CONTENTS:
A SIMPLIFIED EXPLANATION AND PERSONIFICATION
IT'S ONLY A MECHANICAL PROCESS! (DUH!)
ONCE YOU KNOW HOW THINGS WORK, THE SOLUTION IS OBVIOUS
UNDERSTANDING THE DISCIPLINES, RE: EGO, SELF - Be clear on this!!!!
RELEVANT READINGS
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A SIMPLIFIED EXPLANATION AND PERSONIFICATION
In the section on Difficulty And Difficulties, it is noted that the "great psychological explanations" attribute difficulty to achieving what one wants to "the ego" having destructive ambitions or wanting to enhance itself and its power to its owner's detriment.
Well, that is pure, absolute bullbleep.
I defy you to find such a creature in you.
When we "personify" things we create imaginary power "out there" and separate intent.
Furthermore, if we learn it does not exist ("disappear it", in a sense), we free ourselves from the struggle with an illusion. That solves many problems at once, as they simply disappear.
In the great majority of philosophical disciplines (including many religions), the ego is to be identified as something that is not real, that we make up - and much meditation is devoted to "ridding oneself of the ego." I, in my Western view, identify it as "false identity", where we believe that we are that which we learn, how we behave, our traits and habits, beliefs, etc. and then we get caught up in defending it as if it were real. I recommend as a "must be clear on in order to be happy" that you learn and understand this, until you are complete on it (you grok it): Who I Am.
Freed from this, we are then able to simply choose which personas to put on that will serve our purposes.
IT'S ONLY A MECHANICAL PROCESS! (DUH!)
Again, I repeat, the brain is simply a mechanical process that is excellent at carrying out what it has to do to survive (and experience pleasure).
There is no evil "being" in there, no devil, no "child", no "ego". It is simply something that is on your side (i.e. trying for your survival, which is a bit like intent, though it does not have anything more than mechanics in it).
ONCE YOU KNOW HOW THINGS WORK, THE SOLUTION IS OBVIOUS
So, once you understand and believe the truth in that, you can simply set it up so that the reasons for resistance are diminished or eliminated and the reasons for acting in parallel with what you want are clearly communicated to the machine. Of course, it is best to monitor the machine during the process, correcting as needed.
Note that the machine is pretty transparent, in that it sends out signals. Those signals are in the form of chemicals with some electrical power used in the process.
We can "feel" (have a sensation of, if we pay attention) those chemicals. We have names for the combinations of chemicals and generally categorize them as
"emotions". Chemicals cause us to get into motion to do something to effect the "out there" that we want to correct. The "e" in emotion means "out", as it means in exit.
Note that the wiser of us will learn to just observe chemicals (or discomforts) just as being only that, and not a sign to "escalate" into a frenzy of exaggerated reactions. The wiser will use "perspective" to look and see what the most effective action is to handle those chemicals and to get back to a higher state of resourcefulness.
There is no one on this planet who should not read The Structure Of The Brain. It covers what a miracle it is and how powerful it is, yet it also lays out the functions of the individual parts of the brain and how the chemicals affect our behaviors. It makes it clear, I think, that letting Dumb and Dumber (though good for certain things) is really, really dumb!
UNDERSTANDING THE DISCIPLINES, RE: EGO, SELF
"...we instinctively imagine that somehwere deepd down within us, there resides an enduring entity that endows our peraonality with solid reality and permanence. This intuition may seem so evident we don't thinkin it is necesssary to examine it any thruther. We end up developing a powerful attachment to the notions of "me" and "mine"... From this mental constuction arise an exagerated snse of the importance of this self. The ego places its fictitious identity at the center of all our experiences."
Matthieu Ricard, in Why Meditate?
The disciplines are not saying YOU don't exist, but that you see yourself as a false identity with stuff you think is you and which you hold as if it is you - and then you waste lots of energy trying to protect that which is not you plus it sets up some protective opposition to other people, where your "self" has to dominate to prove its "worth".
The reason to get rid of or see that there is no self is so that you will no longer experience all the negative emotions that are created from this false construct, that is strictly mental and does not exist in reality. You can't prove it does. Not by pointing to your body, your past, or anything YOU have, for those are separate entities. You simply made it up - and then you run a game with it that creates suffering - which is something I recommend you not do (suffer) unnecessarily.
So, they are not suggesting you rid yourself from existence and merge into the trees and rocks. YOU, your consciousness, surely does exist. The other stuff doesn't, as you made it up. You created a fictional entity, deep within us, called the ego or self, but no more real than the Inner Child or the Wizard Of Oz (the mysterious force behind the curtain). We humans create "entities" and imbue them with agenticity (the will to operate on their own with intent). We seek to explain the unexplainable and unverifiable but soon it becomes "the truth", though it is just "made up." And then we give it all the human qualities as it is real. We will often have trouble giving these up. Read The Believing Brain to understand this.
RELEVANT READINGS
