Ego - The source of all sufferings

By: Raghavendra Giri
aka Ricardo Dacosta

If there is one common teaching all sages and self-realized beings that have walked upon earth have tried to communicate to us is the fact that in order to realized one-self, the false-self or ego must be dropped, don't you agree?

The question "what is the Ego?" always comes up, and for those that know what the Ego is, then the question "How do I get rid of it?" comes.

In this essay, I will try to answer the above two questions.   Although what you are about to read comes from my own understanding, I feel the need to express that I believe this understanding has been possible due to the grace that my guru, Maha Yogi Pilot Baba, has bestow upon me. Many times during my meditations, I had visions of the great sage of Arunachala, Ramana-Maharshi. After my experiences and after reading his works, I have come to understand that him also helped me in realizing this truth.   It is important to mention too, that although I have come to understand this truth, I am not claiming self-realization, but my life has become much more pleasant since. I hope you too understand these teachings, to which I call the root of all sufferings.  

What is Ego?

Ego is what gives us the illusion that we are everything that we are not; that we are the body, that we are what we feel, that we are what we experience through our senses and so on.   It creates our false identity. How?   It is the Ego that makes us identify our-self with our thoughts, therefore creating our false-reality.   It is the Ego that gives us the illusion that we are a mind-identify body.   It is the Ego that separates ourselves from our True-Self our God within. As you have probably experience, our mind is constantly generating thoughts, one after another, non-stop and the more we think about one thought the more we identify our-self with such thought, are you following? That is why whenever you feel down on yourself, your friends will do what they can to try to take you out and have a good time, so that you don't think about your problems and therefore the suffering stops, but as soon as you are back in your mind, the suffering is back too.

In order for us to feel angry or happy about a situation, we must first think about it, and the more we think about the situation, the stronger the feeling/emotion/reaction becomes.  

This truth also applies to positive emotions, that's why some teachers, who have realized this truth, or part of it, have been able to convinced people that all you need to do is to always think positively; the more positive thoughts you have the more positive your life will become.   This technique works, but is a bit symptomatic; it deals with the surface of the problem but not with the roots of the problem. The problem is that as long as you let your-self be under the illusion that you are your thoughts, then whenever you are done "thinking" positively, the negative thoughts will start haunting you again, it is the nature of the mind.

The mind likes change and it will always find a reason for you to make a change.   It doesn't matter if you are living in the most beautiful place in the whole world, surrounded by the most beautiful & conscious individuals, still, even then, the mind will give you a reason to not be happy about. And so it is up to you, to live a life fully identify with your thoughts, which brings all kinds of sufferings or to live a life in which you are always in God's consciousness, which Jesus called The Kingdom of Heaven. In the Gospel of Thomas Jesus said to his disciples "The Kingdom of the father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it"

The word Yoga, as many of you know, means union with God.   The purpose of practicing Asanas (Postures) Pranayam (Breathing techniques) Dhyan (Meditation) and Kirtan (Chanting) is to take us away from our thoughts so that we can come and experience that place of no-mind that is always at a state of evenness, it is here in this state of awareness that one becomes one with his/her inner God.

Here is another example of false body identity: Many times we have heard great teachers saying that the body is the vehicle of the soul.   Have you heard that expression? Have you ever meditate on it? If the body is the vehicle of the soul, then why do we feel so identify with our body, as if we were the body? Here is a great analogy; when you are driving your car, the car is the vehicle of the body and although when you drive it, it feels like you and the car has become one, you know for certain that you are not the car, right? If your windshield breaks, you don't say "I" can't see, more than likely you would say I have to fix my car's windshield because I can't see through it, do you get my point?   If something happens to the car, you don't identify your-self with the car as if you were the car. The same applies to us and our body, the problem is that we have spend so much of our lifetime in our body and developing the body connection with the Ego or false self, that we have come to fall under the illusion that we are the body...how do we deal with that?

Dropping the Ego

First we must experience the true-self.   The true-self resides within each one of us.   Must of us have experience the true-self at least once in our lifetime. How? When?   Have you ever been so immerse in dancing, swimming, singing, making love, kissing, breathing, meditating, walking, playing that it almost felt as if nothing else was happening in the world? You were so present in the moment that no thoughts were there, perhaps you felt you weren't even there, that something was taken over you, that something was the true-self.   During those 3-5 seconds that it lasted, it was then that you were "out" of your mind and "in" your own self.   It is that moment that Jesus called "The Kingdom of Heaven"

Once this feeling has been experienced, you must make an effort-less effort to experience it over and over again, so that whenever you have a "problem" which is nothing else but your ego or false-self identifying with a thought, you can go to that place inside of you that you can connect with where there are no reactions, where everything is at a state of evenness and the moment you are able to experience such blessing, then you must ask yourself " If here I am in peace, then who was then reacting to that problem?" "If my true-essence never reacts upon anything, then who reacts? " It is by asking these questions that you come to know and identify the Ego as your false-self. The Ego will loose its strength and before you even know it the true-self will take over, and therefore you come to know who you really are.

The Ego is like a bunch of kids who are screaming, running around the classroom and making a mess while the teacher (the True-Self) is out for a few minutes, but the moment the teacher (the True-Self) enters the room again, then its almost like nothing ever happened; the kids (Ego) are al back in their chairs and ready to follow the teacher's (True Self) command...

Jesus said that we must love each other as we love ourselves, but the problem is that you cannot love your-self unless the Ego is dropped and you cannot love others until you realize your true-self, so that you are able to see the true-self in others too...It is then that you will be able to see God in everyone, until then all we see is a bunch of Egos walking around.

Once we realize this truth, all sufferings will end, just like Jesus said clearly to his disciples " When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father.   But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty" The Gospel of Thomas.

Note: If you would like to learn about my guru, Maha Yogi Pilot Baba, please click here He will be visiting us on the East coast at the end of February and he will be on the West coast the beginning of March.

Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti

Would you like to add a comment? Email us at: ricardo@integralnutrition.com

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