Thoughts I've thunk while sippin' at a cup of tea and reading something provoking, often get dropped here for the benefit of humanity and my own hubris.
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I realize that the last few Tea Thoughts have been rambling on the subject of the "Loss of Ego." I've been wondering why this subject is a fairly recent development. I mean, you don't see this theme popping up in Western mythology prior to 100 BCE (that's Before Common Era for those unpolitically correct among us) and prior to 600 BCE in the Indian cultures with Buddhism and Jainism.
However, you do see many examples of the "Sacrificed God" … Now, I'm not referring to the wealth of examples like the Aztec version, where the "Corn God" (as a young boy who wins a ballgame) is sacrificed in order to bring maize to the people (i.e. to continue the cosmic cycles). Yes, I realize that there are actually similarities …
But I'm really referring to the sacrifice of a God to gain insight or enlightenment (like the Buddha). One of the more interesting ones is when Ódhinn (Norse mythology) sacrifices himself on the world tree Yggdrasil, after 3 times 3 days he gains the hidden wisdom of the runes while the 3 Norns (similarly equivalent to the three Fates in Greek) wait at the bottom. (Yes, compare this to the three Marys who hang around the bottom of Jesus' cross).
However, what is really interesting about this story is that he was sacrificing himself to himself in order to gain greater knowledge about himself and the world. Isn't this the statement that people are making about sacrificing their ego for greater wisdom? And isn't that the same statement in the New Testament of "Whosoever shall loose his life shall find it?"
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This observation reminds me a little of Blake. As Clark Emery (editor) writes in the introduction to Blake’s “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” … “But it is clear to Blake from his own experience and from that of others that “Man’s perceptions are not bounded by organs of perception”; reason does have more than perceptually-acquired knowledge to make use of; and the desire of man is infinite — “less than All cannot satisfy Man.” Therefore it must be the case that within the natural man is the true man, the Poetic Genius, who, seeing beyond sense, sees the infinite in all things and thus sees and becomes God. (“Therefore God becomes as we are, that we may be as he is.”) And since all men are alike, “tho infinitely various,” both in outward form and in inner power, all religions have their source in the true Man, “he being the Poetic Genius.”
Becomes God (noted above.) I think I read somewhere else, the statement, “and man created god in the image and likeness of himself.” (versus God created man in the image and likeness of himself.) Hah.
Yes, I think that one does have to sacrifice an ego and open up to the infinite. Like Socrates, the wise one is one who admits that he does not know. Well, this probably doesn’t make any sense because I’d get into my personal philosophy which would keep me typing for a few days.
Nonetheless, thanks for the thoughts.
Comment posted on Friday, 5 July 2002I’d sacrifice my ego in a flash. Darn thing is making my life miserable. Tell me, how can I get rid of it? Yogi tea is not helping.
Comment posted on Tuesday, 17 September 2002
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