he thinks, moves and has his being at the everyday “psycho-physical” level of existence. The ‘I’ and the body are an indivisible unity. This is an inadequate way of saying this, caused by the limitations of language to express such a thing. As stated above, it is meant to convey that the ego evolved into the body. In the wakeful state, thinking, feeling and action are under the control of the ego-self. The ‘I’ instigates and directs the body’s actions, and the intellect’s thinking processes. It experiences the whole gamut of emotions and deals with reports from the senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch smell and kinesthesia. Without the ego there would be no evolution, no actions, no thinking, no emotions, no sensations and no kinesthetic sense. The ego also gives a person his sense of individuality, separate from others.
From the divine Overself the ego – the underself – is put forth and is the channel that connects the divine with the world. Little by little and bit by bit the truth comes slowly dawning about the ego’s relation to the divine Overself on one hand and the world on the other hand. Much musing and deep deliberation is required to understand these connections. The ego is the thinker, the conscious mind that drives the individual ever forwards into the unknown: the great creator and inventor at the heart of all his thoughts and actions at the “psycho-physical” level.
To talk of the underself as the ego can cause confusion. To use phrases like, “The ego does this, the ego thinks that,” could give the impression that there is another entity that exists separately from the ‘I’: but again the limitations of language apply here. The ego is the ‘I’. To talk of the ego in the possessive sense implies the existence of another entity that owns the ego. At the “psycho-physical” level this is not so. Another example of how little we know of what we really are is shown in the inadequacy and inaccuracy of the everyday language we use in talking about ourselves. The word “soul” is used by many religious people to mean the essence of the human being. Phrases like, “I feel it deep in my soul,” are used, but this implies another entity – usually the body – that owns the soul: or some people refer to the mind as the entity that is the owner of the soul. If, however, the soul is the essence of the individual, the mind and body cannot refer to it in the possessive sense. The paucity of our knowledge of our deeper selves, mentally, physically and spiritually, is shown in this constant shifting of our standpoint. In discussing these deeper layers of our being, we too often talk ourselves round in confused, ever-decreasing circles until we are in danger of disappearing up our own egos!
It occurred to me some years ago that Descartes’ statement, “I think, therefore, I am,” was the wrong way round. “I am, therefore I think,” indicates the true situation. As stated earlier, the ego existed as a formless conscious entity that used the intellect to think itself into the form commonly known as the body. To talk of the ego in this way again indicates the limitations of language to express this accurately, because the ego is also a thought, albeit the fundamental one after which all others followed.
The everyday language we use, however, when referring to ourselves as human beings, is closer to the truth than most of us imagine. For example, we use phrases like:- “I am thinking,” “I am doing,” “I am walking,” “I am talking,” “I am feeling emotional,”
In this way we instinctively aver and confirm that the ego came first, and through evolutionary compulsion and creativity became the body: “I am, therefore, I think and do.”
Further Development of the Ego and Related Random Thoughts
To achieve enlightenment, it is not necessary, nor desirable to kill the ego, but simply to put it in its proper place in the constitution of the individual. On the contrary, it is to be developed spiritually to come ever closer into the divine light of the Overself, and to be honed, evolved and perfected mentally, “physically” and emotionally in its interaction with other people and the world. If the individual wishes to express himself fully, he must develop himself fully. His spiritual aspirations and development must be combined with the endeavour of cultivating and perfecting the ego. He must allow the fullness of the ego to unfold. Such unfoldment would make the individual a better person who appreciates that this is to his own advantage, particularly in the pursuit of constructive conscious control in the use of the self during the relentless repetition of activity in the daily round: and, if he is altruistic, would befit him more to truly serve others.
This article was first published in The Power of How by Daniel McGowan. You can download the PDF of this book for free here: FREE DOWNLOAD