OUR ORDINARY STATE OF
CONSCIOUSNESS
by Atman Nityananda
How the egoic mind of which the essential nature is desire for pleasure manipulates our body, senses, mind and
intellect in order to drive us again and again in pleasurable sensual
experiences.
What I call ordinary unconsciousness means being identified with your thought processes and emotions, your reactions, desires, and aversions. It is most people's normal state. In that state, you are run by the egoic mind, and you are unaware of Being (your true Self or Consciousness). ~ Eckhart Tolle
Our ordinary state of consciousness is a state of identification with the body, thoughts, imaginations, impulses, emotions and external objects (likes-dislikes, attractions-aversions, desires, fear, anxiety, uneasiness, anger, impatient, discontent etc.).
What I call ordinary unconsciousness means being identified with your thought processes and emotions, your reactions, desires, and aversions. It is most people's normal state. In that state, you are run by the egoic mind, and you are unaware of Being (your true Self or Consciousness). ~ Eckhart Tolle
Our ordinary state of consciousness is a state of identification with the body, thoughts, imaginations, impulses, emotions and external objects (likes-dislikes, attractions-aversions, desires, fear, anxiety, uneasiness, anger, impatient, discontent etc.).
In this hypnotic state the egoic patterns are fully
expressed and because we are so identified with them we perceive ourselves as
that patterns or we think that these patterns are choices of our free will. In
reality what happens is exactly the opposite; we are moved like puppets by all
these subconscious tendencies.
Only when we disindentify from the egoic mind and we
observe attentively with dispassion all these subconscious mental and emotional
processes we can stop being machines and live more consciously.
It is a state not of acute
pain or unhappiness but of an almost continuous low level of unease,
discontent, boredom, or nervousness - a kind of background static.
You may not realize this because it is so much a part of "normal" living, just as you are not aware of a continuous low background noise, such as the hum of an air conditioner, until it stops. When it suddenly does stop, there is a sense of relief.
Many people use alcohol, drugs, sex, food, work, television, or even shopping, as anesthetics in an unconscious attempt to remove the basic unease. When this happens, an activity that might be very enjoyable if used in moderation becomes imbued with a compulsive or addictive quality, and all that is ever achieved through it is extremely short-lived symptom relief. ~ Eckhart Tolle
You may not realize this because it is so much a part of "normal" living, just as you are not aware of a continuous low background noise, such as the hum of an air conditioner, until it stops. When it suddenly does stop, there is a sense of relief.
Many people use alcohol, drugs, sex, food, work, television, or even shopping, as anesthetics in an unconscious attempt to remove the basic unease. When this happens, an activity that might be very enjoyable if used in moderation becomes imbued with a compulsive or addictive quality, and all that is ever achieved through it is extremely short-lived symptom relief. ~ Eckhart Tolle
If we are not fully engaged in an interested, pleasant
or pleasurable activity usually we are in a state of mild unhappiness which
takes the form of unease, discontent, boredom, something missing or
nervousness. These emotional moods are almost always present in us as a
background and when their intensity reaches a certain level become unbearable
and we want to get rid of them by any mean.
As Tolle says above people mostly seek an easy
pleasant activity (food, sex, television,
Smoking cigarettes, shopping… ) to overcome at least temporally this painful emotional
state. Another way is the use of substances like alcohol, drugs, sedative pills which create a kind of anesthesia
affecting the nervous system and the brain. In both cases they use an external
mean in an unconscious attempt to remove the basic unease.
Keeping in mind the above, the question that arises is
this: Why the egoic mind keeps us
almost always in this state of unease, discontent, boredom and what is the
nature of these unpleasant and very disturbing emotions?
It took me many years of study, self-investigation and
self-observation to discover this miraculous indeed play of the egoic mind. For
many years I was investigating the nature of the various expressions of the ego
like fear, anger, impatience, inferiority, insecurity, gluttony etc. which I
tried to dissolve with various techniques. After 15 years of practice I didn’t
achieved great results, neither in the dissolution of the egoic tendencies nor
in meditation. I thought that if I continue like this it will take many-many
years or more lives to achieve their destruction.
Thus I decided to go into the root of the
problem, to investigate the ‘I or ego itself. All the egoic expressions
anything that happens in us has as its center the ‘I or ‘ego. For example: ‘I
am afraid of something, ‘I am angry, ‘I want or don’t want something, ‘I like
or dislike something etc. The ‘I is always present. So I thought that instead
of trying to eliminate one by one the egoic tendencies it would be better to
kill the head of the ego the ‘Iness.
That time I had also read in the books of Swami Sivanada and Ramana
Maharshi that if we kill the ego or ‘I then will die also all its branches;
this information played a n important role in my decision to enquire in detail
the nature of ‘I. Since then I started to observe and investigate carefully the
nature of the ‘I itself although I continued also the practices for the
dissolution of the various egoic tendencies.
I was very surprised by the results of
this enquiry. I managed to discover what is this phantom of ego and how
hypnotizes and manipulate us.
The most surprising thing I found is that the
‘Iness (the sense the body is me) and the various psychological aspects such as
desire, impulses, moods, emotions (anger, impatience, fear, dislike, hatred
etc.) are not different things or energies which are connected between each
other. I found that the ego is one field
of energy which as a chamelaion modifies constantly and
assumes all the various egoic forms or expressions that appear as different
between each other. For example we
may think that the ‘I sense and the desire for food which we call gluttony are
two different things, two different energies, that the anger and depression are
also two different energies, that like and dislike are different energies from
‘Iness and desire. But they aren´t different energies. All these psychological qualities are one energy field that
modifies and assumes all these different forms (Iness, desire, like, dislike,
greed, anger, discontent, depression etc.).
Now lets go back to the
question: Why the egoic mind keeps us
almost always in a state of unease, discontent, boredom?
Let see again our data we have, keeping in mind
what Tolle says and this brief analysis
I did about the nature of ‘I:
- The ego keeps us in a state of unease, discontent and boredom.
- Almost all and almost always we seek a pleasurable experience to overcome at least temporarily these unbearable emotions. Curiously we don’t seek a permanent solution for this situation.
- The essential nature of the ego is desire or lust for pleasure.
- The ‘I the desire for pleasure and the emotions of discontent, boredom, something is missing and unease are one and the same energy which assumes these three apparently different forms of expression.
With this knowledge becomes clear that the ego
firstly assumes these painful emotional forms (uneasy, discontent etc.) in
order to drive us towards a pleasurable experience. When we get the desired
object and we actually experience it, the same energy that had the form of a
painful emotion (discontent, uneasy...) modifies immediately and assumes the form of pleasure. The
pleasure we experience when we eat for example a cake is only a modification of
the desire energy crystallized in our mind and is projected on the object. Thus
while we experience pleasure we are free temporally from those unpleasant or
painful emotions. But there are times that even this way (to have a pleasurable
experience) to avoid the experience of these painful emotions of uneasiness,
discontent etc. doesn’t work. This happen because all sensorial experiences
have certain limits and it is not possible always to enjoy them fully and have
great pleasure and satisfaction.
In the objects does not exist even an iota of pleasure.
Objects can give us a pleasant or unpleasant experience according their nature,
the condition of our body, mind and senses, our temperament and the external
conditions. The same object can be pleasant or unpleasant to us at two
different times or at different conditions. The same object for some can be
pleasant and for others unpleasant. This show us that even the pleasant or
unpleasant sensations are not in the object itself. The pleasant and unpleasant
sensations are the result of the interaction between the object and our mind
under certain conditions.
Conclusion: The Egoic mind creates the painful emotions of unease, discontent, boredom in order to drive us compulsively to seek pleasurable experiences because the ego wants almost always to experience some kind of pleasure. The ego creates in us firstly a painful emotional state in order to make it easier to force us seek a pleasurable experience. Nobody wants to remain for a long time in a state of suffering even if it is of a mild type. Thus when the ego creates in us these unpleasant emotions easily we are moved by the ego to find some kind of pleasure. There is no reason to seek compulsively any pleasant or pleasurable experience if we feel complete and we are content happy.
A summary of the nature of ego or ‘I
Conclusion: The Egoic mind creates the painful emotions of unease, discontent, boredom in order to drive us compulsively to seek pleasurable experiences because the ego wants almost always to experience some kind of pleasure. The ego creates in us firstly a painful emotional state in order to make it easier to force us seek a pleasurable experience. Nobody wants to remain for a long time in a state of suffering even if it is of a mild type. Thus when the ego creates in us these unpleasant emotions easily we are moved by the ego to find some kind of pleasure. There is no reason to seek compulsively any pleasant or pleasurable experience if we feel complete and we are content happy.
A summary of the nature of ego or ‘I
Identification, projection, association, imagination are the functions through which the ego operates in us
and unfolds all its expressions.
1. Identification with the body; this identification creates the false identity ‘I am the body, or the body is me –‘Iness.
Ego also identifies with name, concepts, emotions etc., and objects which extends the ‘Iness as ‘Mineness.
2. Desire: desire for pleasure, power, position, money, possessions, fame, name, superiority. Each one according its temperament (doshic constitution according Ayurveda, Sanguine, choleric, melancholic and phlegmatic according western medicine and the astrological chart), the past experiences and past lives may have a stronger tendency to some of the main desires mentioned above.
The extension of desire is greed, which means a wanting for more pleasure, more possessions, more power, more money etc.
Attachment is the third aspect of desire. Attachment means that I will suffer if I lose the object of my desire or I suffer by mere thinking that I can lose the desired object.
The main emotions that desire is associated are fear and anger. Fear not to get or to lose the desire object and anger against anyone that prevents us to get or to lose the desired object. As I said before anger and fear are only modifications of desire itself. That’s why if we dissolve desire will dissolve all negative emotion and the ‘Iness because all these are one energy that modifies in innumerable forms.
Desire or lust for sexual pleasure* is the fundamental desire (and most difficult together with pride to eradicate), and has as its main substitute the food and the drinks and multiplies to all other objects and forms.
3. Pride, which takes the form ‘I am special, ‘I am superior, ‘I am the best, ‘I am better than others, etc
4. All the negative emotional expressions like fear, anger, depression, discontent, insecurity, inferiority, etc.
5. All pair of opposites: like-dislike, attraction-repulsion, pleasure-pain, exhilaration-depression, optimist-pessimist, inferior-superior, etc.
6. The defense mechanisms which became known widely by Dr.freud.
NOTE
Some good substitutes of sexual pleasure for the mind are the food, drinks and in general substances that we consume mainly from the mouth which has an inner connection with the genitals. That’s why the mouth plays a great role in the sexual interaction as a mean of pleasure. The thirst of ego for pleasure is insatiable, that’s why the ego tries its best to imagine, seek or create always new, better and more intensive ways to experience pleasure through all senses. In the world nowadays most of the million human inventions have to do with the entertainment of the senses and the sensual mind. But due to the fact that sexual desire is the most powerful one, sexual entertainment is at the top of the spectator preferences. All movies present a relationship and include some sexual scenes. Videos with sexual content are first in popularity in the internet.
May God bless you be free from the egoic energies in this very life!
Peace, Love, Harmony