A functional ego role...

There is what I call a functional ego role, which is simply a relative identity or role we play that is linked to basic physical body awareness and psyche and it is useful for moving through life in the phenomenal world. This ego role is relatively harmless and helps us keep strait such issues as, whose mouth to feed breakfast to in the morning! Or which body to shower before going to work each day!

When people claim they have no such ego or physical/mental sense of self with a little "s", just ask them if they suffer from any confusion about breakfast or showering! If they say "no", then they are acknowledging that there is some basic identification with the body/mind organism that is called by their name! This is really just completely obvious and an example of native, everyday common sense! The idea that people constantly propose in non-duel spiritual circles that they have absolutely no identification with body and mind, is obviously just a very cerebral abstraction in their head and not at all a direct experience.

Get real boys and girls! Of course you have some basic identification with your body/mind!! You could not survive otherwise! Cut off a limb or two on the body of one of these folks who have no body/mind and watch bodily identification arise pretty damned quickly! This would be true even in the likes of a Ramana or a Nisargadatta I would venture to guess! They may certainly see clearly that this bodily identification is not exclusive and they may be in touch with the unchanging essence of who they are on the level of Being/sentience/presence.. But on a surface level there is a certain identification with the body/mind we call "you". And there always will be until the body drops away at least.

Then there is what I call a dysfunctional, selfish ego, which is all about this body/mind identity always getting its way in the phenomenal world. It could be true to say that one must eventually "die" to the dysfunctional ego in the process/practice of surrender, or perhaps it is even truer to say that life has a way of just constantly, and quite completely, frustrating the dysfunctional ego's agenda! But the idea that "You are not your body/mind" on any level whatsoever is simply a pure neo-advaita abstraction in your head.

If you buy into it, you have simply allowed yourself to be indoctrinated into an abstract belief. And such a way of conceptually framing your perception of your life is horribly out of touch with ordinary reality and in denial of a basic dynamic in human life that must be fully acknowledged in order for us to lead a healthy and whole existence. And that dynamic about life is quite simple:

On a certain level, we are and will remain embodied and present in the physical world. We are not disembodied spirits or angelic type beings and we never will be. On one level, we are simply highly functioning animals, and this is nothing to deny but, on the contrary, it is something to revel in and enjoy. It has it's perks as well as it's drawbacks!!


- Francis Bennett