Ego's illusory mechanisms
by Atman Nityananda
The ego uses various tricks and mechanisms in order to prevent the conscious mind (intellect) realize that the ego is something alien and parasitic in our psych. Ego tries its best to be hidden from the conscious mind because if the mind realizes its illusory nature, the ego will lose its power and dominion over it and could no longer use our mind and energy for its own desires and satisfactions.
Some of the ego’s mechanisms are known to the public by Dr. Freud as defense mechanisms.
All the ego’s mechanisms have the following purposes:
1. Ego uses body, mind, senses, vital energy, sexual energy in order to
experience again and again sensual pleasures, to feel superior, special and
secure.
2. Ego due to various defense mechanisms do not allow us be conscious of it because ego wants to continue live in our psych. Ego wants to live in eternity having more, different and better pleasures and of course to feel superior, special and secure.
3. Ego creates various defense mechanisms in order to maintain an illusory and superficial balance in the psych aiming to continue live in our psych and have pleasures, to feel superior, special and secure.
4. Ego creates various defense mechanisms to avoid the suffering created by inner conflicts (due to contradictory egoic tendencies) and the painful or unpleasant feelings from things or situations that ego considers being so.
Ego is like a virus who has been crystallized in our psych thousand of years ago uses our body, mind and intellect like a puppet for its own superficial desires and pleasures.
Here I will mention some of the main mechanisms of ego:
2. Ego due to various defense mechanisms do not allow us be conscious of it because ego wants to continue live in our psych. Ego wants to live in eternity having more, different and better pleasures and of course to feel superior, special and secure.
3. Ego creates various defense mechanisms in order to maintain an illusory and superficial balance in the psych aiming to continue live in our psych and have pleasures, to feel superior, special and secure.
4. Ego creates various defense mechanisms to avoid the suffering created by inner conflicts (due to contradictory egoic tendencies) and the painful or unpleasant feelings from things or situations that ego considers being so.
Ego is like a virus who has been crystallized in our psych thousand of years ago uses our body, mind and intellect like a puppet for its own superficial desires and pleasures.
Here I will mention some of the main mechanisms of ego:
The ego makes us feel and believe that we are the ego itself.
The ego keeps us in a state of non acceptance and resistance to what happens in the moment.
The ego uses the thinking mind and modifies, removes or adds and misinterprets what is happening or what we feel. Thus makes us not to be aware of the real cause of our suffering and thus we are not capable to find the right solution. While in reality our ego is almost always the real cause of our problems and suffering the ego doesn’t allow us to be aware of it.
The ego projects itself to other persons, objects and situations; projects on them its illusions and fantasies and identifies with them. Thus we do not see things and persons as they are but as the ego wants to see them. Thus we create wrong relations with them which finally create pain and suffering.
The ego makes us feel fear and guilt creating a very strong identification with our body and egoic mind; thus ego keeps our consciousness and concious mind more trapped in it.
The ego projects to other people its mental or emotional state. Thus we create wrong relations with them which finally create pain and suffering.
The ego makes us criticize or blame to others in order to feel superior. Thus the ego experiences an illusory pleasure and strengthen itself.
The ego makes us complain to others or compare ourselves with others.
The ego makes us believe that we cannot do anything to eliminate it. By doing nothing we remain in his dominion.
The ego makes us feel unsatisfied, anxious, inadequate or incomplete; this way ego make us feel a kind of suffering. In order to get rid of this the ego drive us towards sensual, external success, competition etc.. But by doing this we feed only the ego which becomes stronger.
The ego makes us do not admit that we have a negative attribute or defect
The ego makes us postpone what we have to do now.
The ego makes us not want to be aware of the defect or be afraid to be aware of the defect.
The ego makes us blame or justify our self. Thus the ego becomes stronger
The ego makes us consider responsible the others or life for what we are experiencing.
The ego makes us say that others do the same thing we do or they have the same defect.
The ego makes us feel despair.
The ego makes us think that we are weak and incapable to eliminate the ego
The ego makes us believe that it is not for us the spiritual practices
The ego makes us believe that what we say or do is something good, viz. that what we do or say is for our own good or for the good of others, while in reality it is not.
Peace love harmony