I was at an Innate Health conference last weekend, and several phrases really made me sit up.
One was from Martin Jotov, who said:
“Thinking is creating the ego self image, not discovering it”
…and I could not love that more. It's such a powerful thing to see.
Because we've all had the same experience, throughout our lives, of:
- sometimes being aware of our notion of ‘ourselves’ (usually in relation to how a situation or problem relates to us), and
- sometimes it not being there (because we're fully present to life; immersed in some activity or other)
And for years, the thing that went entirely unquestioned for me, was the nature of that ‘self’ that was sometimes there, sometimes not.
I just never looked at this as a notion (I mean, why would you)?!
And then, when I'd been around the 3 Principles for a while, I kept hearing people talk about ‘ego’ and ‘self’ and came across quotes, like this one from Syd Banks:
…and it had me scratching my head a bit.
But then, whenever I did turn my attention to this notion, the “ego self image” mentioned by Martin definitely seemed like it was being discovered by my thinking. I mean, it was a thing, right?
It was there… somewhere? It had to be!
In those times where I was beavering away at a piece of writing, totally immersed, and not experiencing ‘self’ at all, my headcanon for it was that it was a long way away (maybe inside a shed or something, far off in the distance), not making mischief for me.
But definitely a thing. Definitely an entity.
Until I read some more books and listened to some more audios and observed my own experience and listened to people like Martin, grabbing me gently by the shoulders and inviting me to consider things another way:
No, no. It's not an entity at all. It's made of thought. A set of stories. It's created, not discovered! It's not required, much of the time – in fact, you know that you do your best work in its absence…
😲
And then I read the book No Self, No Problem, by Chris Niebauer, which is a delightfully easy and accessible romp through the subject, looked at from a neuroscientific point of view, and he showed me this image:
Here's how it he relates it to the notion of self:
“The same left-brain process that allows you to see the categorical boundaries of the circles and the lines and surmise the image of the triangle, has also looked within, used the same processes and surmised that there is an individual self.
“Both the triangle and the inner self are strongly suggested by the surrounding information, but upon closer inspection, one can see that they are only suggested and have no real physical existence.”
It's why I refer to it all the time as the Reader Ego Construct 📦 – because it's a product of itself.
It's the ultimate imposter!
Which means you don't have to take it half as seriously as you do.
💟
Giles
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Giles P Croft
I mean if it's not actually a thing, how could it possibly be driving the damned bus?? 🤔