7/ EGO

Ego, or otherwise known as the feeling of uniqueness. Many spiritual practices advise us to detach ourselves and discard our ego, whether to achieve nirvana or to gain entry into the kingdom of heaven (deny oneself and take up one's cross...). I ask, is it possible? Is it necessary to struggle with oneself in order to make spiritual progress and grow? Will this be beneficial to society and to oneself? Let me try to explain this issue from my perspective.

According to my judgment, the feeling of exceptionalism is a completely natural and common thing in our world. Every autonomous unit has this feeling and no matter what it does, the world revolves around it - naturally, because in my opinion, every single unit has the potential of the whole, in other words, we are not a drop in the ocean, but the ocean in a single drop. To better understand this, let's take a closer look at the essence of what defines us - our consciousness. In previous articles, I write about the world as a space that is constantly divided and organized through gaining experiences and interacting with itself. When I say that the world is space, I am therefore saying that the world is consciousness. Consciousness is composed of an infinite number of autonomous consciousnesses that are interconnected and constantly interacting with each other, causing the resulting state of our collective consciousness - our shared world. What leads me to this reflection?

In the past, a few people experimented with consciousness. One of the experiments directly shows the interconnectedness and sharing of information. In short, two groups of people were created, one in a room in England and the other in a room in Australia. Both were given difficult tests. For the first 5 tests, each of them worked on their own without any help. The success rate of the tests was monitored, where the results +- matched in the same percentage of success. The next 5 different tests were only completed by the group in Australia, while the solutions to these 5 tests were shown to the group in England. This time, the group in Australia performed much better and their success rate increased significantly. So the point is, if you get information into a common network (I'm talking about consciousness), you increase the knowledge of the whole. This experiment was based on theoretical physics, which says that any particle can affect any other particle in the universe. Another interesting experiment I heard about supposedly occurred based on a philosopher's own initiative, who wanted to test consciousness on his own and decided with a collaborator to rid the philosopher's consciousness of any sensations. So the philosopher was placed in a dark room, isolated from any sound, placed in a position in which he could feel the environment around him as little as possible (it probably wasn't completely pitch-black), tied up and fed artificial nutrition. The companion was strictly forbidden from untying him until they reached some surprising conclusions. The first day, not much happened, darkness, silence, discomfort. On the second day, pain, screaming, crying came. On the third day, the philosopher suddenly started seeing colors, hearing sounds, and subsequently died. I don't know to what extent this story is true, but the point of the story is that consciousness is a creative element in our world and if you try to isolate it, it will start creating its own world. Take our dreams, for example, while the body rests, consciousness creates. Another symptom of the essence of consciousness is our joy. Each of us has the greatest joy when we manage to create or invent something, no matter what it is. It is also easily traceable that consciousness does not like solitude. We feel best in the company of at least someone, if we are not, we talk to ourselves, and if the solitude lasts too long, we begin to create our own world, which is not compatible with the surrounding world, and therefore we mostly end up in psychiatry. We are destined to meet, talk, and react to each other, to react to the surrounding environment. Information must flow, if not, problems begin. Every grandma in the village knows that :D.

The world can be defined as consciousness, isolated consciousness that suffers from a psychological disorder - fragmented personality, fragmented into an infinite number of personalities that have the same potential, which create a huge colorful world through their interaction, just so that consciousness doesn't feel alone. From this perspective, we could literally explain the old phrase "love thy neighbor as thyself." What leads me to similar thoughts? Our human ability - empathy (compassion), otherwise the ability to put oneself in another person's shoes. We would never be able to do it if we didn't all have the same foundation because the foundation of empathy is to evaluate the situation from our own perspective using the concept of foreign experiences. Okay, everyone has different abilities, experiences, and knowledge (mainly determined by our position in space and angle of view), but we all have consciousness, the most basic element in us, which never ages, which never changes, we all have in common. Whether we suffer from any handicap or possess any advantage, we have the same foundation. Therefore, I understand egoism as ignorance of our own essence. An essence that is defined by unity.

So I'm saying that everyone feels exceptional because what defines us is only one thing. However, we all create reality together. The level of reality quality depends on the level of awareness of all of us. Therefore, for our common good, it is necessary for each and every one of us to achieve the highest possible awareness. You can be an excellent manager, but if you work with fools, your management won't be visible in the final result. You may be an excellent athlete, but if you get injured and a careless surgeon operates on you, your career will end. You can appoint any angels as politicians, but if ignorant people (people with low awareness - fools) prevail in society, even the angels will achieve nothing. Alternatively, if society is aware, even fools can be in managerial positions because they alone can achieve nothing. The problem of today's world is not the globalization of the economy, but the attempt to globalize society's management. It is not the economy that needs decentralization, but management needs to be decentralized. Each of us must grow and be the creator of our own happiness. We must know how to manage ourselves and make our own decisions. We are a creative element that directly influences and controls our environment and space. Knowledge must be placed in people's hands so that they can realize their own potential, see themselves as creators, and their loved ones as themselves, only in a different space and with different experiences (in a different situation). Only together can we achieve sustainable technological development in the long term. Any individualism is harmful and stems from a misunderstanding of the basis of the functioning of reality.

Many fairy tales speak to us about unity. Let's take the Czech fairy tale "Salt over Gold" with Werich for example. It's an exceptional fairy tale that takes our breath away with its depth. In the end, it features a "magical" bottomless salt shaker that has clear rules: if you want to use it to season just for yourself, it won't be enough, but if you use it for everyone, it is bottomless. (Salt symbolizes energy.)

Juraj Tušš