We all get in tough situations such as losing somebody or getting in a financial crisis, even an existensial crisis that you don’t have a practical problem but a philosophical one. We can overcome these with the most subtle and accessible understanding of who we are. Who is “I” who are “we” and who is “everything?” If you meditate on that, you’ll get rid of all your troubles.
“If the ego were to disappear, or rather, to be seen as a useful fiction, there would no longer be the duality of subject and object, experiencer and experience. There would simply be a continuous, self-moving stream of experiencing, without the sense either of an active subject who controls it or of a passive subject who suffers it. The thinker would be no more than the series of thoughts, and the feeler no more than the feelings.”
Alan W. Watts, Nature, Man and Woman
You’re not only you, you’re always you plus something else. The thing you call “I” is a tiny part of who you really are. In fact, the feeling of “I” seems delusional after you overcome the illusion of separateness.
We solve our problems by two scopes. First is bit by bit by separating and second is seeing the whole big picture through synthesis. These two scopes are reflected in science with two keywords, analysis and theory. Analysis is when you break up and try to see what’s in the world objectively. Theory is you constitute a whole structure in your mind and try to produce a total meaning. These two go together as you can’t analyse without theory and vice versa.
Just like the scientific analysis-theory paradox, people also have breaking up and synthesizing habits in daily life. For example we know a car has thousands of parts in it but name it as one car, give it an identity and even special names. We also clearly know life is an organism, yet we fail to admit we are the organ like parts of it. The planet earth is a whole subject in matters of astrology, however in matters of psychology we behave it’s alien to us. It may be because we need a figure-ground relation, a reference point, a contrast to make ourselves obvious in this planet. Yet we fall into this ego game too much often times and forget that the background, the contrast implies us, the environment is also us that we owe our existence to it.
You didn’t come to this world, no one ever. You’re brought by your family, community, society, nature, planet and whole cosmos. You’re educated to fell a certain way, you didn’t educate yourself, nor you created words for certain meanings. You’re not even a user, you’re used by the culture at least through the meanings. What is your contribution to “you?” Billions of years of evolution and the whole cosmos contributed whatever there is. You only brought it forward just a few steps.
There is you after all, as an endpoint, an avatar to be constructed. What we do in this essay is to contrast established belief of egoistic, separate ego. It fluctuated too much into the trough now we’re pulling it to the crest of the wave. We should pull the rope to the other side by saying your ego doesn’t exist in the way you took it. In short your ego is not what you mean. Yours doesn’t exist, but there is a construct called ego and it’s functional.
Whatever you go through, it’s due to your ancestors, your environment and your own little contribution. Your solitary individual problems may be due to you, but even those were founded on social, biological and cosmic foundations. The problems rely on a sequential foundations that were establised over time. The individual is not alone in responsibility. Especially humans, who are overly social and depend on the others in success or failure.
The key understanding here is the illusion of separation and too much analysis will prevent you from seeing that this, everything is an organism. Nevertheless; as you’re not aware of your cell division, functioning of your organs and atoms in your body; this organism like structure we call everything is not aware of anything so tiny like you.
Being aware that you’re a part, that you’re together with everything in your doings may help you in overcoming tough times. Losing someone, being hurt, being petrified over existence; remember it’s not only you; in both senses. First you’re not the only one getting through this and secondly, you’re not only the construct whatever they named it. It didn’t start with you, it’s not going to end with you, don’t take it too seriously
How can you do but breathe if you ancestors have evolved in this way? Yes you can’t breathe through your skin as some animals do but you can control your breathe. However, you’ll suffer if you try to control it, you should let it go, because it’s not only you but countless generations have a say in you.
