' Becoming Self-Conscious '...

To surrender the ego is to surrender the thought of it, and this is done by stilling the mind whenever, in daily life, one becomes self-conscious.

This silenced, ego vanishes.

It is deep, mental effacement of the thought of being "XY," this quick stilling of the idea of being a particular person, this serene rejection of the intellectual movement and emotional agitation of the ego, that constitutes the "giving up of the self" which Jesus and all great mystics have insistently enjoined.

This art of effacing the ego by stilling the mind, by suddenly stopping its whirling flood of thoughts, could not be practised at will and at any time if one had not practised it previously and frequently in deliberate exercises at set times.

It is not an art into which the man in the street can straightway plunge.

He is not ready for it.

He must first get a disciplined mental nature through daily work in meditation as well as a subjugated emotional nature through hardened will.

These endeavours must be brought to perfection first before the feat of giving up the ego can itself be brought to perfection.




-- Notebooks Category 8: The Ego > Chapter 4:
Detaching from The Ego > # 151
Paul Brunton