Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Chapter 8, part 2

not being able to get out of it, you create the image of a perfect state, of heaven, of God - again another image made by the mind. You have images not only inwardly but also deeper down, and they are always in conflict with each other. So the more you are in conflict - and conflict will always exist so long as you have images, opinions, concepts, ideas about yourself - the greater will be the struggle.

So the question is: Is it possible to live in this world without an image about yourself? You function as a doctor, a scientist, a teacher, a physicist. You use that function to create the image about yourself, and so, using function, you create conflict in functioning, in doing. I wonder if you understand this? You know, if you dance well, if you play an instrument, a violin, a veena, you use the instrument or the dance to create the image about yourself to feel how marvellous you are, how wonderfully well you play or dance. You use the dancing, the playing of the instrument, in order to enrich your own image of yourself. And that is how you live, creating, strengthening that image of yourself. So there is more conflict; the mind gets dull and occupied with itself; and it loses the sense of beauty, of joy, of clear thinking.

I think it is part of education to function without creating images. You then function without the battle, the inward struggle that goes on within yourself.

2 comments:

  1. Is he implying that that image is what we call "ego"?, and that we build it and strenghen it?

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  2. This is really an important and interesting question:
    can we live without an image?
    Maybe the most we can do is to be completely aware of this image operating under different circumstances, in different occassions??

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