College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

@h2h said

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@Frater Pramudita said
"Why did the ego arise? (Not just for my friend, but for myself, for others)."

Along gurugeorge's line of thought, I recommend Sri Nisargadatta's I AM THAT. What's great about the nisaraga path is its emphasis on natural evolution. If you have a huge ego, ask yourself how it got there without placing value judgements on it.

To give an extreme example, a study was carried out on people with multiple personality disorders. Under hypnotic regression therapists discovered that people with MPD often had extremely traumatic experiences (e.g. sexual abuse) at an early and impressionable age. What they concluded is that the mind naturally created multiple personalities to help the subject compartmentalize and deal with the trauma on a daily basis. Otherwise the memory would be overwhelming for the subject.

A similar analogy can be drawn for the ego. It's there to protect the psyche. Trauma can also be a premature awakening or insight for which our being is not ready to handle. Once the deeper issues are understood and a stronger awareness develops over time, the ego will eventually (and naturally) lessen and become irrelevant."

And as most here can probably attest, the state of just about anyone freshly entering the work is not much different. Man is a multiplicity. He says "I", "I", "I". He attributes all his characteristics to a common "I" when actually it's closer akin to a bunch of fragments. Thus is one analogy of the great work "The unification of the self"

@Scheotolin said

"Sethur has a point. The first thing to consiter should be the accuracy of the title to the contence of the book itself."

Maybe your right, although I can't help but have a common old phrase pop into my head - don't judge a book by it's cover.

Pramudita,

You answer your own question but it is unclear to me whether or not you are accepting the answer you found.

You have plumbed the depths of the ego and found it to be far more shallow than the expanses surrounding it.

One can identify with the expanses and thereby become free of the ego. To struggle with the ego or try to destroy it only reinforces one’s identification with it. One must leap free of the snare.

Which leaves us usually at “ALL=ONE=SELF”. (The reduction of all equations to one)

From which point one should go to the door of Anata and unlock it with the key marked “prajnaparamita”. (The reduction of the equation to none)