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| Athena is portrayed as a shrewd companion of heroes and is the patron goddess of heroic endeavour. |
In all traditions the Divine Mother protects and guides the aspirants after Truth, and dissolves the egos from their psych.
Glory to Divine Mother, the creator, the sustainer and the destroyer of the universe.
Dying
moment to moment
The
dissolution of ego from moment to moment happens by remaining alert and
vigilant and aware of ourselves (of the silent space within), by not
identifying with the mental and emotional reactions and by applying some kind
of power or method, for example, by prayer, by the repetition of a mantra or a
name of God.
In this
state of vigilance and self-awareness we can observe and notice what happens in
our psyche. Every time that an emotion* or a stream thought arises, we can pray
to God to dissolve it and we continue to be alert and self-aware and repeat the name of God.
The defense
mechanisms of ego impede us to be aware of the play of the various egoic
tendencies but in course of time if we continue to practice systematically,
regularly and diligently we will manage to overcome all obstacles and ego's
resistance. Intense longing for liberation and self-realization, patience,
perseverance, sincerity, confidence, faith and love for the inner work are
necessary qualities to overcome all obstacles and ego´s resistance.
Our moment
to moment practice (of self-awareness, detached self-observation, discernment,
and Japa nama) purifies the mind and the heart, dissolves the egoic energies
and fills us with sattva. If we practice steadily then the sattva quality (guna) gradually
increases in our mind, and the tamas and rajas qualities are reduced. The mind becomes more serene, calm, clear,
sharp, peaceful and one-pointed and develop as well the two of the most
important for self-realization qualities, discernment and dispassion.
A
pure-sattvic mind is our best friend and the best instrument to eliminate the
egoic tendencies as well to do deep meditation and realize our true nature,
(Atman or Consciousness).
A sattvic
mind is calm, clear, sharp one-pointed, detached and with a high ability to
discern between the real from the unreal, the false from the true. All above
mental capacities are necessary to discover all ego tendencies and patterns and
dissolve them by the power of prayer, the repetition of the name of God or by
any other mean. The repetition of God's name or a mantra can be used also as a
tool to achieve the state of meditation and samadhi. Samadhi is the state
which enables us realize clearly our identity with God Consciousness.
Together
with self-awareness, self-observation and Japa nama we can apply a variety of
practices in order to purify our mind and dissolve the egos. However,
self-awareness, self-observation, prayer, Japa nama as well as meditation and
Self-inquiry are the essence of spiritual practice.
NOTE:
* The
negative emotions and selfish
thoughts have as source some fundamental aspect of the ego that we can call
egos; some of the main egos are: lust, lasciviousness, gluttony, vanity,
arrogance, pride, envy, hatred, greed.
So, for
example sexual thoughts come from lasciviousness, food thoughts from gluttony,
thoughts of success from pride and vanity etc.)
Anger, fear
and depression as well as most of the negative emotions are effects of the
aforementioned fundamental egos, desires and programming. However, we must work
with them in the same way we do with the egos. However, it is necessary to
detect which fundamental ego, desire or programming is behind the anger,
fear, depression (or any other emotion) and we must investigate this as well in
order to dissolve it.