The main aspects of the ego
The aspects of the ego in relation to the vehicles of our existence
The ego identifies with the body, mind, heart, senses and intellect (intelligence) and functions as:
- – The Physical Ego,
- – The Vital-emotional Ego,
- – The Mental Ego
- – The Intellectual Ego
And by identifying with the ego, we respectively assume the roles of the:
1. Doer by identifying with the body,
2. Feeler, enjoyer and sufferer by identifying with the heart (external and internal),
3. Thinker by identifying with the mind and intellect,
4. Perceiver and Observer. By identifying with the body, senses, external mind (manas), intermediate mind (intellect or intelligence), and Consciousness we become the Perceiver and the Observer of sense objects and psychological structures. It become also the chooser or decider, etc.
Ego and the three Gunas (Satttva, Rajas, tamas)
The Sattvic and Tamasorajasic Aspects of Ego
The ego, in relation to the three qualities of life, can be classified as sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic. However, since sattva is the pure, harmonious, luminous quality of life, and rajas and tamas are the lower qualities that are dense, outward, and downward-oriented, causing limitation, identification, and bondage, the ego is classified as higher or sattvic ego and lower or rajasotamasic ego.
In its sattvic aspect, it allows us to live with harmony, love, and health, and facilitates our path to enlightenment or liberation.
Its tamasorajasic aspect makes us identify with the physical body, thus creating the solid sense ‘I am the body’ or, better, ‘the body is me,’ and also causes many other identifications, attachments, projections, and illusions that are the root of individual and collective suffering. All the selfish qualities, such as like-dislike, lust, passions, desires, anger, fear, jealousy, hatred, envy, perversion, greed, etc., belong to this lower self or egoic self.
The lower ego is mostly vital-emotional in nature, dominating or influencing the thinking mind, intellect, and greatly affecting them. All the selfish tendencies mentioned above are related to the vital aspect of the ego, the vital body, and the external mind (sensory-emotional mind).
The ‘secret’ to a plentiful life, a life of harmony, happiness and contentment is to have a sattvic mind free from desires and ego and to live in every moment in conscious contact with our true Self (Consciousness).
🌺 Peace, Love, Harmony
atmannityanada 