“…In an effort to acquire good or to get rid of bad, you have invented a god. Then, you worship such a god…and you pray to that god for something good to happen to you.”—Maharaj
From a site visitor: In one entry, you talked about people inventing god. In another you talked about ego being a Latin word for “I.” After reading those entries, it suddenly hit me that there has to be a connection. What I mean is that it hit me for the first time about how arrogant it has been to create a god in our image, especially in a male’s image. Yes or no?
F.: [Continued from yesterday] Next, among those who undertake the “journey,” what role does ego play not only in their believing in an invented god but also in their being “stuck” at Level Three (where religious and spiritual personas are assumed as new identities)?
1. Ego leads the personas playing those roles to cling to their false identities since they believe that their roles (a) are “noble” roles, (b) have made them “better,” (c) gives them power, (d) assures their continuity, and (e) gives them the ability to choose…which they did not have before, or
2. Ego causes the personas playing those roles to mistake “no choice,” a.k.a., total causation, as “divine will,” or
3. Ego—which brings with it a level of arrogance that says, “Oh, I know that”—prevents persons from looking beyond their new identity and gives to persons playing those roles a pride in their spiritual knowledge. (That spiritual knowledge is nothing more than “learned ignorance,” but it generates spiritual arrogance nonetheless.) Under the influence of ego, the old—the familiar—is clung to since the ego abhors any new teachings that might contradict old, firmly-entrenched beliefs or their new beliefs that are also firmly entrenched. When ego is burned away as the light of awareness shines upon it, then everything is new, meaning none of the old forces (which had unconsciously driven persons) remain. A new understanding—which is really the very old Original Understanding—springs back into consciousness. But as long as ego remains, nothing new or contrary to programming will even be considered, so the religious or spiritual roles are clung to, or
4. Ego prefers the search, so those playing the role of a “religious person” or a “spiritual person” stay trapped in those roles that allow the search or "the accumulation of more" to continue (including more “goodness,” more spiritual knowledge, more “good conduct,” more “good growth,” ad infinitum). If those assuming religious or spiritual roles were actually to find what they are looking for, then de-accumulation would happen, the search would end, and the assumption of ego-states (their newest phony identities) would also end. Ego cannot bear that thought of losing its false identities, so all sorts of ego-defense mechanisms are activated to perpetuate the belief in the false “I” and the religious and/or spiritual roles that it is playing.
Only the quality of the consciousness—only consciousness that has undergone the re-purification process completely—can provide the ego-less quality of happiness or bliss or contentedness that is being sought by persons who are uncomfortable, discontented, or miserable. Ego dulls the quality of the consciousness. Programming and conditioning and enculturation corrupt it completely. And since ego takes the composite of all of its false identities to define “who is it,” there is a major emotional investment among personas in terms of the value given to their false roles and to the energy that ego will expend in trying to preserve and sustain ego’s false images.
To be free via Realization is actually to be (1) free of the ego, (2) free of believing in lies and (3) free of dependency on any invented entities that the ego wants to use in order to give continuity to the body and mind and personality though none of those three can possibly be continuous. Consider Realization—in light of what recently “hit you”—to be liberation from ego and liberation from personality. If you find that you’re unable to reject the influences of whichever of the Nine Personality Types are driving you, then at least consider the possibility of wearing those types with a lightness rather than as weighty armor that the ego is using to preserve its false identifications and personas. Thus, your insight into the linkage between ego and the invention of god/gods is accurate. Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
F.: [Continued from yesterday] Next, among those who undertake the “journey,” what role does ego play not only in their believing in an invented god but also in their being “stuck” at Level Three (where religious and spiritual personas are assumed as new identities)?
1. Ego leads the personas playing those roles to cling to their false identities since they believe that their roles (a) are “noble” roles, (b) have made them “better,” (c) gives them power, (d) assures their continuity, and (e) gives them the ability to choose…which they did not have before, or
2. Ego causes the personas playing those roles to mistake “no choice,” a.k.a., total causation, as “divine will,” or
3. Ego—which brings with it a level of arrogance that says, “Oh, I know that”—prevents persons from looking beyond their new identity and gives to persons playing those roles a pride in their spiritual knowledge. (That spiritual knowledge is nothing more than “learned ignorance,” but it generates spiritual arrogance nonetheless.) Under the influence of ego, the old—the familiar—is clung to since the ego abhors any new teachings that might contradict old, firmly-entrenched beliefs or their new beliefs that are also firmly entrenched. When ego is burned away as the light of awareness shines upon it, then everything is new, meaning none of the old forces (which had unconsciously driven persons) remain. A new understanding—which is really the very old Original Understanding—springs back into consciousness. But as long as ego remains, nothing new or contrary to programming will even be considered, so the religious or spiritual roles are clung to, or
4. Ego prefers the search, so those playing the role of a “religious person” or a “spiritual person” stay trapped in those roles that allow the search or "the accumulation of more" to continue (including more “goodness,” more spiritual knowledge, more “good conduct,” more “good growth,” ad infinitum). If those assuming religious or spiritual roles were actually to find what they are looking for, then de-accumulation would happen, the search would end, and the assumption of ego-states (their newest phony identities) would also end. Ego cannot bear that thought of losing its false identities, so all sorts of ego-defense mechanisms are activated to perpetuate the belief in the false “I” and the religious and/or spiritual roles that it is playing.
Only the quality of the consciousness—only consciousness that has undergone the re-purification process completely—can provide the ego-less quality of happiness or bliss or contentedness that is being sought by persons who are uncomfortable, discontented, or miserable. Ego dulls the quality of the consciousness. Programming and conditioning and enculturation corrupt it completely. And since ego takes the composite of all of its false identities to define “who is it,” there is a major emotional investment among personas in terms of the value given to their false roles and to the energy that ego will expend in trying to preserve and sustain ego’s false images.
To be free via Realization is actually to be (1) free of the ego, (2) free of believing in lies and (3) free of dependency on any invented entities that the ego wants to use in order to give continuity to the body and mind and personality though none of those three can possibly be continuous. Consider Realization—in light of what recently “hit you”—to be liberation from ego and liberation from personality. If you find that you’re unable to reject the influences of whichever of the Nine Personality Types are driving you, then at least consider the possibility of wearing those types with a lightness rather than as weighty armor that the ego is using to preserve its false identifications and personas. Thus, your insight into the linkage between ego and the invention of god/gods is accurate. Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
