I would say it can be called free will. And strictly speaking it's the only thing that is really "I", that's why it's called Ego. I might have all kinds of emotional reactions for example, or spontaneous ideas. But since I don't decide to get these they are not "me". They are autonomous psychic phenomena.Originally Posted by wacey
Without the Ego the organism is just acting out its nature. There is no reflexion or control of what's going on.
The decisive thing is not the reality of the object, but the reality of the subjective factor, i.e. the primordial images, which in their totality represent a psychic mirror-world. It is a mirror, however, with the peculiar capacity of representing the present contents of consciousness not in their known and customary form but in a certain sense sub specie aeternitatis, somewhat as a million-year old consciousness might see them.
(Jung on Si)
I disagree: the ego is the bounded relative. It is not the absolute. Ego always attaches to everything, as you say. A thought is just a thought until it becomes my thought. Yet ego is not the consciousness {in this case I'm defining conciousness as the empty space in the centre of the jar. The place all else plays on. If you haven't experienced it for yourself, yet, it would be hard to relate to this convoluted explanation}. Ego is a part of consciousness that dictates the choice to attach. Consciousness being the holistic whole: a kind of holographic process that happens so quickly it gives the person the impression its all happening at once.
There is a realm inside of us that is free, aware, and conscious, yet it is not the ego. If this place was not there, then there would never be any redemption. The mind would be trapped by the actions of the ego, and misery would win. That people are reborn all the time each day out of their past/sufferings/actions is proof ego and organism nature is not all there is.
Ego is not a noun, not a person place or thing. It is a verb, the act of *selfing*.
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