What is Ego? What is it Made of?

What is the ego? What is it made of? Does it consist of any real substance? Does it have any real existence?

Looking more deeply… and consider this:
The ego is found housed within the intellect of the mind…

Typical Fortress of an Ego

The walls of that house is constructed of recorded information that has been chosen to be placed there & accumulated. And those walls are just stuffed full with information from books (religious & otherwise), university texts, newspapers, magazines, various documents, doctrines, youtube videos, documentary films, as well as information gathered from television news & entertainment programs. All stuffed in there, cluttering walls upon walls of information, that one fills up their head with. It’s a rat packed fortress of information. And this is where the ego resides.

A Typical Wall in the House Where an Ego Resides

And now, imagine that there is a multimedia projector that can access that information in an instance, at a very rapid rate, and its able to snatch that accumulated information, pull it out of the nooks & crannies that make up the walls of the house… pulls it out of memory and flashes it upon the screen of the intellect, in much the same way one watches a film at a movie theater. And, just as when watching a film at the theater, one becomes absorbed in what is being displayed, one forgets that what is being seen is nothing more than the flashing images of light & darkness, in various shades & colors. And if the film is well made, one forgets completely... gets totally lost into the storyline. One forgets completely that one is but only a witness to the flashing projected images. One becomes identified with the actor, the actress, the content of the film... and to what is going on in the film.

Well, the same is with what is what is happening within one's own mind. One gets lost in the content, the accumulated information that is quickly flashed on the screen of the intellect. One gets completely lost… and forgets that one is merely the witness, the watcher, the observer. One gets identified with the content & forgets who they really are.

The ego does not really exist. The house is empty. All that is there are the bookshelves of information that make up the walls of an empty house. One picks & chooses what information that gets stored upon those shelves of that empty house. Nobody lives there. There is nobody ever home. Its just a storehouse of accumulated information. One identifies with the information stored on the shelves. One becomes attached to it, and often times defends that information, and is even ready to kill another in order to remain identified with it.

So why the sub-vocal murmurings? Why the constant chattering?

It is this borrowed Knowledge, the information that is stored upon the shelves of the intellect that is continuously clattering inside you, a constant chattering inside you, a continuous talk - as you say: sub-vocal murmurings . Sometimes one is puzzled why all the talking that goes on inside. Why this never-ending monologue? For what? Because if you pay enough attention, one goes on repeating the same thing over & over again, and again and again... ad nauseum. One thinks these thoughts many many times over & over again. Then why? Why the constant repetition again & again?

The is a reason is quite simple:

Only by continuously repeating can one maintain this "borrowed" knowledge, otherwise, this knowledge will disappear. By continuously repeating, chattering, murmuring inside can it be maintained as one's own knowledge, otherwise it would disappear; and one would not be able to possess it. It would fade away off the shelf. This is the only way to possess it. Because it is borrowed, the only way to possess it is through constant repetition. As an hypnotic chant, so it goes.

The house of cards needs to be constantly propped up. Otherwise, it will mean certain death to the Great Pretender which is known as 'ego'.


turiya