Ethos of the Ego - Part I

Well, I have referred to this post in my earlier deliberations too, and there is a reason for that, this particular idea has been one of my most foundational epiphanies. It will be awhile before i can articulate it well enough, but I attempt it nevertheless. I must put a disclaimer though, the terminologies that I will be using could be used elsewhere with different meanings, so understanding the context will be crucial. To add to it, this might turn out to be a very elaborate post, so unless you have substantial time and receptivity, I wouldnt recommend this post, in other words, ' it's not light reading' to say the least.

Let me begin with a hypothetical scenario; Imagine you are driving down on a highway for a really important meeting that is going to be vital to your career progression, and you happen to come by an accident victim, around whom (as always) there is crowd and yet no one seems to be taking any action. Now, in such a situation, what do we do ? There are usually two very obvious voices in our head, one: probing us to get involved in the well being of the victim and do something to help the victim out, the other just asking as to move on, further justifying it, either by hypothesizing that there are many people around and someone would definitely help, or by indicating towards the importance of the meeting and its significance towards your career prospects. More often than not, despite being good and emphatic, most people would pray a small prayer, hope someone would help the victim and go ahead on our journey towards our career. Neither choice is right or wrong, it simply depends on our understanding of ourselves.

Irrespective of the outcome, it is this colloquy and the characteristics of these two voices that I will attempt to dissect in this post. It could get very challenging to identify these voices if we don't christen them, so we shall refer to the first voice (that asked us to stay and help) as our conscience and the latter, as our ego.

Note:
-Conscience could be also be considered synonymous with the voice of our conscious or soul or heart
-Ego: not to be mistaken for pride

So what are these two voices? My theory lies in being able to discern and differentiate between these voices and attempt to establish a method to identify them. Nevertheless despite identification, in my humble opinion the path of spirituality might not have even commenced at this stage, but it could definitely be an indicator of direction.

My journey of discernment begins with first attempting to understand what the "ego" is, why do we have it by design of our very human psyche, what do we do with it and how it could be used as an instrument as opposed being identified with it as "I"or "Me".

Lets imagine a river, far and wide and wild, and of course, its banks.. now imagine somehow that most of us who exist in this material world are on one side. My theory is that our spiritual journey begins on the other side of the river. I liken the river and the side we are on to be "maya" or the manifestation of the material world. The side we have found ourselves on tends to be like an island, with all material resources available, and for most of us there is no material reason for us to venture out into the other bank, not at least until we realize that there is more to this world than our island (which is getting far too crowded). We may find all the happiness we seek here but for sustainable peace the island is far too crowded, we may yet find our bits and pieces of peace here and there, now and then, subject to the persistence of our seeking but nevertheless it is almost always short lived. The river then, is the most intense manifestation of maya and any attempt to cross it will involve extensive challenges (the depth, the current, the aquatic fauna, the vortexes, nature's wrath, etc.). This imaginary situation is the premise for my understanding and for what might appear as my 'theory'.

More on this in the next post.