' Ego exists, as series of thoughts '...

When we think we see a single smoothly moving cinema picture of a running man we are really seeing thousands of separate stationary pictures of the man. The experience of smoothly convincing personality is an illusion which arises in the same manner out of our mental fusion of a series of separate ideas into a single human being. The term "illusion" here used must not be read as meaning that the human being does not exist. On the contrary, this sentence would not be written or read if it were not so. It means that he exists, yes, but that he does not exist as other than a transient appearance. He is not fundamentally real.

There is no real ego but only a quick succession of thoughts which constitutes the "I" process. There is no separate entity forming the personal consciousness but only a series of impressions, ideas, images revolving round a common centre. The latter is completely empty; the feeling of something being there derives from a totally different plane--that of the Overself.

When it is declared that the ego is a fictitious entity, what is meant is that it does not exist as a real entity. Nevertheless, it does exist as a thought.


- Paul Brunton