How We Have Been Fooled - Alan Watts On The Ego

The Illusion of the Ego

In this section, the speaker discusses the concept of the ego and how it is an abstract idea rather than a physical organ.

The Ego as an Abstract Concept

• The burden of pleasing others leads to confusion and the development of an abstract concept called the ego.

• The ego is not a physical organ but rather an abstract concept with the same order and kind of reality as an hour or a pound.

• Our image of ourselves is our idea of ourselves, which is not real in itself but rather a feature of our universe.

• We treat our ego as if it were a physical organ when it is actually composed mainly of our image of ourselves.

The Inaccuracy and Incompleteness of Our Self-Image

• Our self-image is incomplete and inaccurate because it does not include information about our bodily functions or relationships with the surrounding universe.

• Our self-image is arrived at through interactions with other people who tell us who we are, leading to a caricatured version of ourselves.

• While having a consistent image may be important for identity, it can be misleading without deeper matters.

The Illusionary Nature of the Ego

• While we feel that there's something more real than just our image, what we feel as being "myself" is certainly not the whole body.

• We tend to put our ego on the side of the unseen part of our body because that seems to be where it all comes from and where we feel it.

• If my consciousness is working properly, I ought not to be aware of my ego as something sort of there being a nuisance in the middle of things because it is awfully hard to take care of.

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Taking off in a Jet Plane

The speaker uses the analogy of taking off in a jet plane to describe how we try to use muscular strains to make our nerves work, which is futile and gets in the way of their functioning.

Muscular Strains and Chronic Tension

• When our community tells us to look carefully and listen, we start using muscular strains around our eyes, ears, jaws, hands to try to use our muscles to make our nerves work.

• We hold our breath, pull our stomachs in or tighten our rectal muscles when we try to control our emotions. This chronic tension is the root of what we call the feeling of ego.

• Chronic tension or sankocha is contraction that creates the physical referent for the psychological image of ourselves.

Transcending Ego

• The feeling of tightness is the physical referent for the psychological image of ourselves. The ego is a marriage of an illusion and futilities.

• Even though the idea of an "I" with a name without being is naturally useful for social communication provided we know what we're doing and take it for what it is but we are so hung up on this concept that it confuses us even in the proposition that it might be possible for us to feel otherwise because we ask the question if we hear about people who have transcended ego.

• People who have transcended ego do not exist because there's no "you" talking about transcending ego.

This transcript contains only one section.