The Ego

When a baby is born it has no ego but it does have a sense of the self. It has a desire for some milk and comfort. As time goes on the baby learns its name, the name momma and a few other names. It begins to develop a larger view of the world and its self. As the child grows it begins to believe that the self is separate from the world. At that point the ego begins developing and the separation between self and the world widens.

Before long the self has all sex petals on the mandala. The young child now has values and feelings and begins to make judgments about him/her self and the outside world. The child begins to believe that some of its values are better than some other people's values and the ego grows even larger. The ego grows out of the self (mandala) and becomes interwoven within it.

The ego has everything to do with comparing one's self with others. In order to feel good or bad someone has to be "better" or "worse" than someone else. Continue to study the mandala you made from the last session and as you study it see if you can connect the dots. Can you see how your values and feelings are connected to the outside word? For example, if someone cuts you off in traffic how are your feelings affected. How does the situation affect pleasure, comfort and fear. Does the situation affect your way of being? Use the mandala to not only get a sense of your self but also a sense of the ego.

On the next post we will talk about how to observe the ego.