OM! Vital, emotions and compulsive thinking - by Nityananda Atman

Vital, emotions and compulsive thinking
by Nityananda Atman

What really emotions are?

Emotions are our unconscious vital reactions towards external, stimulus and external situations. They are expressed mainly through the heart (outer), navel and throat chakras (energy centers). Of course the vital-emotional energy it is spread through the energy channels (nadis) all over the vital body (which is a little bigger than the physical body) and in the mind .

‘’Not a single emotion exists that is not related to something else. There is always some external object involved. Not a single emotion is your own. When you take in a sensation, the sensation finally leads to emotion.’’  ~ Swami Rama 

There are the authentic feelings deriving from our soul such as love, compassion, joy, devotion, happiness, and the lower or negative emotions of anger, depression, fear, anxiety, irritability, hatred, impatient, etc. which in reality are vital formations expressed at the level of heart and navel. 

All the negative emotions  are only expressions of the impure vital through the chakras of heart, navel and thymus. The vital formations  at the level of mind are expressed as compulsive mechanical thinking.

Emotions cloud our intellect and its ability to see things as they are. Our intellect hypnotized and distorted by the emotions such as fear, anger, jealousy etc. loses its capacity to discern the true from the false and realize the consequences of our actions.  Without clear vision we think and act erroneously creating unnecessary suffering to us and our fellows. 

Emotion is our personal reaction to sensory data, giving us fear of what causes pain and desire for what brings pleasure. 

Sensation gives rise to emotion. If we contact something pleasurable, it makes us happy. If we contact something painful, we feel sad.

Repeated emotions move from reactions of the outer mind into conditions of the inner consciousness.

The emotional side of the mind connects more with pranas (vital energies) and the motor organs, which serve mainly to fulfill various pranic activities.

~ Dr. David Frawley

Emotions are compulsive vital formations conditioned from previous experiences and circumstances that are stored in our subconscious mind and are associated with certain sensory inputs, thoughts, images and thinking patterns. 

What is this vital? 

The vital is the energy in every being and does all functions, physiological and psychological. The heart, the muscles, the digestion and all other bodily functions become possible by the physical vital-energy. Similarly feelings, thoughts and all mental processes are possible because of the psychic vital-energy.

When the vital energy is polluted by the degraded sexual energy takes the form of lust and desire.

In the natural state the vital enable us to experience the bliss of our true Self or Consciousness. But the humans on earth since the age of Adam and Eva developed an unnatural state of vital. Gurdieff and Samael Aun Weor have said that this degradation happened due to the organ of kundartiguador or kundabaffer.

Sri Aurobindo refers to the vital as the vital proper* , which is  the life-force acting in its own nature, impulses, emotions, desires, ambitions, etc., having as their highest centre what we may call the outer heart of emotion, while there is an inner heart where are the higher or psychic feelings and sensibilities, the intuitive yearnings and impulses of the soul.

 

 

The impure vital is the center of the EGO and all its expressions. Lust, desire, pain-body and the sense ‘the body is me’ which are the main expressions of ego are all vital formations. In reality ego, desire, lust, ‘Iness’ and negative emotions are one and the same thing -LUST- which is modified sexual energy.

All other innumerable expressions of ego such as likes, dislikes, repulsion, attraction, fear, anger, greed, impatience, irritability, depression, guilty, etc. are only modifications of the above.

What causes the compulsive thinking?

Most teachers say that emotions are based on thoughts. From my own experience I found that what happens is exactly the opposite. The vital impulses are the origin of the lower emotions and the compulsive thinking. Compulsive or mechanical thinking happens due to the pressing of the vital impulses to the mind, which deluded by the vital is used by it in order to satisfy its demandings.

 It is well known that when someone is angry loses the control of his mind; he thinks and speaks compulsively. Of course what he says is stuff stored in the subconscious. The energy of anger makes the mind to think compulsively the same things again and again.

The vital is not operating only when there is a strong emotion like anger or fear but it does all the time, in a very subtle way. Almost in every situation there is a vital reaction, such as like-dislike, attraction-repulsion etc. (maybe very subtle) which cause the mind to think compulsively. Thus the intellect loses its clarity and the ability to discern the true from the false.

Thoughts (I mean the compulsive mechanical thinking, the noise in the head) are based on vital emotions as well as on vital desires, vital impulses, vital passions etc. All these vital reactions drive the mind to repeat compulsively the same thought patterns again and again, so as to intensify the pleasure or the pain (Nisargadatta) that the vital likes to experience. 

A part of the psychic vital is so perverted that likes also pain and suffering. 

The vital uses the thoughts to intensify the pleasure or the pain that derives of any situation.  In reality, the external situations are only opportunities for the vital to reproduce the same formations of pleasure and pain (Swami Sivananda) which are stored in the subconscious.  

When there is not a strong enough external stimulus to give pleasure to the vital, the vital energy contracts and creates a feeling of incompleteness, discontentment, dissatisfaction, depression or boredom. This inner state drives the mind to think and find some appropriate stimulus to give pleasure to the vital (Usually eating some sweet is the easiest stimulus).

If the external life does not give the vital any chance to experience what it likes, the vital manipulates the imagination and thoughts to experience it virtually (and this happen most time of the day, every day.) In fact all this continuous moment to moment compulsive thinking which is accompanied with mental images is created by the pressure of the vital on the mind and thus the vital experiences the same feelings, desires, passions, pleasures and pains again and again.

The tv and the cinema are two very useful tools for the vital to experience pleasure when there is no possibility for real sense stimulus. For example if the ego likes sex pleasure and a mate is not available the vital-ego uses the technology (video-movie) to substitute the real stimulus with a virtual one.

This lower or impure vital is the pain- body that Eckhart Tolle refers very often. All expectations, ambitions, desires, fears, anger, jealousy, impatience, discontent, agony, anxiety, greed, possessiveness, domination, violence etc. and the sense ‘I am the body” are only expressions of the vital. 

The sense ‘I am the body’

 The notion “I am the body” is not only a thought. It is also a belief or a conviction in the intellect, an emotion in the heart level and a vital sense in the upper body and face. All the above are the different expressions of the same vital-ego energy.

This vital-ego energy has been created by degradation of the sexual energy from the time of Adam and Eva.

The dense energy of the impure vital clouds the empty space of pure consciousness and at the same time creates this strong sense ‘I am the body”, or better to say “the body is me” the so called “ego” which is the common experience of every one.

The vital-ego energy is strongly mixed up with the body, and thus it is very difficult to be recognized us something that not belongs to the body. Furthermore the vital-ego energy keeps the mind most of the time clouded, agitated and extroverted. This makes almost impossible for ordinary people to discern this energy as something different from the physical body and something different of themselves. This is the reason that everyone say I am angry, I am sad etc. Unfortunately people accept the vital impulses and emotions as something that belongs to them or as their own self

Another very important point I would like to mention is that the impure vital energy creates both, the sense of ego (the body is 'Me') and all lower emotions such as desire, fear, anger, anxiety, depression, etc.) The 'Me' and the lower emotions, desires etc. are the two sides of the same coin. Because of it, every time that an emotion or desire functions in our psych we feel more strongly the sense of “me”. Emotions, desires and ego are in reality are one energy taking these different expressions.

The vital not only manipulates the outer mind (manas) but also the intellect (buddhi). The intellect is used by the vital to invent thousand of different ways for its satisfaction through food, sex, clothes, comforts, sound and visual entertainment etc. The intellect also is used by the ego to justify the brutality of the ego-vital actions.

The intellect cannot function properly if it does not function independent of the vital impulses. Reasoning, discrimination and understanding are clouded by the vital and thus the intellect functions in a very limited way.

 “Most of us are dominated by the vital body and its deep-seated urges that are necessary for us to remain alive. It is also the home of the vital or subconscious ego which holds the various fears, desires and attachments which afflict us. We most of our spend our time in life seeking enjoyment through the vital in the form of sensory enjoyment and acquisition of material objects.

~ The vital body  by David Frawely

Emotions (the lower) in reality are formations of the vital. These vital formations are responses to sensory inputs and instinct urges. The vital formations become thoughts at the level of mind and emotions at the level of heart. Real emotions are only the positive emotions of love, joy, peace, contentment, compassion, devotion. 

Thoughts usually are stored in the subconscious in conjunction and association with some vital reaction (this is the heart of the problem about the egoic mind). After some repetitions, the thoughts and the vital reactions create a strong relation between each other and function as a chain in a vicious cycle and thus mechanical patterns are created. These mechanical patterns function independently of our conscious will.  These patterns come in play due to sense stimulus, imagination, memory, etc.

The speed of thinking process is slower than the emotional and vital one. So it is easier for ordinary men to notice the thoughts than the subtler vital and emotional reactions.  That’s why seems that the thoughts create the emotions or vital reactions. Of course when the emotions are fully and strongly expressed are easily recognized by ordinary people too. 

Surely the vital reactions cannot survive for a long time in our psych, after the end of the external stimulus and without the aid of the thoughts. But as the mind has the capacity to reproduce the external situation due to its power of thinking, imagination and memory, the vital-ego uses the mind in order to recreate the external experience so as to continue experience the pleasure or the emotion that likes. Thus the vital-ego almost continuously ‘eats’ the amount of energy it likes.

Another thing that proves that emotions are not created by thinking is the animals. Animals have also emotions but not thoughts. This makes clear that the emotions are not created by thoughts. Thoughts or thinking is a tool for the vital-ego to reproduce the pleasure and the emotions. In human beings the vital-ego uses the thoughts, the thinking, imagination and memory to lengthen its life in the psych of humans as much as possible and play its games.

Vital formations also make associations with all senses. That’s why for example the smelling of a scent can draw of the memory a feeling of happiness or sadness which was recorded in the subconscious in association with this scent. 

The vital hypnotizes and uses the mind as a servant to satisfy its pleasures, ambitions, passions and pains. And because the vital is the life force itself and rajasic by nature is very powerful. This powerful vital keeps the mind constantly agitated. That’s why to control and conquest the mind is very difficult, especially when the vital is impure and brutal (and it is, in the majority of earthlings).

The mind by its nature is sattvic, pure and calm but polluted by rajas and tamas and due the power of the vital becomes impure, agitated and moves constantly outwards to grasp the sensual objects. So the intellect deluded by the vital does not live in its own sphere. The intellect cannot function independently of the vital and loses its capacity to reveal the truth of every incident and interprets most of the time wrongly all events inner or outer.

But the worst of all is that the impure intellect loses its capacity to reflect the light of consciousness and realize its identity with it. Thus instead of experiencing the bliss of our true Self (Consciousness), we experience illusory sense-pleasure and enormous suffering with it.

When the ego and all vital formations in the form of desire, anger, fear etc. are eliminated by intense spiritual practices for a long time, the intellect regain its pristine state of purity (sattva) and reflects without distortion the peace and bliss of consciousness. We realize our identity with consciousness and we live in eternal peace and bliss, liberated from the circle of pleasure and pain, birth and death.

NOTE
 
the vital proper* : According Aurobindo the vital is the life-force acting in its own nature, impulses, emotions, desires, ambitions, etc., having as their highest centre what we may call the outer heart of emotion, while there is an inner heart where are the higher or psychic feelings and sensibilities, the intuitive yearnings and impulses of the soul.

The vital proper has four parts: 

1. The mental vital which gives a mental expression by thought, speech or otherwise to the emotions, desires, passions, sensations and other movements of the vital .
2. The emotional vital which is the seat of various feelings such as, love, joy, sorrow hatred and the rest.
3. The central vital which is the seat of the stronger vital longings, and reactions e.g. ambition, pride, fear, love of fame, attractions repulsions, desires, passions of various kinds and the field of many vital energies.
4. The lower vital which is occupied with desires and emotions such as make the greater party of the daily life e.g. food desire, sexual desire, small likings and dislikings, vanity, quarells, anger at blame, little wishes of all kind and a numberless host of other things.

Their respective seats are:
1. Mental vital the region from the throat to the heart.
2. Emotional vital its seat is the outer heart and the inner heart behind it it is related with the soul.
3. The central vital has as its seat the region from the heart to navel.
4. The lower vital below the navel.

We must not confuse the mind with the vital although the vital has a mind element transfused in it. Mind and vital are mixed up on the surface of the consciousness, but they are quite separate forces in themselves.

The mental vital is a sort of mediator between vital emotion, desire, impulsion, etc and the mind. It expresses the desires, emotions, feelings, passions, ambitions, possessive and active tendencies of the vital and throws them into mental .- the pure imaginations or dreams of greatness, happiness, etc. in which men indulge are one peculiar form of the mental vital. It is through the mental vital that the vital passions, emotions, impulses, desires, rise up and get into the buddhi (intellect) and either cloud it or distort it.

You can find more about the vital-ego in the books of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother: THE INTEGRAL YOGA & LIVING WITHIN

~by Nityananda Atman

 Peace, love, harmony

Freedom from desire and the eternal state by Sri Ramana Maharshi

Freedom from desire and the eternal state

by Sri Ramana Maharshi

O foolish mind who is suffering due to the desire for

the petty pleasures of this world and of the next, if

you remain quiet [i.e. without desire] you will certainly

attain that State of Bliss which surely transcends

the pleasures of these two.

Only those who are dead to desires for [the pleasures

of] the vast delusive panorama of the world will have

their life transformed into Siva. There will be no bliss

by any means other than the dawn of the pure and

fresh experience of Self.

The life of Self – the true knowledge [mey-jnana]

which shines forth devoid of the ego-sense due to

the drowning [of the ego] in its source when 
the madness of desire for the petty, illusory
and delusive sense-objects has been completely destroyed –

alone is that which can [truly] satisfy the mind.

Those whose hearts are surging with joy by experiencing

the ever-new ambrosia [amrita] of Self, which

shines brightly in the pure Silence, will not be spoilt

in the world by experiencing the petty sense-objects,

which give a little mad pleasure caused by mental

delusion.

The reality which is very clearly known by Sages as

the goal [siddhanta] of all Vedas and Agamas, and

the observance of reality [sat-achara] recommended

by all dharma-upadesas, is [nothing but] Silence, the

state of supreme peace.

From the book GURU VACHAKA KOVAI

Watch video Ramana Maharshi - Arunachala Shiva   

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrk4TbOXBZ8

Peace love harmony

OM! Enquiry into the nature of ego Part I - by Nityananda Atman

ENQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF EGO   Part I
by Nityananda Atman

Ego is the factor that separates man from Divine consciousness (God) and all creation. It is the factor that apparently covers our true nature and makes us suffer. Our real identity is Consciousness but since in our psych has been developed the ego we experience that we are the physical body; that we are a limited body-mind entity, separate from life and God.

WE ARE A COMPOSITION OF

1.     Consciousness – Soul :  Being or Existence - Consciousness or awareness - Bliss  (satchitananda).

2.     The causal body : The veil of ignorance, seeds of samskaras and vasanas, 3 modes of happiness (priya- moda- pramoda).

3.      Mind:

·     Higher intellect (Intelligence): Decides, Cognizes, Reasons, Discerns between the real and the unreal, the Self and the non-Self. It is related also with intuition, creativity, perception of reality

·    Lower intellect: Decides, Cognises, Reasons, discerns but in a lower way, because is distorted by the ego and its tendencies

·      Thinking mind

·      Emotional mind

·      Sensory  mind

·      Motor mind

·      Instinctive mind

·      Subconscious mind: memory, 

·     Ego : The sense of individuality;  Has two aspects: The gross ‘Ego’  - the rajasotamasic ego (the desire soul): the sense “the body is me”. -- The subtle ‘Ego’. - The sattvic ego: Give us the sense of individuality. Enable a sage to function in this physical plane.

·        3. Vital energy or prana: 

·       Psychic prana 

·       Physical prana

The five pranas: Prana, Apana, Udana, Samana, Vyana

4. Sexual energy

5. Senses: 5 senses of cognition and 5 senses of action

6. Physical body 

The three Doshas: Pitta, Kapha, Vata

Our identity is consciousness and all the rest, intellect, mind etc. are only instruments of consciousness.  We took birth in a human form to realize ourselves as the eternal light of consciousness and express in the matter the divine qualities of love, peace and wisdom. Due to ego we have forgotten our purpose engaging ourselves only in material purposes seeking mostly to derive pleasure through sensual experiences.

The illusory ego which has developed in our psych makes the impossible happen. Ego makes the body appear as real and the consciousness which is the eternal reality and the substratum of all phenomena as to be not existent at all.

Ego clouds our intellect and its capacity to discriminate between the true and the false creating in us the illusion that the short lived mortal body is real, sentient and self-existent, while in reality body is insentient, unreal and depended on consciousness which is eternal, uncaused and self-existent.

The ego makes us to forget our true identity with consciousness and identify with body and mind taking them as our self.  Ego makes us sensing and believing that we are the body which has a mind to think and a heart to feel.

Furthermore the ego has made us believe that we are the ego itself. As soon as we believe that we are the ego, The ego undisturbed uses all instruments from intellect down to the physical body for its superficial sensual gratifications. The ego-virus for the sake of pleasure, power, possessions etc. misuses and overuses all instruments (intellect, mind body, etc.) creating unbalances, defects and suffering both physically and psychologically. Earthlings nowadays, due to this parasite of ego, experience enormous suffering individually and collectively.

What really is this ego that takes many forms and creates many delusions and suffering almost in everyone on this planet earth?  How this ego has been created and what is its nature?

Most of the teachers and teachings refer to Ego as the ‘I’ thought or the sense ‘I am the body ‘.  Some western teachers refer to Ego as the identification with thoughts. 

According my own point of view which is based on self-enquiry, self-observation and the study of great masters (among them Swamii Sivananda, Sri Aurobindo, Sri NIjargadatta, Sri Ramana Maharshi and others as well as some western teachers and psychologists), the ‘I’ thought and the sense ‘I am the body' are only two of the expressions of ego and not the ego itself.

1.     Is ego the ’I’ thought’?

Before we examine if the ego is the ‘I’ thought let’s see first what thoughts are. Thoughts are symbols of objects, happenings, situations, perceptions, sensations, emotions etc. For example the thought sea is only the symbol of what we call sea. The thought fear is the symbol of what we feel in our body as fear. The thought tiger is the symbol of this specific animal. Of course in every language the thought or word about the same object is different.  For example the sea in English, is called mar in Spanish, thalassa (Θάλασσα) in Greek.

So long as thoughts are only symbols about something, it makes clear that they are not the very thing that they represent. For example the thought or word sea is not the sea itself.

The same applies for the ‘I’ thought which is only the symbol of what this thought represents, viz. the ego.

The fact that the thought ‘I’ is a symbol of the ego, makes obvious that the thought ‘I’ is not the ego itself. Ego is something which is represented by the ‘I’ thought. 

Ego is that something that creates in everyone the strong sense that I am an individual confined in the body, or simply the body is ‘me’. When we speak or entertain in our minds the thought ‘I’ we are referring to this sense created by the ego.

(There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. However, about 2,000 of those languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers.)

The ‘I’ is the English world for the ego, in Greek is ‘Εγώ’, in French is ‘je’, in Spanish is ‘Yo’ etc. The sense of ego is the same in all men regardless of their nationality or the language they speak. But the words that symbolize the ego are different. This make obvious that the thought is not the ego but only a symbol that is associated with the sense of ego.

The ego is operating in every man continuously during the day in various ways. The Ego takes many forms such as desires, like-dislike, anxiety, fear, stress, attraction-repulsion, anger, irritability, impatient, discontentment, aggressiveness, self assertiveness etc. But the thought ‘I’ appears relatively few times in the mind.  From this also becomes obvious that the ‘I’ thought is only an expression of Ego in the thinking mind and is not the ego itself.

If the ‘I’ thought which IS the main one that is connected with the ego is not the ego then neither the other thoughts can be the Ego.

Thoughts are just thoughts; they are neither the Ego nor something that create the Ego. In reality thoughts are used by the ego or are linked with the ego but they are not the ego itself.

Of course thoughts can be used by the pure intellect or consciousness in a very positive way. On the contrary the ego uses the thoughts and thinking faculty of the mind for its own superficial selfish purposes.

Conclusion: The ‘I’ thought is only the expression of the ego in the thinking mind, it is not the ego itself.

If the ‘I’ thought is not the ego, then what ego is?

The ego is a mass of energy which has been crystallized in our energy field and in our mind. The sense ‘I am an individual’, ‘I am the body’, is the strongest  expression of this ego-energy.

This sense of ‘Iness” is experienced in the heart level as a feeling, on the chest and face as a sense, in the thinking mind (Manas) as the ‘I’ thought and in the intellect (buddhi) as the conviction or belief ‘the body is me’.

Conclusion: The ego is a mass of energy which is crystallized  in our energy field and in our mind.

Of course the Ego takes many forms or expressions such as I am the doer, I am the enjoyer, I am the perceiver, I am the thinker, I am the feeler, desires, like-dislike, anxiety, fear, stress, attraction-repulsion, anger, irritability, impatient, discontentment, aggressiveness, self assertiveness etc. which are only modifications or forms of the ego-energy.

Is the ego the identification with thoughts?

When there is identification there must be two factors involved, the subject and the object of identification. When we say that ego is the identification with thoughts we are not mention what identifies with thoughts.

So the idea that identification with thoughts is the ego cannot be accepted as true because does not make reference to the very thing that identifies with thoughts. 

The fact is that the ego is what identifies with thoughts. Ego identifies with thoughts in order to experience emotions, pleasure and pain and direct the mind and attention towards sensory objects.

Conclusion:  The ego is not the identification with thoughts but the ego is what identifies with thoughts

   

Let’s examine little more the nature of thoughts. Thoughts are special formations of energy. Thoughts are mental formations activated by the psychic prana (life energy). Most of thoughts are images of perception, sounds or words. Everything we experience through senses and especially the words which we hear or read create an impression in the mind, a thought-form. Thoughts by themselves are not positive or negative, but they are stored in the memory associated with some vital or emotional formation, positive or negative.

Thoughts are neutral as many other things in nature, for example like fire. Fire is not good neither bad, but when fire is in proper place becomes a positive factor -for example we can use fire to cook, to create heating etc.. When the fire destroys our home, the forests etc. becomes a negative factor.

Similarly thoughts can take a negative or a positive potential. They assume a positive or negative state because they are associated with positive or negative vibrations of the vital and emotions. The quality of thoughts is depended also on the level of our consciousness.

A quote about the vibrations of thoughts by  Sri Aurobindo

First of all, these thought-waves, thought-seeds or thought-forms or whatever they are, are of different values and come from different planes of consciousness. The same thought-substance can take higher or lower vibrations according to the plane of consciousness through which the thoughts come in (e.g., thinking mind, vital mind, physical mind, subconscient mind) or the power of consciousness which catches them and pushes them into one man or another.

 Also, there is a mind-energy actual or potential in each which differs and this mind-energy in its recipience of the thought can be luminous or obscure, sattvic*, rajasic* or tamasic* with consequences that vary in each case.

                                                                                                        

 There is conscious thinking guided by our will and compulsive thinking. The compulsive thinking is activated by the egoic tendencies, desires, lust, likes-dislikes, emotions which make thoughts revolve compulsively and incessantly in our mind. This compulsive thinking clounds our reason and discernment and make the mind upset, agitated and frustrated. This distorted state of mind intensifies much more the emotional and vital turmoil. Thus a vicious circle is formatted between mind and emotional-vital formations. In this condition our energy at all levels is contracted and dense and we experience this as suffering. Furthermore this negative state create unbalances to the physical pranas and doshas creating more suffering and diseases.

Of course an emotion or a desire can be initially activated by a single thought or a sensation but after that, the compulsive stream of thinking is caused and sustained by the power of emotion or the impulse of desire. If emotions, passion or desires were absent the thinking process would dissolve very easily, if it arises at all. 

I quote here an interested exctract of Swami Sivananda’s book “MIND ITS MYSTERIES AND CONTROL" download) about the working of mind and the chain that is created by the impressions, the desires, the pleasures and the thoughts.

The enslaving chains of samskaras (impressions)

Mind exercises its suzerainty through Samskaras (impressions). From Samskaras emanate Vasanas (tendencies) like swarms of locusts. From Vasana flows the stream of desire and from enjoyment of objects of desires arises internal craving (intense longing). Internal craving is very powerful. The Samskaras are imbedded in the mind, in the Casual body (Karana Sarira). There arises a memory of pleasure in the mind. Then the mind thinks of objects. Maya has her powerful seat in the imagination. There comes attachment. The mind plans and schemes. You are swayed by the passions. You exert yourself physically to possess those objects and enjoy them. In your efforts, you favour some and disfavor others through like- dislike or attraction-repulsion (Raga and Dvesha). You will have to enjoy the fruits of your virtuous and vicious actions. Through this six-spoked wheel of Raga and Dvesha, virtue and vice, pleasure and pain, this Samsaric wheel of birth and death moves on without stopping from beginningless time.

Desire and thought

An action implies a desire which prompted it and a thought which shaped it. Each act is a link in an endless chain of causes and effects, each effect becoming a cause and each cause having been and effect; and each link in the endless chain is welded out of three component, desire, thought and activity. A desire stimulates a thought; a thought embodies itself in an act.

Desire

Desire in the mind is the real impurity. Sexual desire, vulgar attraction for the opposite sex, is the greatest impurity. This causes the real bondage.

~ Swami Sivananda

Thoughts can be used by the Ego or by intelligence and consciousness. Thoughts can be activated by the Egoic desires, negative emotions or by love, compassion, creativity, inspiration, intuition, aspiration etc.

When thoughts are activated by love, compassion and creativity they have a positive potential etc. This kind of thinking creates vibrations of peace, happiness, prosperity etc.

Thoughts are creative but they are actualized when will, intention, desire or emotions are associated with them. Thought is male and emotion female. When we connect the thought with emotion we create inner and outer reality. And especially when this union, of thought and feeling happens in a pure, calm and one pointed-mind and we are in touch with our consciousness, thought can create miracles. (download Book Thought power)

We can use thoughts to create positive situations (inner or external) or negative ones. It depends of our level of consciousness in which way we use our mental faculties. The form that takes the external reality, what we call “World” depends only in the thoughts and feelings that we entertain in our psych.

Knowing all these above I want to declare again that thoughts are only thoughts. They are not the Ego. Thoughts can be empowered by consciousness and can be positive or negative due to association with the three gunas, vital formations and emotions (negative or positive).   

Conclusion: Thoughts by themselves are not the ego.

Finally another point that helps us to understand that thoughts are not the Ego, is the sages.Many great sages have given us a many sacred teachings. All these teachings are thoughts expressed through speech and writing. The sages have used thoughts to express the wisdom and help others. The sages have not Ego, but they also entertain thoughts. The fact that the thoughts of sages are charged by the power of the pure consciousness that shines in them give them the power to elevate the minds of disciples and the ability to reveal in them the truth. Right thought, word and deed are the spontaneous expression of sages. Thus becomes clear that thoughts have nothing to do with Ego.

  

What is identified with thoughts?

Let examine now what can be this ‘something’ that it is identified with thoughts.

This ‘something’ cannot be a thought, because the mind can entertain only one thought at a time. Thoughts appear in the mind one after one in a sequence. Therefore one thought cannot identify with another one.

 Let see what else could be.

A man is composition of body- energy - mind- intellect and consciousness.

·         Consciousness cannot be what is identified with thoughts because is unattached and beyond the manifested realms.

·         Body is not the agent that identifies with thoughts. The fact that someone during daydreaming may not be aware of his body while is identified with thoughts, makes clear that what is identified with thoughts is not the body. Similarly in dream sleep state we have thoughts but we are not aware of the body. So becomes evident that the body is not what identifies with thoughts.

·         Mind and intellect cannot also be. Mind is the instrument that has the ability to create the thinking process and this thinking process occur also to the sages. Moreover the thinking process cannot identify with itself. The intellect is an instrument and functions as cognition, understanding, discrimination and reasoning therefore it cannot be the agent of identification with the thoughts.

If the mind and intellect were the agent of identification with thoughts, then that could happen also to the liberated sages. The sages have a mind and intellect but they are not indentified with the thoughts.

So there must be ‘something’ else that is identified with thoughts. This mysterious ‘something’ is this phantom of ego which like a virus from time immemorial has occupied our psych.

Ego which is a mass of energy and different from thoughts, mind and intellect is that ‘something’ which is identified with thoughts in order to keep the intellect and awareness in contact with senses objects, so as to entertain pleasures, passions, emotions, feelings, sensations etc..

Ego is the ‘x’ factor that creates many other identifications and illusions in our psych for its own shake. 

Conclusion:  The ego is WHAT identifies with thoughts.

          

      Is ego the sense ‘I am the body’?

The sense ‘I am the body’ is the main illusion that the ego causes, therefore we could say that Ego is the solid sense ‘I am the body’ or more accurate to say ‘the body is ‘Me’. But in reality the sense ‘the body is ‘Me’ is only one of the many identifications and illusions that the ego creates.

What is the nature of this phantom of ego?  To have a better understanding about the nature of Ego I will give you first an analogy with water, keeping in mind that analogies are limited.

 The water is a liquid, which can take various forms. The water can take the form of snow, cloud, ice, rain, steam, humidity etc. All these forms appear different but they are only water.

But what is water itself? It is H2O, the union of 2 atoms of hydrogen with one of oxygen.

Similarly the ego is a mass of energy which takes various forms. Ego takes the form of lust, desire, pleasure, the sense ‘the body is Me’, ‘I am the enjoyer’, ‘I am the doer’ etc. All various psychological qualities, such as anger, fear, depression, greed, pleasure etc. are also formations or modifications of the ego.

Conclusion:  The Ego is a mass of energy which assumes various forms.

The sense “the body is Me” and desire for pleasure are the most fundamental forms of ego

The ego is ONE but takes various forms. 

That’s why in ancient Greek mythology the two symbols that represented the Ego were, Lernaean Hydra and Medusa. Lernaean Hydra was a snake with many heads and Medusa was a woman who instead of hairs on her head had many snakes.

                                Hercules kills Hydra

  

   

         Medusa                   

 

	Perseus kills Medusa

What is the very nature of this energy of ego?

It is modified sexual energy intermixed with prana and mental substance. The pleasure created by sexual energy in sexual union with orgasm is crystallized in our psych as lust and passion and the sense the ‘body is me’.

Lust in its turn modifies itself and takes the form of desire, like-dislike and all negative aspects of ego such as anger, fear, depression, greed, attachment, aggressiveness, impatiens, irritability and all innumerable modifications.

The table below show how the ego started from sexual fall and the basic forms of ego.

A similar opinion about how the ‘I’ is shaped express Sri Nijargadatta in his talks (book “I AmThat” download)). He says that the memory of pleasure and pain creates the illusory ‘I’ which uses the body, senses and mind for its gratification.

In reality the first cause of ‘I’ is pleasure. The psychological pain, better suffering is only a modification of pleasure. The suffering which is mainly created by the ego strengthens the illusory sense of ‘Iness’.

Nijargadatta:

 “The problem arises only when the memory of past pains and pleasures -- which are essential to all organic life -- remains as a reflex, dominating behaviour. This reflex takes the shape of 'I' and uses the body and the mind for its purposes, which are invariably in search for pleasure or flight from pain.”

 The ego has been crystallized in the psych of human beings from the symbolic time of Adam and Eva thousands years ago and through the aeons has become more complicated and strong.  

Paramahansa Yogananda, Samael Aun Weor and George Ivanovich Gurdieff mention in their books that sexual behavior was the cause of the development of ego.

 Below an extract of a commentary on Ch.1.1 of BHAGAVAD GITA by Paramahansa Yogananda 

“At the beginning of the cycle of manifested creation, God materialized all froms by direct, special, creative command: the “Word” or cosmic creative vibration of Aum (Om), with its manifest powers of creation, preservation and dissolution. God endowed man, made in His omnipotent image, with this same creative power. But Adam and Eve (symbolic of the first pairs of human beings), yielding to touch-temptation, lost the power of “immaculate creation” by which they had been able to clothe all their mental pictures with energy and life, thus materializing children from the ether (bringing them into manifestation from the ideational world), even as gods.

                Man and woman, instead of seeking emancipation in God through soul unity, sought satisfaction through the flesh. The seed of the original error of “Adam and Eve” remains in all human beings as the first temptation of the flesh against the immaculate laws of Spirit (“touch not the tree in the center of the garden!”). Each individual since that dim era has had to engage his soul in battle with the cosmically present temptation of sex. The creator in man has become a dictatorial creature.

                The sex impulse is the single most physically magnetic power that pulls the life and consciousness down from Spirit in the higher centers in the brain, out through the coccygeal center into matter and body consciousness. The beginner in yoga meditation experiences all too definitely how grounded he is by the stubborn attachment of his life and energy to the body, sometimes without realizing that it is his uncontrolled thoughts and acts of sex that are primarily responsible for his earthbound condition.”

Below an extract of MAGIC RUNES (Chapter 29) THE ORIGIN OF THE PLURALIZED “I” by Samael Aun Weor

I also knew the last times of the third Root Race. I lived in that epoch, which is cited in Genesis as being that ancient age in which Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden.

In those times, humanity had already divided themselves into opposite sexes. The sexual act was then a sacrament which was only performed inside of the temples.

In certain lunar epochs, the Lemurian tribes were performing long travels. They were

departing on pilgrimages towards the holy places, with the purpose of multiplying the specie (let us recall our honeymoon trips).

We, all the Lemurians, were children born from will power and yoga. Maithuna (sexual tantra: sexual union without orgasm) was what we performed during the copulation, and no one was committing the error of ejaculating the entity of semen.

The human seed always passed into the womb without the spilling of semen being

necessary. The multiple combinations of this infinite substance are marvelous.

The king and queen monarchs were sexually united before the very altar of the temple, and the multitudes were performing the copulation inside the sacred precinct and in the rocky patios filled with mysterious hieroglyphics.

The holy Gods were wisely directing those mystical ceremonies, which were

indispensable for the reproduction of the human specie. No one was thinking in

perversity, since the pluralized ‘I’ was not born yet.

I was living in the country with my tribe, far away from those walled cyclopean cities.

We were abiding in a big cabin, cottage or hut. Close to our rounded palm roofed

residence, I remember with entire clarity that there was a military base where the warriors of our tribe were meeting.

It happened that on a certain night, all of us, fascinated by a strange Luciferic power,

resolved to perform the sexual act out of the temple. Thus, we, each of the couples

delivered ourselves to lust.

Next day, in the morning, as if nothing had happened, we had the daring, the shame, the insolence, the impudence to present ourselves as usual in the temple. However, something unexpected and terrible happened.

All of us saw a God of Justice, a great Master, dressed with a day-breaking and

immaculate sacerdotal vesture. With a flaming sword which he was turning in every way to threaten us, he said,: “Get out, you unworthy!” It is clear that we then fled terrorized.

Obviously, this event was repeated in all the corners of the enormous continent Mu. This is how the humanity Adam- Eve was cast out from the Garden of Eden. Following this event, which is registered in the Genesis of all religions, horrifying epilogues were occurring. Millions of human creatures were developing the abominable Kundartiguador organ when they started to mix Magic with fornication...

 Below an extract of BEELZEBUB’S TALES TO HIS GRANDSON (download) by George Ivanovich  Gurdieff  

"So, my boy, in view of this, the Most High Commission decided, among other things, to implant provisionally in the common presence of the three-brained beings there a special organ (kundabuffer) with properties that, first, would make them perceive reality 'upside down' and, second, would cause every repeated impression from the outside to crystallize in them data that engender factors for evoking sensations of 'pleasure' and 'enjoyment.'

In another point George Ivanovich  Gurdieff  says:

"Before continuing to relate how all this occurred, I must tell you in a little more detail about that sacred substance which is the final result of the evolving transformations of every kind of being-food and is formed in the presence of every being without distinction of 'brain system ' This sacred substance, elaborated in the presence of beings of every kind, is almost everywhere called 'exioëhary,' but your favorites on the planet Earth call it 'sperm.

"Through the all-gracious foresight and command of our Common Father Creator and according to the actualization of Great Nature, this sacred substance arises in the presence of all beings, without distinction of brain system or exterior coating, in order that by its means they may consciously or automatically fulfill that part of their being-duty which consists in the continuation of their species. But in the presence of three-brained beings it also arises in order that they may consciously transform it for coating their higher being-bodies for their own being.

"Before the second transapalnian perturbation there, which the contemporary three-brained beings refer to as the 'loss of the continent of Atlantis,' in the period when various consequences of the properties of the organ kundabuffer had already begun to be crystallized in their presence, a being-impulse was gradually formed in them which later became predominant.

"This impulse is now called 'pleasure', and in order to satisfy it they were already beginning to exist in a manner unbecoming to three-centered beings, that is to say, most of them gradually began to remove this sacred being-substance from themselves for the satisfaction of this impulse alone.

"Well, my boy, from then on most of the three-brained beings of the planet Earth were not content to carry out the process of the removal of this substance, which is continuously elaborated in them, only at those periods normally established by Great Nature for beings in accordance with their organization, for the purpose of the continuation of their species

Owing to this, and also to the fact that most of them had ceased to utilize this substance consciously for coating their higher being-bodies, it came about that when they did not remove it from themselves in ways that by then had become mechanical, they naturally experienced a sensation called 'sirklinimana,' a state they describe as 'feeling out of sorts,' and which is invariably accompanied by what is called 'mechanical suffering.

Extract from book "Practice of Brahmacharya"(download) by  Swami Sivananda“

… Adam fell on account of one loose moment. Eve tempted on account of one desire. The forbidden fruit will ripen before the human eyes in no time. …Beware of Maya and its meshes. The chains of gold can be cut asunder, but not the silken meshes of Maya. A single unguarded moment is sufficient to capsize the whole casket of pearls, down into the dark abyss of passion and lust.”

Desire in the mind is the real impurity. Sexual desire, vulgar attraction for the opposite sex, is the greatest impurity. This causes the real bondage.”

How the ego has been created?

Ego has been created by the externalization of sexual energy due to sexual union with orgasm. When sexual energy is externalized then, the prana, the mind and the awareness flow outward towards the physical body and the sense objects. This way identification with the body (the sense the body is ‘me’) and the sense objects (‘Mineness’) takes place.

The pleasure that the mind experiences due to orgasm becomes lust and passion that are imprinted and accumulated in the energy body and in the mind. The ego which basically is made of pleasure and lust demands to experience the pleasure more strongly after every pleasurable experience. Thus desire is developed which gradually from desire (desire is lust to possess an object and have pleasure) for sex modifies as desire for eating and drinking, desire for fame, power etc.

Conclusion:  The ego has been created by modification of sexual energy

The development of the ego had as a consequence the disorientation of the intellect which became more and more clouded. Thus the intellect instead of reflecting the consciousness and be an instrument of the divine will has became the servant of the ego which seeks pleasures in the illusory sense objects. Gradually the side effects of pleasure and desire have been developed. These are innumerable but the main are the anger, fear, aggressiveness, separation, sadness, sorrow, depression, selfishness, irritability, etc. 

Birth after birth, generation after generation the ego gradually modifies in innumerable ways and we can see today how much the ego has become complicated after thousands of years of its development. The majority of earthlings nowadays are occupied by this virus of ego. They have become problematic insane entities who create great amount of suffering for themselves and their fellows. Collectively the ego becomes more insane and creates wars, violence, famine, environment pollution, exploitation of women, of animals etc…

• Gurdieff and Samael Aun Weor have also said that Kundabuffer or Kundarticuador was also the factor which together with the sexual degeneration caused the development of ego.

• 
  

 TECHNIQUE FOR DISSOLVING THE “I” by Samael Aun Weor

..Thus, the subconsciousness is the same Ego or the Psychological ‘I’, that is rooted in the evil consequences of the Kundartiguador Organ.

The Most Saintly Ashiata Shiemash fought very hard in order to take the evil consequences of the Kundartiguador Organ out from humanity. The Holy Lama in Tibet also suffered very much in order to save humanity from the horrifying consequences of the mentioned fatal organ.

Buddha, Jesus, Moses and other Masters passed through much bitterness in order to liberate humanity from the disastrous       consequences of the Kundartiguador Organ…

 BEELZEBUB’S TALES TO HIS GRANDSON (download) by George Ivanovich  Gurdieff   

"You know that by this time what is called 'mechanical instinct' had gradually been engendered in them, as is normal in three-brained beings.

"The sacred members of the Most High Commission then reasoned that if this mechanical instinct in the biped three-brained beings of that planet were to develop toward the attainment of Objective Reason, as usually occurs everywhere among three-brained beings, it might possibly happen that they would prematurely comprehend the reason for their presence on that planet and would then make a good deal of trouble; it might happen that once they understood the reason for their arising, namely, that by their existence they should maintain the detached fragments of their planet, and became convinced of their slavery to circumstances utterly foreign to them, they would refuse to continue this existence of theirs and on principle destroy themselves.

"So, my boy, in view of this, the Most High Commission decided, among other things, to implant provisionally in the common presence of the three-brained beings there a special organ with properties that, first, would make them perceive reality 'upside down' and, second, would cause every repeated impression from the outside to crystallize in them data that engender factors for evoking sensations of 'pleasure' and 'enjoyment.'

"Then, with the help of the Universal Arch-Chemist-Physicist, the Angel Looisos, a member of this Most High Commission, they made a 'something' grow in the three-brained beings there, in a special way at the base of their spinal column at the root of their tail—for at that time they still had a tail, and that part of their common presence still kept its normal aspect, expressing the 'fullness of their being-significance'—a 'something' that fostered the arising in them of the properties I just mentioned.

"And this 'something' they then for the first time called the 'organ kundabuffer '

"Having made this organ grow in the presence of the three-brained beings and having made sure that it would work, the Most High Commission of Sacred Individuals, headed by the Archangel Sakaki, returned to the Center, reassured and with clear conscience, while on the planet Earth, which has taken your fancy, the action of this ingenious and astonishing invention began to flourish from the very first day, as the wise Mullah Nasr Eddin would say, like 'the trumpets of Jericho.' 

Sexual energy is the primordial and most powerful energy of the universe, and it is the only one that has the power to create at all levels.

Everything in this universe is modifications of this primordial energy.  All physical and psychic phenomena are created by the Divine sexual Shakti.

Be aware that the physical body is created by two sexual cells, one spermatozoon and one ovum. These two sexual cells are united and modified to all other cells and organs of the body. Similarly all psychological features, positive and negative ones, are modifications of sexual energy.

 "This creative potential, creative power, is present throughout the botanical and animal kingdoms. It is this alone that manifests as all the different forces in the individual human being—the power of acting, the power of thinking, the ability to see, hear, smell, taste, to digest, to breathe—everything. And it is this that is equally present in both sexes as the sex energy. Therefore,this being the key to life, one can imagine its importance, and one can also imagine its precious quality."

~Swami Chitananda

That’s why most of spiritual paths give great importance to the transformation of sexual energy. Some paths like Tantra yoga or hatha yoga aim with very specific practices to transform the sexual energy and activate the shakti-kundalini (download book). Sexual energy wisely utilized can transform a man to God. False use of it can create the egoic qualities in man and transform him even to a demon.

It is not a coincidence that the sexual degeneration we see today all over the world and the growth of ego go together.

Read also
FREEDOM from DESIRE the origin of ego

Peace love, harmony