The I or ego is not a thought or a word
The I or me it is not a thought or a word but an energetic structure which grows due to identification and experiences.
According the gunas the ego (the mind as well) assumes three aspects, and we can speak about: the sattvic ego, the rajasic ego and the tamasic ego.
However I prefer to classify the ego in two categories. The sattvic ego and rajasotamasic ego. I prefer this classification because the rajasic and tamasic aspect of the ego are what obstruct us to live harmoniously and aware of our true nature, while the sattvic ego is what is helping us move from the darkness of materialism to the light of consciousness and the divine life.
What I am presenting in this text about the ego refers to the rajasotamasic aspect of the ego which is what the vast majority of humanity is identified with.
The ego makes us identify with the physical body although the ego itself is energy and it is something different than the physical body. This ego-energy it is felt in the body as a strong sense, the sense "the body is me".
Thus we sense that we are the body (I am the body or the body is me) which has been born some years ago. Moreover we identify with the name that our parents haven given to this body.
The I or me it is not a thought or a word but an energetic structure which grows due to identification and experiences.
According the gunas the ego (the mind as well) assumes three aspects, and we can speak about: the sattvic ego, the rajasic ego and the tamasic ego.
However I prefer to classify the ego in two categories. The sattvic ego and rajasotamasic ego. I prefer this classification because the rajasic and tamasic aspect of the ego are what obstruct us to live harmoniously and aware of our true nature, while the sattvic ego is what is helping us move from the darkness of materialism to the light of consciousness and the divine life.
What I am presenting in this text about the ego refers to the rajasotamasic aspect of the ego which is what the vast majority of humanity is identified with.
The ego makes us identify with the physical body although the ego itself is energy and it is something different than the physical body. This ego-energy it is felt in the body as a strong sense, the sense "the body is me".
Thus we sense that we are the body (I am the body or the body is me) which has been born some years ago. Moreover we identify with the name that our parents haven given to this body.
The fundamental functions of the ego is to identify, to project. to desire. Thus the ego can identify with everything and projects it self to everything and is always desiring or seeking something.
The ego by identifying with the body and everything that happens in the body, becomes the agent of our thoughts, perceptions, emotions, sensations, actions, i.e. becomes the perceiver, the feeler, the thinker, the doer. The ego identifying with the objects assumes the form of "Mineness" and also the form of attachment to them.
The ego projects its own qualities, emotions, thoughts, opinions on others and is unable to realize that what sees externally is its own projections.
The ego desires and seeks pleasure, fame, name, happiness and fulfillment through sensory experiences and achievements.
The I or ego having at its center the above three fundamental functions expands and assumes many forms. Most fundamental aspects of the ego are: likes-dislikes, attraction-repulsion or aversion, greed, pride, lasciviousness, gluttony, avarice, arrogance, vanity, fear, anger, hatred, impatience, resentment, depression, charm- disappointment, jealousy, frustration, loneliness, boredom, discontentment, uneasiness, inferiority, superiority, insufficiency, incompleteness, etc.
All these egoistic tendencies are not different from the ego or I, but modifications of the ego itself. The ego according the circumstances in the twinkling of an eye assumes some of the above mentioned forms creating in our mind and heart a continuous turmoil in a variety of intensity. The ego assumes these forms as the water which is H2O, can assume the form of water, cloud, steam, ice, snow etc.