57.5 to 18 Regarding Pranayama and the Ego

[AnitaS]

My yoga teacher tells me that left nostril breathing or Chandra (moon) anulom vilom helps dissolve the ego - something I really need to do. So I asked the Yi and drew hexagram 57 (wind interestingly) line 5 turning to 18. It really looks like this is true. Any comments?

 

[moss elk]

Hi,

What did you ask? (You didn't say)

Here is my comment:

A person with an ego tells another person with an ego to get rid of their ego. Think about this.

 

[sooo]

I'm no Yogi, but I imagine left nostril/right brain, which is intuitive and creative. So long as you don't try to make it into "something", I can image it's influence on the ego can be subduing or refined and subtle. But getting rid of ones ego entirely would be disastrous, I would think, unless one has reached a state or desires to reach a state of complete dissolution of self, which includes all ambition and identity. I personally think this is reserved for those who either are dying or very old and who desire to break all ties with family, friends, and worldly interests. Otherwise, perhaps small doses, if one feels their ego has become too dominant.

 

[AnitaS]

Thank you both. Sooo - I mean my pride and arrogance. That is also part of ego and I really think that to achieve freedom from Ego is the ultimate goal for all human beings. Easier said than done!

 

[Tim K]

Yes it is the ultimate goal, to remember that we all are parts of one soul, divided to accumulate all sorts of experiences. But we will ultimately reunite in the end.

Breathing with one nostril is just one of the ways to stop the obsessive ideas and thoughts.
You can also just concentrate on feeling how you inhale|exhale, or just concentrate on your third eye - a point on the forehead between the eyes but slightly above them.

As a bonus if you keep your spine straight you will feel the cosmic energy entering your body, your heart will seem to beat faster, and you will feel some heat.

 

[sooo]

Thank you both. Sooo - I mean my pride and arrogance. That is also part of ego and I really think that to achieve freedom from Ego is the ultimate goal for all human beings. Easier said than done!

I understand what you meant, Circe, but that word, ego, has several connotations, not all are associated with negative personality traits. Psychologically, without an ego there is no "I", which is a form of nihilism, to deny that self exists as an individual entity. Perhaps this goal is considered a high achievement within your culture. As I recall you live in India? So I can not say it is wrong per se. But to me, even the attempt to deny self is recognition that self exists, or there would be nothing to annihilate. I think attempts to abolish ones ego is futile, if one intends to function in ways that accomplishes deeds, even deeds such as refining themselves, which is actually refining their ego as well. To cast the meaning of ego in the same mold as pride and arrogance is to have a severely limited understanding of the function of the ego. The desire and will to better oneself involves ones ego, to dedicate oneself to achieving some sort of higher spiritual aim involves the ego. To shine ones shoes involves the ego. To present oneself in any form, whether comely or un-comely, still involves the ego. To create great art involves the ego, because art is an expression of ones self. A person with no ego would be useless to themselves and to their society. Those who claim to have no ego would never have the need to say it if it were true. They would likely say nothing, ever, nor do anything, ever.

You, I believe, are trying to penetrate a concept which is inherently full of worms; no disrespect intended to your ego. However, line 5 says (to me) that after some time and stages you will arrive at a healthy understanding of ego, which does need to be guided and sometimes disciplined and corrected, but not abolished.

 

[AnitaS]

Hi Sooo

I totally get what you mean. I am familiar with your line of thought. And thanks for the interpretation of line 5. But we are inspired by the example of The Buddha. The mind is an empty bell, but when it rings, the universe comes into being. We are after all, just stardust. Just a whirl of atoms - empty space - and so are the things around us. We take on the body to learn our lessons, but we are not the body. The ego is an illusion created by us. Now, if only I could understand this with my heart too! I would be free from attachment - the root of Ego.

 

[AnitaS]

Thank you for some good advice, Ashteroid. Yes, I'm told that left nostril breathing helps dissolve the illusion of the Self as existing independently. If it did exist as a separate entity, there would be no death and we would not need our parents in order to be born. This is 'dependent arising.' I do around an hour of pranayama every day. Someday, as Sooo says, I will get it.

 

[AnitaS]

Let me add, Sooo, that I thought the world revolved around me for most of my life. I revelled in my separate and highly individual identity. I was arrogant. I was special. And once you think you're special, you are contemptuous of those you don't deem 'special.' That creates a sense of separateness and isolation which are illusory, according to me. No man is an island. Well, now that I've seen the other side, I can see the value of this one.

 

[sooo]

I respect your beliefs and philosophy, Circe.

I too have beliefs, and I could switch gears to similar trains of thought and develop and abide in that field of consciousness. However I do categorize my reality according to context, because there's more than one context to place the ego into, or so I believe. I don't have difficulty, for example, thinking I am not this, and I associate h54 with that idea. This is a temporal body, a temporal mind and ego. Universal consciousness, if true and pure, doesn't seem to permit room for the "I". However, in this relative reality, I would be lost without this individual sense of I, unless within the context of "I am that", which is a nice samadhi. Ultimate truths or concepts of such make living in a practical way from day to day in this relative reality a bit like Alice trying to make sense of her conventional ways while wandering around down the rabbit hole. So, when down the rabbit hole, the rules change. A different paradigm, and if one were to consider every possible paradigm, I imagine the self having a most difficult time holding together, unless they hold to a base, the way a space ship might return to their home base. It's difficult for me to imagine a world where every one lives in their own idea of reality, so I chose one as my base station, where I exist, and that requires an ego.

The question then becomes one of ego refinement, such as, where a functional balance exists between I am this and I am that, or, whether I am at all. It is in h50 where this refinement is represented. Rather than complete dissolution, the self exists in a more subtle and refined form. And I agree, it is easier said than done. The saying, the longest mile is from the head to the heart, I think applies. But one need not put such effort into it as it may seem; simply don't take ones self so seriously. The first lesson in levitation is to lighten up.

 

[AnitaS]

Thank you Sooo. I've been attending lectures on Buddhism and it's becoming slowly clearer to me. It's a challenge to view oneself (and others) as not inherently existing, but that is a goal.

 

[Mira72]

A corrupting influence subtly pervading --- seems to be a great description of the problematic ego.

Without a beginning...there is an end...end of illusoriness of existence as a separated entity.

Breath patterns are thought patterns. Changing breathing patterns will definitely put you in a different mind state...but as long as one wages war with the ego...thinking of it as a thing (to be annihilated or subdued or repulsed or dissolved)...you are only strengthening it.

Buddhism and Yoga can *seem* counter productive processes...Yoga's goal is Yoga. To see. Not view oneself as this or that.

Left nostril breathing can be helpful to compensate/correct imbalance from too much left brain activity.

But one should know when to quit...all this is powerful technology. One only hopes it is used wisely and in a skilful manner.

For sometimes too much medicine becomes poison. (I think the prevailing challenge of our times is making a meal out of medicine...)