The ego

Eongar

Dagobah Resident
In another post asked about meditation, and I was recommended an entry that Laura recommended meditation techniques. The "seeds" of which he speaks are views, feelings, phrases, etc.. I think that while we're on display or phrase in the mind. So me another question arises: do you think about the ego? And what function in your opinion?
 
Hi Eongar. Please excuse me for bypassing your question for a minute. How much certainty do you expect to obtain from your conversations here? It's hard to communicate the kind of knowledge you want in mere words and conversation.

As Rudolph Steiner stated in "An Outline of Occult Science", (AnthropoSophic Press, New York, 1922, _http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30718/30718-h/30718-h.html#toc15):

[quote author=Rudolph Steiner]
It is not given to every one to enter into the experiences we pass through when we approach supersensible realms with the human intellect.
...
Human understanding, as it works in everyday life and in ordinary science, is actually so constituted that it cannot penetrate into superphysical worlds. This may be proven beyond the possibility of denial. But this proof can have no more value for a certain kind of soul-life than the proof one would use in showing that man's natural eye cannot, with its visual faculty, penetrate to the smallest cells of a living being, or to the constitution of far-off celestial bodies.[/quote]



I am thinking that you seem to be interested in learning about philosophical foundations (of life perhaps).
If so, maybe it will be more efficient if you look into Kurt Gödel's work as it forms the primitive concepts core of Paleochristianity.

Specifically, his 'incompleteness' concept (presented as a mathematical theorem) seems to be about the existance of things which know what they are doing although we do not - and is simply a part of non-delusional life. By losing our delusions of being able to have total knowledge at any one time about any one 'subject,' we can vastly increase our effective knowledge.

See here:

http://www.cassiopedia.org/glossary/Godel,_Kurt

http://paleochristianity.org/documents/FOTCM_Statement_of_Principles.pdf


If that doesn't interest you, then perhaps Rudolph Steiner's approach may be more helpful:

[quote author=Rudolph Steiner]
Never before was a cultural epoch as purely egotistic and unidealistic as our own and it will become even more so in the near future. For, at the present time, spirit has descended completely into a materialistic civilisation. Tremendous spiritual forces have had to be employed by men in the great discoveries and inventions of the new age, that is, of the nineteenth century.

Just think, for instance, how much spiritual force exists in the telephone, in the telegraph, in the railroads, etc! How much spiritual force has been materialized, crystallized in the commercial relationships of the earth! How much spiritual energy it requires to cause a sum of money to be paid, let us say in Tokyo, by means of a piece of paper, a check written here in this place! Thus one may ask: Does the use of this spiritual force mean spiritual progress? Whoever faces the fact must acknowledge the following: You build railroads indeed, but they carry, practically, only what you need for your stomachs; and when you yourself travel, you do so only because of something that has to do with your physical needs.

Does it make any difference from the standpoint of Spiritual Science whether we grind our corn with a few stones or obtain it from a distance by means of the telegraph, ships, etc? A tremendous spiritual force is employed, but it is used in an entirely personal sense. What then will be the meaning of what men thus negotiate? Apparently not Anthroposophy, in other words, not spiritual realities.

When the telegraph and steamships are used, it is in the first place a question of how much cotton will be ordered to be sent from America to Europe etc; in other words it is a question of something that has to do with personal needs. Mankind has descended to the profoundest depths of personal necessity, of physical personality. But just such an egotistic, utilitarian principle had to come sometime, because through it, the ascending course of all human evolution will be facilitated.[/quote]


...and how about this as a taste for what a person may be missing out on by being overly concerned with other people's ideas that don't lead anywhere. As opposed to doing the Work here, for example:


[quote author=Rudolph Steiner]
Many mystics plunge into a world of indefinite sensations and feelings; Goethe plunges into the crystal-clear world of ideas. One-sided mystics disdain clarity of ideas and think it superficial. They have no inkling of what is experienced by men who are endowed with the gift of entering profoundly into the living world of ideas. They are chilled when they give themselves up to the world of ideas. They seek a world-content that radiates warmth. But the world-content that they find does not explain the world. It consists only of subjective stimuli, of confused representations. A man who speaks of the coldness of the world of ideas can only think ideas, he cannot experience them. A man who lives the true life of the world of ideas feels within himself the beginning of the world working in a warmth that cannot be compared with anything else. He feels the fire of the World Mystery light up within him. This is what Goethe felt when the vision of weaving Nature dawned in him in Italy.[/quote]

From "The Essential Steiner", Robert A. McDermott, Editor, Floris Books, ISBN 0-86315-225-2


Hope this helps. :)
 
Eongar said:
In another post asked about meditation, and I was recommended an entry that Laura recommended meditation techniques. The "seeds" of which he speaks are views, feelings, phrases, etc.. I think that while we're on display or phrase in the mind. So me another question arises: do you think about the ego? And what function in your opinion?

Hi Eongar, I'm not sure I understand your question completely and wonder if there seems there is something you're trying to get at. I suppose one reason I'm thinking there is something behind your question is that there are plenty of meditation techniques that work to silence the mind and get rid of the ego. Is that where you are coming from? In any case, most definitions of the ego don't really seem to work in defining who we are, and even work against efforts toward self knowledge. Gurdjieff's work lays out some concepts that can allow for more accurate observation and learning about who we are. The Cassiopaea glossary has an entry on the Fourth Way's definition of personality that may help some:

Personality
In 4th Way psychology, personality comprises all acquired aspects of man's thinking and emotions. Little I's are the building blocks of personality, programs are what the little I's run, singly and in groups. Buffers are separate groups of little I's, so that man can without being troubled or suffering cognitive dissonance behave in completely opposite ways in different circumstances.

All these things constitute personality. Personality is however necessary for esoteric progress but is not alone sufficient for it. In modern man, personality is generally developed at the cost of essence.

Essence is the set of capabilities or tendencies man is born with. Having one's center of gravity in the moving, feeling or thinking center is for example a part of essence. When man grows, essence guides the formation of personality but is generally left undeveloped.

The Work begins by shaping personality with the tools of self-observation, self-remembering and other methods. Essence as such is not readily accessible, hence work on personality is more practical and possible.

Sometimes the word false personality is used for personality when emphasizing its synthetic or anti-Work nature. Lying to self, pretentiousness, self-importance, subjectivity are for example attributes of 'false personality.'

This is just a piece of the puzzle, and I'd suggest reading up on the recommended materials to get a fuller picture. The books in the Fourth Way and in the Narcissism sections specifically elaborate on these issues (although all of them relate one way or another ;) )
 
Thanks for the input.

The question posed in this post I have made with the intent to know what you think forum members and thus may have different prisms on the subject in question, so you can address the issue in different ways. Although in truth, one's experience is one that has the last word in the case of being aware of oneself.
 
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