DAILY GURU

Friday 18th Of February 2005

You change your job, car, house, but yet you still are the same one. These are outside changes. The "inner you" never changes. Most people consider their possessions, dress, name, job etc, as being an inseparable part of themselves. If something of theirs is broken or lost they feel as if they have lost a part of themselves. This is the ego at work.

The ego is the erroneous identification of the limitless spirit with the physical body, the emotions and thoughts. The perfect homogenous spirit expresses itself in the world through these three, and identifies itself with them.

The ego is not an independent entity. It is just the union of the spirit with the other three components, the body, emotions and thoughts. According to the philosophy of nonduality, these components, except the spirit, are not independent and constant, and therefore are not real. They are the products of the mind.

The spirit infuses them with life and expresses itself through them. The identification of the spirit with this trio is so strong that hardly anyone notices this erroneous identification. The spirit is free, perfect and independent. The body, thoughts and feelings are temporary and dependent on the spirit. This mixture is the cause of fear, desire, misunderstanding, anger and conflicts in the world.