“[the false self is] the source of all the troubles in the world”
The Self is an Archetype in the collective unconscious as proposed by C. G. Jung. He speaks of the self as a union of opposites—the conscious and unconscious, similar to the yin-yang symbol.
The self and ego are closely related and interconnected but are not one and the same. Imagine a large white circle with many small black dots inside the circle. The circle is the self, the dots are the ego, the shadow, the anima/animus, and other archetypal aspects of personality.
Simple Reality describes the unconscious false self as “The interwoven elements of the tapestry of the self [false self] are mutually interdependent and interrelated and a reciprocating dynamic has them all swirling about in an unconscious dance. The ego, the shadow, the false self all doing the do-si-do with the various defense mechanisms, complexes and neuroses in a mesmerizing square dance, directionless, with no caller—bouncing off one another, shoving and shouting—angry and afraid they continue to swing and sway ever more violently. This is the unconscious self, lost in time and space.”[i]
But Transformation is possible according to psychologist Robert Johnson. He says that when our ego-self is threatened during a midlife crisis or nervous breakdown, there is a “relocating of the center of the personality from the ego to a center greater than one’s self. This superpersonal center has been variously called the [True] Self, the Christ nature, the Buddha nature.”[ii]
C. G. Jung agrees with Johnson. He wrote: “Although it is able to preserve its structure, the ego is ousted from its central and dominating position and thus finds itself in the role of a passive observer who lacks the power to assert his will under all circumstances. In this way the will gradually subordinates itself to the stronger factor, namely to the new totality figure I call the Self.”[iii]
Insight # 71 comes to us from Walpola Rahula (1907-1997), a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk, scholar and writer. In 1964 he became a Professor of History and Religions at Northwestern University, thus the first bhikkhu (male Buddhist monastic) to hold a professorial chair in the Western world.
“This soul or [false] self in man is the thinker of thoughts, feeler of sensations, and receiver of rewards and punishments for all its actions good and bad. Such a conception is called the idea of self. It is the source of all the troubles in the world from personal conflicts to wars between nations. In short, to this false view can be traced all the evil in the world.”[iv]
The True Self emerges when all false-self pursuits cease.
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Additional Reading:
- The Self, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 2
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[i] Henry, Roy Charles. “Self.” The ABC’s Of Simple Reality, Vol 2. May 2018, p. 197.
[ii] Johnson, Robert. Transformation. San Francisco: Harper, 1991, p. 84.
[iii] Johnson, Robert and Ruhl, Jerry M. Contentment. New York: Harper, 1999, p. 64.
[iv] Rahula, Walpola. What the Buddha Taught. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1959, p. 51.
