Be Yourself

A tragedy is a play with a sad ending. In Greek tragedy the hero has noble traits. However he also has a 'fatal flaw' that leads to his downfall. Most often this fatal flaw is 'hubris'. That is excessive pride, dangerous over confidence and complacency. Synonymous with 'arrogance'.

Arrogance comes from the root word meaning 'to claim for oneself'. And it developed to mean 'laying claim to more than one's fair share of worth or importance'.

And through the word arrogance that brought in the idea of a 'self', the ego that stood for the 'sense of self' got conflated into the mix.

And today that's mostly how we use it on a daily basis. "Oh, he has such a big ego!" Meaning ,he is full of himself. Or "Oh my god! You have to walk on eggshells around her. She's got such a fragile ego!". Meaning, she is touchy about incorporating ideas that she feels are damaging to her ego.

It said as though, there is a person, distinct from the ego. A person whom the world sees. And an idea of the self that the person holds about themselves.

Me Me Me

We admire people with inflated egos.

In the modern world the culture celebrates individualism. Where the individual's desires and wants take precedence over the needs of the group.

People write books about the virtues of selfishness.

Our social behavior changes. Competition rides over co-operation. A sense of entitlement is born. Envy grows.

Social media is a living, digital museum of individualistic culture. We curate the best version of ourselves. We constantly compare when we scroll other people's updates. And if the 'likes' and 'hearts' on our updates don't come quickly, we feel anxious and incomplete.

The peak in this culture of individualism is 'Self Actualization.'

Rabbi Sacks says, " Once we have dismantled a world in which larger virtues held sway, what remain are success and self-expression, the key values of an individualistic culture.”

But Then...

While on the surface the world is fanning a certain kind of individuality. That individuality is measured by how you fit in society.

Do you look according to the beauty standards? Do you own the latest fads? How many push-ups can you do?

How many?

How many likes? How many dollars? How many fans?

How many vacations? How many fancy lunches?

How many ventures?

How many rungs of the ladder have you climbed?

That sums it up....doesn't it? Or did I leave something out?

Hmmm....How many years do you look younger than your age?

Yeah that's about it.

In the midst of this counting, the individual is sadly not an individual. S/he is only tricked into thinking s/he is.

Fan The Fire

It's when you truly want to assert your individuation, that the so called individualistic society won't have it.

Because 'One' is a number that doesn't count for much.

For instance, one person's experience will not be counted. It is brushed off as an anecdote. But collecting anecdotes from different people, and averaging it out, is called an 'observational study'.

It seems as though the individual is always held to the average.

Blood test parameters are decided by the average.

Society is scared of anything that is slightly outside the rigid parameters of average behavior/speech. So an individual who speaks about a hallucination will be looked upon with terror. But the collective data compositor, AI, is allowed to have hallucinations as a feature.

In certain times, Society pulls out the 'For Greater Good' card. Stealing our autonomy. Invading our privacy.And actual greater good for individuals, which is, providing good food, air, water, environment etc is neglected.

Because now bad health is treated as an individual failure. And the system shrugs off any responsibility.

Tricky Pricky

We start the first house of the Zodiac, Aries, with this challenge. The challenge of the individual. The framing of the ego.

It's good for us to spend some time on understanding the ego. On understanding ourselves.

In past blog posts we looked at ideas that spoke of the ego as: a thinking thing; a mediator trying to balance two opposite sides of oneself; a bloated sense of arrogance and ; an image that we have of ourselves.

Ancient philosophy wins hands down in the definition of the ego.

In India the ego is called 'ahamkara'. 'Aham'= I. 'Kara' = to make.

The 'I' maker.

Everything experienced in this world is subjective. The 'I' collects experiences. Acts in the world. Reshapes its ideas. Makes filters through which the world is perceived. And how the I sees, decides how the world is, for the I.

Sankhya Philosophy

Sankhya is from the Vedic times. It is a dvaita/dualistic approach.

There are two aspects that exist here. Purusha and Prakriti.

Purusha is pure awareness.

Prakriti is matter.

Sankhya the word itself means 'to count'. Here the various forms of Prakriti/matter are enlisted in great detail.

At the beginning of Prakriti, matter, there is said to exist Mahat. A mighty all enveloping intelligence.

Out of which Ahamkara/Ego is born.

Ego is born as an individual boundary creator who creates a specific, limited experience. For a rock, as well as for you.

Someone on psychedelics who experiences ego-death, can be said to experience Mahat, a collective intelligence of everything. The ego is the one who divides the subject from the object. In fact, who creates the subject and the object.

From Ego, matter further develops into the mind, sensory organs, motor organs, subtle elements and gross elements.

Most of Indian philosophy was written as an antidote to suffering.

In Sankhya philosophy, the aim is for Purusha/pure awareness to realize that it is distinct from Prakriti. To abide as itself, as pure awareness alone. And to not to get mixed in matter. For in this mixing with matter suffering is said to arise.

Advaita Philosophy

A-dvaita. Non-dualistic. This philosophy seems to arrive later than the Vedas. It has roots in the Upanishads.

Here the first thing to arise is the Ahamkara. Before anything else.

From when the baby is born, the first cry. That is ahamkara. The making of the I. That now screams - I'm here! I'm hungry!

When you wake up in the morning, it is the ego that first wakes up. Every other thought is made by this first thought. The first thought of I, made by the ego.

On the rising of the I, everything else appears. When you wake up, you immediately project the entire universe. You somehow pick up the story line from where you left it, while you fell asleep.

You project your body, your mind, the Gods and everything else.

Whatever is projected by the I, is considered Maya. An illusion. Because it comes and goes.

Viveka, is the highest intelligence. It means to discriminate between what is real and what is unreal. In advaita, everything perceived by the I......anything you can possibly come up with.....all belong in the realm of Maya. Appears when you wake up. Disappears when you sleep.

This Is That

Creating the I, is creating everything. The ego is placed in the most lofty position here. Because it creates the worlds. It projects everything.

The ego asserts itself as 'I am'.

And it gets really busy in the world of its projections. It takes everything very seriously. And gets lost in the myriad convolutions of its creation.

As it perceives itself, through a sense of self; and it appears and disappears itself, it cannot be taken as real.

And when its own projection loses sheen, when its thirst can't be quenched by the mirage it has created, then it turns within. It hopes to understand itself. And hopes to meet That which created it.

The Ultimate Truth/Brahman/ The Ultimate Reality/The Lord/God.

There are absolutely no ways of conceptualizing this Brahman/ultimate reality.

So it is referred to as 'That'. It is 'being-ness'. Without cause. Without adjuncts.

I Am That I Am. Existence. Being.

According to the Hebrew Bible, in the encounter of the burning bush (Exodus 3:14), Moses asks what he is to say to the Israelites when they ask what gods have sent him to them, and YHWH replies: "I Am That I Am". "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I am has sent me to you'

When Grace appears and the ego can finally dissolve into its Creator. Then it is said to understand that it is made of the Creator. It becomes the Creator. The drop becomes the sea.

Aham Brahmasi.

There is no other way that Brahman can speak to you, other than from within you.

I am 'That' I am.

'I am' of the ego is now 'That I am' of Brahman.

The Week Ahead

I hope I confused you as much as I made some sense.

It will be good for us to turn within this week. Not to give up any activity. Or to sit in a dark room.

Just to stay with the sense of our 'I am.'

If you are the creator of this world, what would you do?

Sunday is special day. Spend some time with kids. A good day for a romantic date. If you are single, a good day to meet someone.

Overall the feminine side of people will see some eccentric behaviors this week. I say- let's welcome it. Give it some space.

Also let's be nice to our family.

Things are slowly moving from Pisces to Aries. We can also start opening up a little.

April end, Mercury moves into Aries. That's a big relief.

Take it easy. Project some rest and relaxation for yourself.

If it's so darn hot....blame the system. Don't engage with them when they sell all that fluff. Who exactly wants a rocket to the moon now?

Just keep on telling them to... Clean the air. Clean the rivers. Divert funds towards growing better food. Keep your grubby hands off our forests.

Pollution, toxicity, climate, poor nutrition.....these kill people. In horrifying ways.

If it is true that we have such powerful egos, then let's try projecting things that help us.

See you next week.