Ignorance, Egotism, ATHEISM
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Dissolving the delusion of Egoism - The Essence and Reality of Enlightenment
Understanding and overcoming the delusion of Egoism
All forms of social and behavioural ignorance, viciousness, and selfishness are a symptom of an individual's egocentric separation from others, life, heart, soul, the world, and the deepest identity with The Totality of Existence. This delusion, born from lack of suitable education upon this matter, is explained in the following famous sutra in the raja yoga classic textbook, "The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali."
It states quite clearly in "The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali":
Yoga Sutras: Book Two
SUTRA 2:3
"AVIDYASMITA RAGA DVESABHINIVESAH KLESAH"
Avidya = ignorance; asmita = egotism; raga = attachment; dvesha = hatred; abhinivesah = clinging to bodily life; klesah = obstacles.
Ignorance, egotism, attachment, vice, and clinging to bodily life are the five obstacles to Enlightenment.
Here are the five obstacles (klesas) that will now be explained one by one in the following sutras. The order is also significant.
- AVIDYA: Because of ignorance concerning the deepest true identity of the individual as the Eternal Totality of the True Self, the individual falls from this spiritual understanding.
- ASMITA: Because the individual falls from spiritual understanding, atheistic egotism arises. Egotism is the deluded state of separation from heart, soul, virtue, wisdom, love, life, enlightenment, and the True Self. It is the number one problem (mental delusion) for all souls having this human experience and it is from this atheistic egotism that all other deluded and vicious states of mind arise.
- RAGA: Because we, the individuals, are ignorant of or forget about being the True Self and believe that we are the body and worldly character, we get selfishly attached to things in this life on Earth.
- DVESHA: Because sometimes the things we are selfishly attached to do not come or are taken away we experience psycho-emotional reactions and responses to our selfish desires and aversion concerning the things of this world, reactions like fear, frustration, anger, envy, jealousy, wrath, sloth, anxiety, and hatred for those who got in the way of our selfish (egocentric) atheistic desires and aversion.
- ABHINIVESAH: Because we are attached to things and are afraid of death (due to ignorance of the True Self), there is clinging (attachment) to life in the body and all the experiences of this bodily human life. This clinging creates more suffering and makes us miserable, narcissistic, and depressed. We fail to realize the vaster and immortal nature of Existence and our deepest identity with It.
Atheistic egotism (Asmita) is therefore the misidentification of the power and creative omnipotence of the Seer - The One Eternal True Self (God/Existence) with the Seen (The Creation/Shakti) - the body, mind, world, objects, and universe of variety, diversity, and multiplicity.
In other words...
It matters not what the droplet (the individual) "thinks" about the Ocean (The Totality of Existence) - the ocean is the ocean and it creates all the droplets as we are all part of it. So in Truth, there is only the Ocean and all appearances of variety, diversity, and multiplicity occur in a small part of it. What people call this part where all the variety happens is irrelevant as "the word is not the thing", thus here are some of the traditional names given to the "variety/multiplicity" bit of the Self (The Totality of Existence, The One Ocean of All and Everything):
So, we understand that the One, True Self (as Ocean, as the Totality of All) has a part of it (The Creation/Shakti) that gives It the experience of multiplicity, variety, and diversity, and we also realize that this cannot be infinite as only the Self is infinite, and the variety must be finite as it is within the infinite. So the variety bit must have a finite number of patterns that it arranges itself in. You, me, all individuals, this moment, and this universe are one pattern that this Creation takes, one of an almost infinite number of patterns. So we exist eternally as part of this Creation bit and all experiences of variety etc..
So, when a buddha (or enlightened being) says "It (this experience of variety and multiplicity) is all in Your Mind (capital "Y" and capital "M") that enlightened Being means:
"The finite experiences of variety, diversity, and multiplicity (Mind of God/Shakti/Creation) are a part of Yourself (as the eternal and mysterious Totality of Existence) that we can call Your Mind or Imagination (Shakti/Creation/Multiplcity).
Thus, You (The mysterious and eternal Totality of Existence) are NOT restricted, identified, nor limited to any of the experiences that occur in this area of Yourself (Mind/Creation), and all this confusion, uncertainty, doubt, and misery are actual because of Your (The Mysterious Allness) attachment to the things in Your Mind (creation, shakti, mysterious stuff), and thus Your misidentification with this small and dreamlike part of Yourself.
When You (O' Lord of It All) awaken from this ignorance (Avidya) (of Your Real Self) and thus attachment to the dreamlike quality of this Shakti/Mind, then You will be re-established in Your Eternal Self."
Avidya: Spiritual Ignorance
Avidya, spiritual ignorance, is the very real root of our deep spiritual suffering. Avidya is that which causes us to misidentify with the body, believing that it, rather than our soul, is our true identity. Avidya causes us to misperceive the nature of reality, the truth of Gods Divine Law of Karma (action and consequence), the experience of the soul in the world.
Avidya hides the reality of the supreme and total nature of the True Self. Avidya prevents us from realising our soul and the eternal nature of phenomena and experience. Avidya hides the true power and magic of our heart and mind and locks us into fear and habitual thinking, feeling, behaviour, and perception. Let us hasten to educate ourselves out of the dark cloud of the spiritual ignorance of Avidya.
Vidya, Enlightenment: Freedom from mis-identification with the individual
The individual is an experience and you are an experiencer not the experience. As the experiencer you exist on many levels. You exist as the individual, also as a non-physical soul whose life is not dependent upon a physical body, and also, at the deepest level, as the eternal experiencer of everything - The Total Self (God, Tao, Allah, Buddha, etc...).
When we say "life" with a lowercase "l", then we are referring to the life of an individual entity: a person, an animal, a plant, an entire biological ecosystem like that on Earth. All the little "lives", including the life of a universe, occur within the bigger "Life" (with a capital "L") - the Eternal Totality of all phenomena of variety, diversity, and multiplicity, and also the unmanifest from which all manifest things arise. The area within the Totality that the experiences and phenomena of variety and diversity occur is often called "The Creation" or in sanskrit "Shakti."
Egoism (asmita) which is the product of ignorance (avidya) is the deluded state of mind that an individual may experience that makes the individual feel separate from the Totality - the bigger "Life" entity. Egoism is a psychological structure that temporarily confuses an individual and gives rise to this painful state of mind of separation.
Avidya and asmita are overcome by studying and considering the subject of spirituality and "transcending the identification with the individual." This is the ultimate purpose of the HELM website. I hope you find it useful.
Enlightenment (Vidya) brings freedom from the mis-identification with the individual and the little "lives" of the world and all universes. Enlightenment brings the freedom of knowing deeper levels of existence including the soul and the undivided Spirit of All: The Total Self (God, Allah, Buddha). There is a deep connection and relationship between the individual and the Totality. This is for each individual to explore within the privacy of their own life and it is not necessary to agree or belong to an organised Religion. It is the privilege of the individual to decide how they will form their private relationship with the deeper levels of existence.
As this is the primary and fundamental spiritual realization then it is worth repeating.
It is very clearly stated in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali:
Yoga Sutras: Book Two.
SUTRA 2:3
AVIDYASMITA RAGA DVESABHINIVESAH KLESAH
Avidya = ignorance; asmita = egotism; raga = attachment; dvesha = hatred; abhinivesah = clinging to bodily life; klesah = obstacles.
Ignorance, egotism, attachment, vice, and clinging to bodily life are the five obstacles to Enlightenment.
Here are the five obstacles (klesas) that will now be explained one by one in the following sutras. The order is also significant.
AVIDYA: Because of ignorance of true nature of Self (God/Buddha nature/Self/Mystery Ocean), the Self misidentifys with the experience of being an individual (body/soul).
ASMITA: Because the Self is blinded by it's identification with Maya (Mind/Shakti/Creation) atheistic egotism arises (the belief that the Self is the body/mind/soul)
RAGA: Because Self forgets about being Self and believe that It is the body and worldly character, It gets selfishly attached to things in The Mind (Maya/Shakt/Creation)
DVESHA: Because Self misidentifies with the individual sometimes the things we (Self as the multitude of individuals) are selfishly attached to do not come or are taken away we experience psycho-emotional reactions and responses like fear, anger, envy, jealousy, and hatred for those who got in the way of our selfish (egocentric) atheistic desires and aversion.
ABHINIVESAH: Because we are attached to things and are afraid of death (due to ignorance of true nature AS SELF), there is clinging (attachment) to life in the body and all the experiences of this bodily human life. This clinging creates more suffering and makes the individual egotistical, miserable, narcissistic, and depressed. We fail to realize the vaster and immortal nature of Existence and our deepest identity with It.
Atheistic egotism is therefore the misidentification of the power and creative omnipotence of the Seer (God/Existence) with the Seen - the body, mind, world, objects, and universe of variety and multiplicity.
VOILA!
- Each soul is a drop in the Ocean of God -
- Atheistic Egotism is the center of all confusion, delinquency, and vice -
