The ego-created sense of lack or
incompleteness, of not being whole
Extract
of the book
The Power of Now of Eckhart Tolle
Another
aspect of the emotional pain that is an intrinsic part of the egoic mind is a
deep-seated sense of lack or incompleteness, of not being whole. In some
people, this is conscious, in others unconscious. If it is conscious, it
manifests as the unsettling and constant feeling of not being worthy or good
enough. If it is unconscious, it will only be felt indirectly as an intense
craving, wanting and needing. In either case, people will often enter into a
compulsive pursuit of ego gratification and things to identify with in order to
fill this hole they feel within. So they strive* after possessions, money,
success, power, recognition, or a special relationship, basically so that they
can feel better about themselves, feel more complete. But even when they attain
all these things, they soon find that the hole is still there, that it is
bottomless. Then they are really in trouble, because they cannot delude
themselves anymore. Well, they can and do, but it gets more
difficult.
As
long as the egoic mind is running your life, you cannot truly be at ease; you
cannot be at peace or fulfilled except for brief intervals when you obtained
what you wanted, when a craving has just been fulfilled. Since the ego is a
derived sense of self, it needs to identify with external things. It needs to
be both defended and fed constantly. The most common ego identifications have
to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition,
knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships,
personal and family history, belief systems, and often also political,
nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of
these is you.
COMMENT by
Atman Nityananda
they strive* after possessions, money,
success, power, recognition, or a special relationship:
I
will add also pleasures. According my own experience the ego
causes this sense of lack, that something is missing here and now in order to
drive us find something pleasurable to fill the hole. Desire for pleasure is
what generates this sense of lack in order to drive us to seek some pleasurable
experience. Moreover desire end ego are
one and the same thing. I am talking about the vital rajasotamasic ego which
what makes us identify with the body, the mental and emotional formations and
the sense objects and situations. The essential nature of this vital ego is
lust and desire.