the purpose of self

Art,
I paraphrased the following from Ken Wilber's Up From Eden as it in part attempts to answer your very question. I assembled this from about 50 pages so please forgive me for presenting a simplistic explaination of my simplistic understanding of his work.




As human consciousness evolved it moved from instinctual/motor responses to that of an ego state.

Prior to about 1600 BC, when a man would encounter a problem, his response to it was based solely upon instinct/set social patterns or input from the senses. The mind/brain would respond to the immediate environmental input as relayed by the body. There was no separation between mind, body, and the environment at this point. There was very little reflection upon the past. The organism reacted spontaneously in the present.

With the development of language this began to change. Language allows the preservation of the past. When a tree is directly experienced the organism reacts to it in the present. But when the "real time" tree is labeled with the word "tree" it can then be experienced and reflected upon outside of the present moment. A past time has been created.

With this development, mankind lost its ability to react directly with the environment. He could now reflect on what action to take in response to sensory input by comparing the present with the past, and by implication, consider the future consequences of his action. He comes to rely on mental processes to relate to the world. This, in turn, causes him to focus on those processes allowing him to become conscious of himself as an individual separate from his environment. He is now a thinking person with the ability to choose. He has become aware of himself, or has acquired an ego.

Now, since the ego is based on past experiences it is a very stable structure. Language is based on set, fixed concepts that do not readily change (in relation to the present moment). In turn, a stable language allows memory to develop by labeling past experiences, in the present, through words, names, and concepts.

The ego is in part a product of memory as the self has stabilized as a "real" concept through memory. As the individual begins to identify with recording, memory, and thinking, he begins to think of himself not as a changing body tied to its environment, but as a static, permanent, persistent self, separate from his body.

The self is separated out from the rest of Reality. The ego thus becomes a substitute for the permanence of all Ultimate Reality as the human mind is not yet developed enough to realize, or be aware, that the ego is itself, a part of all of Reality.

Not knowing that there is, in reality, no division between man and Reality, the ego, or self, becomes a substitute for the permanence of "real" Reality. The formulation of the self also brings into existence the realization of the future death of the self, leading the individual to cling to this concept of the self at all costs in order to postpone this end. Not realizing that the "self" is merely a "subroutine" running on top of the whole of Reality, it clings to its existence as the only form of immortality.

Now, as this occurred 4,000 years ago, so too, it occurs in each individual child today. As the child develops a sense of self it realizes that this self is connected to a body which will eventually die. As the death of the body necessarily means the death of the self, the child withdraws from the total body/ego experience and associates with the newly formed ego.

Rational ego. Mechanistic body.

This is the point that the majoritory of mankind has evolved to (especially in the West). Buddhism is one technique for transending and including this stage into a higher evolutionary phase.

 

Well, I believe the ego exists, and that it is needed up to a point. But when one becomes attached to it the path to liberation is disturbed. The ego is not destroyed by enlightenment but transended and seen for what it is, then it can be used without presenting problems.

Yes Art, acording to Wilber. All humans have a drive toward liberation and unification with the one from which they sprang. But at each step of evolution an artificial problem is presented which must be transended. The Ego is one step which is needed, but must be transended. there are other pitfalls along the way.

 

Bhaskar,
I do.

Now, who asked the question?

 

I told you Bhasker, I, that is Me...Again say that the ego exists.

And I, that is me, will ask again, who asked the question .... and how long shall we go round and round?
You are answering a question with a question.

 

A barking dog is sometimes ignored.

 

Bhaskar,

Yes, I tend to do that to a lot of people from time to time! That's good as it lowers their expectations of me and I can then get away with more. It works very well with my wife as she thinks I'm a total idiot, thus allowing me to "forget" various things she tells me. At least that's how I think it works...but could be she's right.

So, let us look at our exchange....
The thread was about the Ego:
Art asked,

Now, to make a long story short, I said the Ego is not an illusion, it does exist in a certain way, and it has a useful purpose, but it must be seen for what it is and transended.

No mystery here, you asked, I replied. I was speaking as one ego to another.

Then you asked the same sort of thing here but I got lost in this replay

You are trying to get me to answer from another part of my Being, but I did not, I answered as one Ego to another again. I told you twice in the same sentence.

And again you try to get me to leave the everyday world. I refused. You had repeated the same question three times and I had answered twice. So I threw a curve.
(Or something like that, I started getting confused with all the copying and pasteing.)

And now it would be very easy for me to reply:
Who is it that is disappointed?




What you offered was a koan such as "What is the true self" as Ummon was asked.
Did you think that I would respond with a conceptual answer?
Hung Po said,

The Awakening of Faith states:

I have plainly stated that this everyday world is it.
What else will you have me say?