Credo IV - Ego Identification

[Guest guest]

I want to respond to a few things Alice says in this message of a few

days ago.

“Each of us may be playing a part given our own name n identity n we

play it for a lifetime, but we are offered a break - one,

automatically, and another thru our intention.

The first is wh we sleep. Whether you are a king or a beggar, a wife

or a poet, a child or a guru, u are free fr the outer world.”

This reminds me of when Ganesh Baba, already a very old man, would

take several naps a day, or even sleep through a whole day. He said

he was doing the best yoga of all: sleep yoga. He said it was Nitya

yoga, the yoga of constant communion.

“The other is the conscious intention to meditate, to contemplate, to

observe yourself. ”

Baba refers to this idea as “correct use of free will” or “conscious

evolution.” I've just been editing an essay of his in which he almost

shouts about its necessity. Unless we take up the responsibility of

evolving consciously, of learning to step back from daily existence,

we are doomed as a species, he says. Yikes.

“When we do this, as most of u know already, the ego becomes object

to the Self as subject. U have a moment of living yr life w/captions!

“Watch! Alice is suffering.” “She is anxious”, etc. After a while, it

occurs to oneself to ask - Who's watching? ”

I've been doing a series of workshops (The Power of Story) lately

that are meant to teach this skill in particular. We start to see our

lives are a series of overlapping, interconnected stories.

“Jung's description of individuation expressed theologically, he

said, was Incarnation. Incarnation, being in the flesh or body,

requires an ego to play the part of ———————- [supply yr own name]

but that is only yr identity in this life! So who u really are is the

one who is watching n fine-tuning the part for the Self, ambassador

to the Divine Guest.”

And in “The Tempest,” Prospero says,

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits and

Are melted into air, into thin air;

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,

The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself,

Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;

And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

As dreams are made on, and our little life,

Is rounded with a sleep.

The Tempest IV, i,148

Thank you, Alice, for providing such wonderful food for thought.

Eve