Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Om! Sexual samskaras, desire and ego - by Nityananda Atman



Sexual samskaras, desire and ego

The ego is the source of suffering individually and collectively, and we have to dissolve it through conscious efforts if we want to live in peace, love and harmony. Ego is like a virus or a disease in our psyche that creates innumerable suffering at all levels.

What I found out about the nature of ego was very surprising to me and I wanted to share it with you.

Desire itself is the ego or ‘I’

The sense of ego or the ‘body is me’ is created by desire, lust and delusion. All other conditionings and defects are caused by them more accurate are their modifiacations.

By self-enquiry and discernment I realized that lust, desire and the sense ‘the body is me’ or ''Iness" is one and the same energy assuming these three apparently distinct expressions. 
I will try to make it clearer. The most common experience of everyone in daily life is:  I WANT THIS or THAT, or I DO NOT WANT THIS or THAT.  
When we desire something seems that the desire for something is something different from the ‘me’ or 'I' who have this desire. This is only an illusion, created from the hypnotic power of desire. 
In reality the ‘I’ and the ‘wanting’ or the ‘desire’ is one and the same energy which assumes these two apparently different forms: The 'me' or 'I' and the impulse of desire.


It may seem strange that happens so. But happens in the same way that the water which usually is liquid can assume the form of ice, humidity and snow.  We see that the same substance assumes different forms of expression. Another example is the first fertilized ova. From this small cell which unique are produced all other cells and create a human body. This first cell gradually differentiates and becomes all distinct tissues and organs of the body. If we go a little further we will see that all elements (earth, water, air, fire) are originated from ether or akasa. And If we go in a more subtle level we will see that all forms that constitute this universe are only consciousness in motion. Consciousness is single (without parts) and non-dual and yet creates all these innumerable forms of the entire cosmos.

According the above we can understand that there is just ‘desiring’ without any agent behind it. The desire itself is the ‘I’. The desire modifies itself as the of ‘I’ or ‘Me’ and creates the identification of this ‘I’ with the body. The sense 'the body is me, is the common experience of the majority on earth.

This lust-made ego or ‘I’ which its innate nature is desire (lust to possess and entertain sense objects) forces compulsively the illusory ‘body-me’ entity to run after pleasures.  

This primary delusion makes everyone to believe that he is the agent of the desire and thinks that the desire is his own choice, while in reality the hypnotic power of desire has deluded his discernment and reasoning and has made him a puppet of desire.

Due to the fact that the hypnotic power of passion and lust is so strong and due the tamas quality, people do not realize that they are used by the desires, which are mental-vital entities living in the subconscious. The majority of humans are manipulated by these lower energies of desire and run unconsciously to satisfy the compulsive need for the same pleasures again and again creating enormous suffering and diseases for themselves and their fellows..

CONCLUSION: The illusory sense 'the body is me' or 'Iness' and the impulse to possess sense objects (desire) is one and the same energy. What we call EGO is one energy that appears as two: 'Iness' and 'desire'.

The delusion of pleasure- sexual pleasure

One more important thing I found after many years of enquiry is that  the pleasure we apparently derive from objects is only a modification of lust which is only sexual pleasure stored in our mind and energy field..

Pleasure does not exist in the external objects. The only pleasure that exists is the sexual pleasure. 
The sexual pleasure after repeated experiences is stored in the subconscious mind and the energy field and becomes lust and passion. 
 So lust is memorized pleasure.  That’s why in our dreams we experience pleasure without to be in contact with the object of enjoyment. 
Then gradually this sex-pleasure which is stored in us is projected to other objects like, foods, drinks etc. From those objects (food, drinks etc.) we can derive illusory enjoyment but not pleasure. Pleasure is projected by the ego and mind on them.
Because of the passion and lust which are stored in us we cannot experience the objects as they are. We enjoy only our sexual energy modified as pleasure by projecting it on the objects. Even when we make love we do not experience the sexual energy as it is but we experience mostly the lust that is accumulated in our bodies and in our mind. All erotic fantasies and perversions are based on the lust which is projected to various images and situations.

Sex scenes are a very good example to understand this projection. The images of the movie-players are only light or pixels in certain formation. The lusty-ego projects and superimpose its own pleasure on the screen-players (usually to the opposite sex) and thus experiences its own pleasure! There is not even a iota of pleasure on the movie images because they are only light and colors. The movie players do not entertain sensations, emotions, pleasures or pains.
But when we see sexual scenes the mind is stimulated by the light-formations of these sexual scenes and the lust or memorized pleasure emerges from the subconscious and is projected on the images. This projection creates the illusion that the illusory screen-images enjoy some kind of sexual-pleasure (is this possible? Of course not, they are only light). The ego makes us believe that the images have real pleasure while the screen-images entertain nothing at all. With this projection the ego excites the prana, the sensual mind and the sexual energy intensifying the experience of pleasure. 
 Similar is the process of projection on the foods and other sense objects. Of course ego likes also by watching movies  to experience  all negative emotions such as fear, horror, violence, pity etc.

By this process of projection and identification the ego deludes the intellect and uses the body, senses and mind to experience this illusory ego-made pleasure or pain. 


Ego creates illusions and confusion by projection, identification, association, imagination and interpretation. 
The tamas and rajas qualities of nature are the base  that enable the ego to function in our psych.

The function of lust

Pleasure and lust are one and the same energy which function in us like this:
Repeated experiences of pleasure become lust. Then lust takes in us the form of an impulse which drives us to find some object in the external world in order to experience pleasure again (desire). Together with the impulse thoughts or images of various objects (which already we have experience in the past) arise in our mind. When our mind  identifies due to ego with some certain image the lust modifies and takes its original form viz. pleasure. So we experience the pleasure even by imaging the object in our mind.
The dream state proves also this view because in our dreams we experience pleasure without the mind and the senses to be in contact with any physical object. 

When someone or  something prevents us to obtain the desired object lust modifies and becomes irritability and anger. If we lose to obtain the object lust takes the form of depression.
Fear also is a modification of lust. Anxiety and fear appear when there is possibility not to obtain the desired object and when there is possibility to lose the desired object.

Pleasure enjoyment and happiness

I would like here to differentiate pleasure from enjoyment and happiness from both. 

Enjoyment is the natural sensation that happens when mind is in contact with the object through the senses, without any projection on it and without any interference of memory or imagination. 
Enjoyment is also illusory because is created by the mind under certain conditions. If the pleasant sensation exists in the object then the same object should give us always the same pleasant experience. This is not our experience. The same object when is experienced under different conditions can be pleasant, unpleasant or indifferent. Similarly the same object can be pleasant, unpleasant or indifferent to different kind of persons. This applies to all sense objects.  

The pleasure we experience when we are in actual contact with a sense object or when we imagine it, is only our lust and passion which are accumulated in the energy-body and projeted on them.  Pleasure is projected by the mind on the objects creating the illusion that pleasure derive from them.

Happiness is an attribute of our true Self or consciousness or better to say our true Self is happiness itself. We do not need anything from the external world to experience happiness.  When our mind is pure, calm and focused in our heart we experience unmixed, unconditional happiness or bliss.

Objects do not contain neither pleasure nor happiness. But since the hypnotized intellect cannot discern this, we run after sense objects convinced that the pleasure and happiness comes from them.Thus we create our bondage and suffering.

Both pleasure and happiness do not belong to the objects. They arise from within; pleasure as a form or an expression of lust-made ego itself, while happiness is our true nature, a quality of our essence. 

Read also :

The consequences of pleasure

All negative emotions are only modifications of lust. Like the milk is transformed in yogurt under certain circumstances similarly the lust or desire (which is the ego itself) is modified to anger, greed, depression, fear, anxiety, impatient, jealousy and all other vicious qualities. These qualities are causing the suffering we see in this world, individually and collectively.

The egoic energies make the intellect lose its natural capacity for discernment, right judgment, pure reasoning, clear understanding, discrimination of the true and the false and intuition.

It is well known that when someone is angry all higher mental capacities are spoiled.  The flow of love in the heart also is obstructed. But this does not happen only with anger. It happens with all negative emotions ofanger, greed, depression, fear, anxiety, impatient, jealousy, like-dislike etc. even when they assume a mild form.
Most of the time (over 97%) people are influenced by the egoic energies in the form of anger, pride, arrogance, vanity, attraction, repulsion, like, dislike, desire, lust, passion, fear, anxiety, depression etc. These qualities alternate in our psyche uninterruptedly in a mild or intense form.
Most of people are unconscious of this process because their minds and intellects are absorbed to the external reality of sense objects. This non ending emotional turmoil and compulsive thinking hypnotizes the intellect and covers our true nature (consciousness) more and more. Thus gradually suffering becomes more intensive.

 Ego beliefs and suffering

A false belief or opinion cannot necessarily create suffering by itself.  The suffering is directly created by the ego in the form of anger, hatred, resistance, fear etc.

For example, you may have different opinion than me about the nature of ego. So you may not accept as true what I say here. This cannot create suffering neither to you, nor to me if we have eliminated in us the egoic qualities of superiority, inferiority, fear, anger, jealousy, hatred, etc. We can be happy even if we have different opinions.

Religion beliefs also cannot by themselves cause suffering. Only the ego can create problems and suffering using religious dogmas and principles for its own satisfaction. Ego is always insecure and beliefs give to it some kind of illusory safety

Ego likes also to use opinions, beliefs etc. to create separation and suffering because through this it can survive in us and continue its games for pleasure, power, fame, name, comforts and superiority.   

Judgments and criticism to others is also one of the favorite games of ego. These do not happen due to a false belief or opinion, but because of ego’s desires for comfort, pleasure, position, fame and money, insecurity, inferiority, low self-confidence, jealousy, etc. 
For example if we desire what our friend or neighbor has or what they have achieved, the ego because of jealousy or envy can criticize or make judgments to them. 
By criticizing others the ego has an illusory sense that it is superior to them. This way the ego tries to overcome the insecurity and the inferiority that feels. Judgment gives to ego an illusory pleasure and a sense of superiority and importance. Ego likes very much to experience these feelings. 

The ego is our true enemy

There is no enemy outside of us. Our real enemy is within us, it is the lust-made ego which creates confusion and chaos within and without.

Kill this enemy by the sword of discernment, non-attachment, prayer, self-control, vigilance, japa-nama, self-enquiry, meditation, and love for the divine.

May be free in this very life and enjoy the freedom, the peace and bliss of your own Self or Atman which nature is Satchitananda (Eternal Existence-Knowledge-Bliss).

Peace love harmony

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