Ego-self and Overself: SEE THE “WHAT AM I” BOOKLET
The ego is put forth by the Overself. (8:1.24)
The Overself-consciousness is reflected into the ego, which then imagines that it has its own original, and not derived awareness. 1.32
The ego borrows its reality, its power of perception its very capacity to be aware, from its association with the Overself. 8.1.28
What is the ego but the Overself surrounded with barriers, conditioned by its instruments--the body, the feelings, and the intellect--and forgetful of its own nature? 8.1.6
The Overself abides in the void within the heart. From it springs the ego's sense of "I." Only, the ego misconceives its own nature and misplaces the "I" as the body. (8:1.77)
The Overself perceives and knows the individual self, but only as an imperturbable witness--in the same way that the sun witnesses the various objects upon the earth but does not enter into a particular relation with a particular object. So too the Overself is present in each individual self as the witness and as the unchanging consciousness which gives consciousness to the individual. 22.3.338
The problem of our relation to the Overself is difficult to clear up satisfactorily in words. Hence the statements about it in my book must not be taken too literally and too precisely. Words pertain to a lower order of being. The Overself is not a discriminating observing entity in our human and ordinary sense. But its power and intelligence are such that the activities of discrimination and observation would appear to be at work merely through its presence. Everything in our lives happens as if the Overself took a direct interest and arranged its manifestation, and that is the wonder and mystery of the human situation. Only by comparing this situation with that of the dreaming man and his various dream egos can we even get a hint of what its reality is. (22:3.234
Ego and consciousness
What is the ego but the Overself surrounded with barriers, conditioned by its instruments--the body, the feelings, and the intellect--and forgetful of its own nature? 8.1.6
The Overself-consciousness is reflected into the ego, which then imagines that it has its own original, and not derived awareness. 1.32
What we commonly think of as constituting the "I" is an idea which changes from year to year. This is the personal "I." But what we feel most intimately as being always present in all these different ideas of the "I," that is, the sense of being, of existence, never changes at all. It is this which is our true enduring "I." 8.2.1
If past and future are now only ideas, the present must be idea, too. So runs the mentalist explanation. But this can and should be carried still farther. If the experiencer of past and future is (because he is part of them) now an idea, then the experiencer of the present (and in the present) must be idea, too. As anything else than idea, he was (and is) only a supposition, which is the same as saying that the ego is only an apparent entity and has no more reality (or less) than any thought has. Notebooks 8.2.2
Everything remembered is a thought in consciousness. This not only applies to objects, events, and places. It also applies to persons, including oneself, he who is remembered, the ``I'' that I was. This means that my own personality, what I call myself, was a thought in the past, however strong and however persistent. But the past was once the present. Therefore I am not less a thought now. The question arises what did I have then which I still have now, unchanged, exactly the same. It cannot be “I'' as the person, for that is different in some way each time. It is, and can only be, “I'' as Consciousness. Notebooks 8.2.3
This unusual interrogation of yourself, this demand to know what you are, may take a full lifetime of the deepest examination to satisfy. 8.1.42
Think! What does the ``I'' stand for? This single and simple letter is filled with unutterable mystery. For apart from the infinite void in which it is born and to which it must return, it has no meaning. The Eternal is its hidden core and content. 8.1.8.
The “I” is not a thought at all. It is the very principle of Consciousness itself, pure Being. It is neither personal mind nor physical body, neither ego nor little self. Without it they could not exist or function. It is their witness. Notebooks 8.1.72
"I am not I." These words are nonsensical to the intellect, which can make nothing of them. But to awakened intuition they are perfectly comprehensible. 8.1.19
We all think, experience, feel, and identify with the ``I.'' But who really knows what it is? To do this we need to look inside the mind, not at what it contains, as psychologists do, but at what it is in itself. If we persevere, we may find the “I” behind the “I.” 8.1.73
The faculty of attention is interiorized and turned back upon itself. 23.7.216
Why I chose `What Am I'': (1) Because I wanted to start with the idea of a non-``I'' consciousness instead of their own ``I'' with which they are continuously occupied; (2) Because the word Brahman is of neuter gender, neither masculine nor feminine. Brahman in us is Atman, the Self--but utterly impersonal. ``What'' lends itself more easily to this impersonality than ``Who''; (3) The answer to ``What Am I?'' is multiple but it begins with ``a part of the world!'' and is followed by another question, ``What is my relation to this world?'' The answer requires the discovery of Mentalism, leading back through the thought of the world, thinker, and consciousness, to Brahman. 8.1.36
You are that awareness disguised as a person. Tolle: Stillness Speaks
Consciousness appearing as a person seeks itself. Notebooks
It is the disentanglement of consciousness from its own projections, its thoughts of every kind, which is the final and first work of a would-be philosopher. Consciousness is then in its pure unconditioned being. 23.7.181
If there is anything worth studying by human being, after the necessary preliminary studies of how to exist and survive in this world healthily and wisely, it is the study of man's own consciousness--not a cataloguing of the numerous thoughts that play within it, but a deep investigation of its nature itself, its own unadulterated pure self. 1.1.81
Trace consciousness back to itself, unmixed with bodily sense reports, emotional moods or mental thoughts. This can be done successfully only by withdrawing it inward as you analyze. This process becomes a meditation. In the final term, you are aware of nothing else: That is, of nothing but being aware. But at this point you cannot know it as a second thing, an object, but only by being it. (23:7.208)
The first question is also the final one; it is quite short, quite simple, and yet it is also the most important question which anyone could ever ask, whether of himself or of others. This question is: ``What is consciousness?'' Whoever traces the answer through all its levels will find himself in the end in the very presence of the universal consciousness otherwise called God. 19.3.32
If you will try to perceive the mind by which you perceives the world, you will be practising the shortest, most direct technique of discovering the Overself. This is what Ramana Maharshi meant when he taught, ``Trace the `I' to its source.'' 22.5.6
How is it that I am--and know that I am--substantially the same person today as yesterday, that I remember the happenings of a year ago? The answer must be that there is a continuous self, or being, or mind, in me, distinct from its thoughts or experiences. Notebooks 8.2.97
We exist for a fragment of time only and therefore relatively. But is there something behind time itself which is absolute, a principle of Foreverness? The Buddhists firmly deny it; the Advaitins just as firmly proclaim it, while philosophy accepts and reconciles both schools. (19:3.188)
That which is aware of the world is not the world. That which is aware of the ego is not the ego. When this awareness is isolated, the person ``experiences'' the Overself. 22.5.5
The fact that we know our bodies is a guarantee that we can know our souls. For the knowing principle in us is derived from the soul itself. We have only to search our own minds deeply enough and ardently enough to discover it. 22.5.14
When you begin to seek the Knower, who is within you, and to sever yourself from the seen, which is both without and within you, you begin to pass from illusion to reality. 22.5.15
The mind's chief distinguishing power is to know--whether the object known is the world around or the ideas within. When this is turned in still deeper upon itself, subject and object are one, the thought-making activity comes to rest, and the “I” mystery is solved. One discovers his real self, or being--his soul. 22.5.16
Place of Ego in World-Order
How can a person fully express himself unless he fully develops himself? The spiritual evolution which requires him to abandon the ego runs parallel to the mental evolution which requires him to perfect it. (8:1.158)
The highest goal of the quest is not illumination gained by destruction of the ego but rather by perfection of the ego. It is the function of egoism which is to be destroyed, not that which functions. The ego's rulership is to go, not the ego itself. 8.1.189
It is both true and untrue that we cannot take up the ego with us into the life of mystical illumination. The ego is after all only a reflection, extremely limited and often distorted, of the Higher Self . . . but still it is a reflection. If we could bring it into correct alignment with, and submission to, the Higher Self, it would then be no hindrance to the illumined life. The ego cannot, indeed, be destroyed so long as we need its services while in the flesh; but it can be subjugated and turned into a servant instead of permitting it to remain a master. When this is understood, the philosophical ideal of a fully developed, mastered, and richly rounded ego acting as a channel for the inspiration and guidance of the Higher Self will be better appreciated. A poverty-stricken ego will naturally form a more limited channel for the expression of the Higher Self than would a more evolved one. The real enemy to be overcome is not the entity ego, but the function of egoism. 8:1.206
The ego to which he is so attached turns out on enquiry to be none other than the presence of World-Mind within his own heart. If identification is then shifted by constant practice from one to the other, he has achieved the purpose of life. Notebooks 8.1.127
Let them not waste so many words about or against this little ego of ours, decrying its character or denying its existence, but try to understand what is really happening in its short life. Let them find out what is actually being wrought out within and around it. Let them recognize that the Governor of the World is related to it and that we are steeped in the Divinity whether we are aware of it or not. 8:1.130
The subtler mental equipment must be energized and developed before he can use the subtler ideas of philosophy in the higher stages of this quest. First comes the idea of mentalism. Beyond that comes the idea of simultaneity--that he both is and is not a twofold being. 2:4.74
Students who have come finally to philosophy from the Indian Advaita Vedanta, bring with them the belief that the divine soul having somehow lost its consciousness is now seeking to become self-conscious again. They suppose that the ego originates and ends on the same level--divinity--and therefore the question is often asked why it should go forth on such a long and unnecessary journey. This question is a misconceived one. It is not the ego itself which ever was consciously divine, but its source, the Overself. The ego's divine character lies in its essential but hidden being, but it has never known that. The purpose of gathering experience (the evolutionary process) is precisely to bring it to such awareness. The ego comes to slow birth in finite consciousness out of utter unconsciousness and, later, to recognition and union with its infinite source. That source, whence it has emanated, remains untouched, unaffected, ever knowing and serenely witnessing. The purpose in this evolution is the ego's own advancement. When the Quest is reached, the Overself reveals its presence fitfully and brokenly at first but later the hide-and-seek game ends in loving union. 26.4.256
The unit of mind is differentiated out and undergoes its long evolution through numerous changes of state, not to merge so utterly in its source again as to be virtually annihilated, but to be consciously harmonized with that source whilst yet retaining its individuality. (25:2.204)
Perhaps one day some bright mind will write a book entitled Inspired Egoism to bring people into the understanding that the ego too has its place in the scheme of things. It is the little circle within the larger one of the Overself, and if it remains conscious of its true relationship to the Overself, it may still rest there and carry on with its functions. 8:1.203
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