Beyond the Delusion of Narrative

The world is in a state of full system collapse. If we want to remain in a state of peace and navigate with accuracy and freedom, we must prepare psychospiritually. Shunyamurti presents M. C. Escher's lithograph "Drawing Hands” as best representing the logical trap of the ego's core delusion and why the capacity for Self-actualization has been lost. Shunyamurti teaches how we can reclaim our Self-sovereignty and finally be free of the internalized other.

Question:

Dear Shunyamurti, Thank you for your deep teaching. My son will be 13 this year, and I wonder how to help him go through a rite of passage. I see some narcissistic traits in him, but I guess I’m projecting them or his father is projecting them on to him? I don’t know really but he (my son) is my greatest challenge. Any advice will be helpful.

Shunyamurti’s Reply:

Not having information about the relationship of your son to his father nor the way your son has been raised (whether he has gone to any summer camps, boarding schools, martial arts dojos, or has religious affiliation with any institution that has seminary facilities for teens) makes it difficult to offer any specific suggestions. But I would try to find some reputable and spiritual educational organization that would accept him for training on a live-in basis for at least a few months or perhaps a year, where he would receive outdoor physical training of some kind (like growing food or some sport, etc) as well as intellectual development. He needs to separate from his parents and learn how to adapt to the expectations of the larger social order. Of course, the world being now in growing chaos and dissolution, it may not be easy to find such a safe haven for him. So, if that is not possible, I would at least find him a private tutor in philosophy or meditation, or else a good psychoanalyst or Jungian analyst who specializes in working with adolescents. I hope this has been helpful. Blessings to you both!

Namaste,
Shunyamurti

Question:

What happens if you’re suicidal?

Shunyamurti’s Reply:

Suicidal thoughts are what start to be emitted by an ego that is disconnected from God, once its good karma is exhausted. This is the lower death drive in action. But if you are willing to do the inner work to discover that you are not the ego, and that its thoughts are not yours—and that the ego is your enemy—then your soul will be able to awaken in time and can choose the upper death drive, which is the will to put the ego to death but keep the body alive to become divinized. The results of committing suicide are not good. Consciousness does not die, but the world dream can become much darker and more demonic. It is wise to give your heart, will, and whole soul to the Supreme Light and Love of God.

Question:

How do I forgive myself for the things I’ve done in this life? Do I ask for forgiveness and pray?

Shunyamurti’s Reply:

Of course, it is essential to forgive yourself and to connect lovingly with the Supreme Lord of the Universe, Who is both without and all-encompassing, manifesting the world, and also within, as your inmost Self. God is the Self of all beings. If you need help in overcoming resistance to forgiveness and God-realization, then I suggest you work with an adept yogic guide who can help you accelerate the process. We have such guides at our ashram who would work online with you, if you are interested. In any case, blessings for a new lease on life, as a humble server of God who values the priceless gifts of life and consciousness.

Om Shanti,
Shunyamurti

Question:

While I understand and agree with the essence of Shunyamurti’s teaching, I don’t fully resonate with the language or framework he uses to describe this process.

Specifically, it sounds a bit unrealistic to me when he talks about “killing the ego” or “annihilating the ego.” Is this really possible in our physical existence, unless one attains a state like that of Ramana? Shunya himself seems to have a very “healthy ego” structure, which allows him to function well in the world while living a spiritual life. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that; in fact, I believe it’s part of being human. Masters like Yogananda, who attained unity with God, are another example, in my opinion. Did he “kill” the ego? I don’t think so, but he did possess a very healthy ego structure combined with deep spiritual realization and high attainments. Did he transform his negative tendencies? Certainly, but he was still “very much in the world, just not of the world.”

Perhaps I’m misunderstanding what Shunya means by “ego.”

Shunyamurti’s Reply:

The term ‘ego’ has a long history in the teachings of yoga, and must be considered a ‘term of art,’ that is used with different meanings in different contexts. The word ‘ego’ is borrowed from Latin, and simply signifies ‘I’. Now, when we examine the teachings of great sages, like Sri Ramana, we discover that the ultimate state of enlightenment and liberation from all illusion and suffering is referred to with the phrase ‘I am I.’ Therefore, it is clear that the Real I does not die, but is eternal Presence.

Ramana also often praises the text in the Old Testament in which the Lord declares that His name is ‘I am.’ Therefore, since it seems like the true ego does not go through any death, we must question the meaning of the term ‘ego death,’ which Ramana also uses repeatedly to refer to the attainment of Self-realization. Since the goal of spiritual development is to realize the Self (another term for ‘I’), what is described as being annihilated cannot be oneself, or one’s consciousness.

Again, in the usage of the word ego (or egoity) by yogis and Indian philosophers of all schools, it can refer to any of three functions of consciousness, depending on context. It can symbolize, at the top of the spectrum of consciousness, the revelation of the all-pervading Infinite Self.

Second, it can mean the fabricated program that is installed in every human during infancy (beginning, in fact, during the prenatal period), which is then systematized as a complex once language is acquired, becoming an instrument of control by the parents, the wider family, and later the educational system and the social order at large.

The infantile ego is supplemented by further acquired sedimentary layers of structure, consisting of behavioral commands, a growing repertoire of mimetic roles and attitudinal orientations, reaction formations to traumatic events, and emotion-laden self-images and concepts projected into the behavioral control system by the individual’s trainers.

This artificial program then determines the psychological development pathways that are open to the individual. This neurocomputer code, because it was installed in infancy—and retains those primitive tendencies at its core, even though they may be repressed or dissociated—severely restricts the freedom, empowerment, and full attainment of healthy maturity from manifesting. The operating system of the mind remains mired in the past. It is this sort of ego program that must be deleted from one’s consciousness, and replaced by an upgraded version. To accomplish this, most tribes and cultures in earlier times provided rites of passage into adulthood, consisting of a wide variety of severe ordeals, vision quests, meditative retreats, the taking of solemn vows, and deep study of sacred knowledge and inner journeys—sometimes involving the use of psychedelic substances—that are undertaken under the tutelage of a shaman, guru, or spiritual guide of some kind.

Once the transcendence of the obsolete, immature identity schema is achieved, a new name is often given, along with all the rights and privileges of a full adult member of the tribe. Such rites of passage have become ineffective formalities in most current cultural conditions. Therefore, many biologically-adult persons are still functioning under the control of an ego apparatus that internally identifies as a hurt child or adolescent, erupts often with volatile emotional reactivity, and persists replicating other noxious behavioral proclivities that create self-sabotaging events, project and provoke interpersonal conflicts, and helplessly repeat obsolete patterns of suboptimal performance despite resolutions to the contrary.

It is this incoherent robotic form of dysfunctional ego that yogis are referring to when speaking of going through ego death. In other words, ego death means to grow up, to become a healthy adult.

The third meaning of ego, as applied by yogis, is the upgraded version of identity and performance that is installed after the death of the infantile ego. This new kind of ego can be either a manifestation of the soul level of our Being, or even, in the case of such sages as Sri Ramana, of the Supreme Self. Therefore, indeed, Ramana presented with a very healthy, mature, capable, virtuous, compassionate, and wise ego. So, as is shouted in monarchies when an old king dies and a new one is crowned: ‘The ego is dead! Long live the Ego!’

The purpose of annihilating the old ego complex is to eliminate all the self-limiting beliefs, performance anxieties and inhibitions, dysfunctional psychological reactions, and constraints on the ability to love and to continue expanding one’s intelligence to ever greater levels.

I hope this explanation of the history and usage of the term ‘ego death’ has made you more comfortable in reading and listening to discourses by all the yogis, whether Vedantins, Shaivites, Buddhists, or Daoists, who speak of ego death. It is also a term commonly used by shamans, and even by some Western psychoanalysts.

By the way, the term is not used all that often in Sat Yoga. Much more often, we refer to Self-realization or God-realization, or liberation, or simply total presence. It is clear to most students that all these terms, plus others from non-Vedic roots, such as divinization, deification, Christ-consciousness, Buddha Nature, Emptiness, or the Absolute, all refer to the same life-fulfilling existential event.

Om Shanti,
Shunyamurti