Ego Returning... (was Re: Ramana's technique)

[Gregory Goode]

> >This is an important point.  The repeated return of the ego
> >or sense of individuality is not cause to whip or berate
> >one's self.  It, like many other things, is something that
> >happens spontaneously in phenomenality.  To react to the
> >arising of the ego by saying "my sadhana is not working"
> >or some other judgment just encourages the ego and makes
> >it that much more stubborn.
> >
>
> The important point above seems to be that the ego is as
> much an object as any other, would that misrepresent your
> point?
>
> I remember reading recently in the Bhagavad Gita that
> desire and aversion were also objects (the "field") and
> not really part of the subject (the knower of the field).
> If the ego and desire/aversion are both objects then
> they have no more to do with me than this computer
> screen and I would already be free of them, is that right?

Good example from the Gita.  Very apropos, Gita 13.1,
body and manifestation are the field, and in all fields
the Lord is the knower of the field.

The ego and desire/aversion are there and are all part
of the field, just like the body, dreams, clothes, car,
etc.  The Lord doesn't identify with the field and say
He is it, or that it is He.  The Lord has created the field, and
attachment to any part of the field is itself part of the field.
Be the knower.

That chapter goes on to name desire, aversion, pleasure, pain,
birth, death, old age and disease as part of the field, and exhorts
dispassion and non-attachment with respect to the field, as well
as devotion to the Lord.

You are the knower.  The knower is the Lord.  You are the Lord.

This is why Nisargadatta recommends reading the Gita from the
viewpoint of Krishna, because that is what is true, even though we
might not know it.

--Greg