I've been wrestling with an issue and can't seem to quite get my mind around it. My question to myself is this: "What is the order of superiority between Spirit, personality, ego, mind and emotions?"
Well, there's one thing I am sure of and that is Spirit/consciousness is top of the list. Spirit/love is the non material essence of which we are all made. It is the God essence, our Divine presence which is the parent figure in the relationship or our higher self.
But which of the other four intelligences ranks next? I know that in Yogic theory Ego ranks next, but I wrestle with this because I know that when my ego has me by the little finger, I always manage to rein it back in with my mind. However, I have been reading a new book called 'Emotional Intelligence' by Daniel Goleman and he splits the mind into two; the rational mind and the emotional mind.
Come to think about it, how often when faced with a difficult decision, do we wrestle with following our heads or our hearts? Now I ask you: "Which one most often wins?"
I think you'll agree with me. It is our hearts. So we tend to favour the decisions made by our emotional mind over our rational mind. It seems therefore that these two have a very close relationship. We know that whatever we focus on with our minds determines the emotions that we feel.
Now, my next observation is ego. Ego is the false sense of self, the self that deems itself separate from the soul. Through this perceived separation which is a lie, the ego experiences fear and then searches to complete itself by sourcing love, safety, power, self esteem, etc. from external means. This searching for what inherently lies within all of us keeps us in a constant state of trying to reach the mirage on the horizon. It keeps us in a constant state of emotional neediness.
So ego and emotions are also very closely linked. Well then, which comes first: mind, emotions or ego? And where does personality come in? Personality definitely flavours our thinking. Perhaps it's the wardrobe of the mind or the creative department?
O.k. I think I'm getting somewhere. I know that when I think of a happy memory I can trigger all kinds of happy emotions and likewise when I recall a sad memory I can sometimes induce tears, so my mind would appear to rank before my emotions. In fact if I focus solely on a happy memory I temporarily block out unhappy memories because it is impossible for the mind to focus on a negative and positive thought at the same time.
Now for the confusing one, 'Ego'.
Ego is controllable by utilising the rational mind to realise it's perceived attachment to the emotional mind. Wow! I think I may have got it.
Ego must be part of the mind. It's like the jester. It sits and juggles between the rational and the emotional minds, constantly tipping the scales, Perhaps the three: The rational mind, emotional mind and the ego form a triangle just beneath the Spirit. Let's face it the mind and ego and emotions all seem to be in constant activity and are rather challenging to silence. It is only when they are in Spirit presence that they are silenced. And unless you are a regular student of meditation, your success in stilling the mind, ego and emotions will be quite limited.
Well, those are my thoughts on the matter, I'd be interested to hear what you think.
Hope you have a week of discovering some little gems and sharing them with me
lots of love
Nicolette
No comments:
Post a Comment