The Self and Ego, page-38

  1. 8,407 Posts.
    It is very difficult to discuss such questions without a common understanding of what specific terms mean.
    Eg as soon as the word "God" is used, even if the description offered is quite different from the religious God, each person will automatically interpret this word according to what was put in them as a child by the religion and/or culture they were born into... even if the person feels free of that limitation. It is an involuntary association.

    Similarly with words like "subconscious"/"unconscious" or "consciousness", "conscience", "self", "Self" etc.
    They mean quite different things to different people.

    Further, each religion and "way" has it's own set of words to describe the same human experiences that go beyond the usual day to day experiences.
    However, anyone who has actually experienced such things will recognize in another religion or way when it is talking about the same thing.
    A trivial example might be two marathon runners who come from completely different cultures, speak different languages etc but who, at the end of the run, embrace and look at each other with complete and mutual understanding of what the other is experiencing.
    Does that make sense ??

    Having said that ...

    "The ego allows us to be aware of some of what is happening because the ego is restricted to time and space—4 dimensions.
    By limiting the conscious thought processes to time and space then we have a means of distinguishing the past from the present and be aware there is also a future we will eventually encounter
    The Self or Divine or God cannot think like we do with our ego because the Self or the Divine or God is not bounded by time and space.
    As a result –the past present and future is jumbled.
    God knows all---- but God cannot articulate anything in a rational way—the human ego can however make sense by unpacking the info into past present and future categories."

    If I understand what you are saying here and that is by no means certain, I think you have it back the front.
    For example, a being that lives in 3 dimensions can "see" the 3 dimensions but a being that only lives in two dimensions can never experience the third.
    In other words, the lower can never understand anything higher than itself, but the higher includes the lower.
    Perhaps difficult concepts to accept.
    The question of how or whether the higher .. is able or permitted to intervene in a lower world is a different matter.

    However, assuming we accept that in a human the real "Self" actually resides in what is loosely called the "subconscious". But, the so called "conscious" self is what we experience as our self, where does that leave us ? At this stage, whether that real Self is connected to a greater consciousness makes no difference as there is virtually no practical communication between the two.

    An analogy could be of a man living in the windowless basement of a grand home, never suspecting that above him is where the real house is. He lives his life and occasionally hears strange noises coming from outside his room.

    Perhaps he constructs imaginary pictures and stories of what these noises mean and where they come from, but this can only be constructed from what he has experienced in his basement.
    Even if he somehow becomes convinced there is a "hidden" door somewhere .. perhaps behind the wardrobe or fridge or even his Mother's favourite wall hanging, he is occupied and has little time or inclination to go looking and shifting the furniture about. In any case, he also sees he will never be able to move the fridge without help.

    So, the average man spends his life in this basement, content to accept his story or that of others, about the strange noises occasionally heard.
    For anyone serious, the real first step should be to actually find the door !

    .
 
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