Friday, February 4, 2011

Being conscious

Today I asked myself what does being awake really mean. Does it mean that your eyes are opened, and watching the world around us, communicating, eating, working... Well what if we were able to do this things just semi conscious, partly awake, or even more interesting-totally asleep and unconscious. 

Let us examine what the word, or label unconscious actually means. Un·con·scious 
1. Lacking awareness and the capacity for sensory perception; not conscious. 
2. Temporarily lacking consciousness. 
3. Occurring in the absence of conscious awareness or thought: unconscious resentment; unconscious fears. 
4. Without conscious control; involuntary or unintended: an unconscious mannerism.

Being unconscious can also be described as the division of the mind in psychoanalytic theory containing elements of psychic makeup, such as memories or repressed desires, that are not subject to conscious perception or control but that often affect conscious thoughts and behavior.

Psychic activity can be explained by the psychoanalytic theory as an entity divided in to four groups: 
the unconscious - that part of the mind wherein psychic activity takes place of which the person is unaware,
the mind - that which is responsible for one's thoughts and feelings; the seat of the faculty of reason; 
the superego - (psychoanalysis) that part of the unconscious mind that acts as a conscience 
the id - (psychoanalysis) primitive instincts and energies underlying all psychic activity

In other terms being aware or  conscious is not some "new age" nonsense, that some might believe. Conscious part of our brain activity can also be called, in the terms of psychoanalysis, the superego. One can also cal the superego, and all of the other processes that are similar to this simplistic example of the thing I am writing about, the awareness. 

Being aware is all about knowing and perceiving, having awareness of surroundings and sensations and thoughts, "remaining conscious during an experience"; "conscious of the ego", being able to observe it.

For that to happen it is necessary to detach the I from the me. In other words, to realize that the essence, the being that I am, is not the ego. To identify with the ego means to forget the essence, or to deny it. So one can also say, if I am not the ego, and I forget the essence, I am going against myself. That is very interesting. because the true meaning of the words "to sin" is "to go against ones self". So if paraphrased, when one identifies with the ego, and believes that "I am my" thoughts that are being produced in the mind, and that the happiness is dependent on being "better", being "right", "good",  being accepted, constantly comparing, judging, one is actually going against ones self. And again when looking at it from another perspective, it is also obvious that if  going against ones self, that is actually not loving, thus the ego is the compensation for the void that appears in the place where love should be in ones self. That "place" gets filled with selfishness, with the inner judge,  that tirelessly says: "I judge myself and I find  myself guilty of not being good enough" and it is quite obvious that this is actually an illusion of the egoic mind and something that one can get unconscious in, because once one is identified with the ego, one can not be aware anymore.

It is interesting to find that self love is the total  opposite of selfishness. When one loves ones self,  is accepting of self and others, free in expression, caring and concern for oneself which results in growing in self-esteem and self-worth, and in turn enables one to truly care for others. Selfishness on the other hand means to have a very active identification with ones ego and thus is constantly afraid of not having enough, comparing self with others, in some cases to the point of being narcissistic.

One can ask: What is the difference between self-love and narcissism and how does it affect the capacity to love others?

In short self love comes out of love and the selfishness and  narcissism is actually born out of fear.

There are two differences between self-love and pathological narcissism: in the ability to tell reality from fantasy, and in the ability to empathise and, indeed, to fully and maturely love others. The narcissist does not love himself, because of having very little true self to love. Instead, a monstrous, malignant construct – the false self – encroaches upon his true self and devours it.

The narcissist loves an image which he projects onto others who reflect it to the narcissist (the false self). This process reassures the narcissist of both the objective existence of his false self and of the boundaries of his ego. It blurs all distinctions between reality and fantasy.

The false self leads to false assumptions and to a contorted personal narrative, to a false worldview, and to a grandiose, inflated sense of being. The latter is rarely grounded in real achievements or merit. The narcissist's feeling of entitlement is all-pervasive, demanding and aggressive. It easily deteriorates into open verbal, psychological and physical abuse of others.

Eckhart Tolle put it best when he wrote: "One of the most basic mind structures through which the ego comes into existence is identification. The word “identification” is derived from the Latin word idem, meaning “same” and facere, which means “to make.” So when I identify with something, I “make it the same.” The same as what? The same as I. I endow it with a sense of self, and so it becomes part of my “identity.” One of the most basic levels of identification is with things: My toy later becomes my car, my house, my clothes, and so on. I try to find myself in things, beliefs about self,  opinions of self and judgements, trying to be perfect as the picture of self painted in the mind, so that it is possible to be good enough for self and others, but never quite make it and end up losing myself in all of those beliefs and perceptions. That is the fate of the ego."

When looking at the description of a  narcissist  isn`t it obvious that the term narcissist when put on a broader scale, can actually describe the identification with the ego, thus a part of the narcissistic pathology can be found in every egoic mind that is not able to be conscious or aware? Does that not describe a big percentage of today´s population on the planet Earth?

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,” it was said, “for theirs will be the kingdom of heaven.”What does “poor in spirit” mean? No inner baggage, no identifications. Not with things, nor with any mental concepts that have a sense of self in them, being aware of being, of the essence that is, and not identifying with the ego. And what is the “kingdom of heaven” The simple but profound joy of Being that is there when you let of of identifications and so become “poor in spirit.”


And so it is.



1 comment:

  1. http://imspellbound.blogspot.com/
    :)

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

    ReplyDelete