Business to the Buddha

Tag: manifestation of the ego

  • The circle, conflicts and avoiding conflicts







    Perform an experiment – a simple 2-minute experiment. Take a blank sheet of paper and a pen. At the center of the page, put a dot. What is it? A dot nothing else right? Now draw a big circle with the dot as the center of the circle. Now what is the dot? It is center of the circle, right? Everything on the page is around it “now”.

    The dot was nothing when there was no circular periphery. The dot was meaningless in itself. The periphery gave it a very powerful definition. It became the center of the existence e.g. the periphery. Now for a moment if you remove the dot (the center of the periphery), the periphery losses its definition. The periphery would not remain a circle without the dot “center”. This is interdependent co-arising in one sense for the center and the circle.

    Visualize the page you took is the universe and the dot represents you. We think that “I am” the center of the universe. This is the case with many of us – if not all. We are self centered. Everything is around me and everything should happen as per my desire. But there are more dots on the page with each one having its periphery, these periphery intersect which causes conflict. How to avoid the conflicts? I see there are three possible ways to avoid it –

    When I was searching for an image for this blog I found this image

    1. reduce the periphery such that only you remain in that periphery
    2. increase the periphery such that everything falls under it without intersection
    3. Make your periphery someone (only one) else with “full devotion”

    In Indian philosophical context first two could be path of meditation and third is path of devotion (Bhakti). Do you know any other? Please share.

    Image source – http://www.astronomyforum.net/blogs/astroval/106-where-center-universe.html

    A different perspective on dot – http://phataktejas.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/dot-hain-to-hot-hain/

  • Ego







    Two men in a room, room is in an apartment, apartment is in a building
    Building is in a locality, locality is in a city, city is in a state
    State is in a Nation, Nation is in a continent, continent is on The Earth
    The Earth is in a solar system, solar system is in the galaxy
    The Galaxy is in the Milky way…

    We are so small still we create TWO WORLDs in a single room!

    Me on the top of the world
    ‘Me’ on the top of the world

    When I was in school, I read this poem in Hindi in my course. It is very meaningful and important story of our life. We are nothing if we follow the trace suggested by the poet. Yet, we create our own world and cause problems in our surroundings, our near and dears life and life of our colleagues. All this for what – to manage, boost and nurture our Ego. If the ego goes beyond our near & dear and colleagues, it goes to kill people in the name of our belief system. Majority of the wars fought in the world are because of Ego.

    Alexander the great – why “the great” because he conquered the world – with sword! Cold war – why? To prove WE are better than YOU. MY country is superior than YOURs. This applies to the recent attacks in cities of Afghanistan, social unrest in the Middle East (suppressed ego of citizen and suppressing ego of the respective rulers) and Nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea. We see political, religious, cultural and regional problems because of Ego.

    At the same time, I am of the opinion that ego is not a problem, the manifestation of the same is a problem. Self respect becomes ego when it crosses a certain line. I see many solutions to this, one is when we start looking at ourselves through the lenses of the poet who wrote the above lines. We are tiny small creatures and there are many things beyond I and MY GROUP. For some, ‘I’ and ‘My group’ becomes purpose of existence. Second solution I see is through the eyes of Mirdad. Other is through the peaceful methods e.g. meditation suggested by spiritual masters.

    What say you – is ego ‘purpose of existence’ or a problem?

    Related blog based on The book of Mirdad – Forbidden word