Dear Ram,

I remember jousting with a friend not long ago. He insisted that the ego must be completely and utterly destroyed for man to have any hope of 'healing' (never mind the ‘so what’s to heal’). My equally certain tact was the argument that ego thought is never destroyed but that it is regulated to a subservient position via a focus upon non ego thought.

Ram: Your idea is in harmony with Vedanta's. The ego is only a problem if you make it a problem. If you like your ego and treat it well, why destroy it? I wouldn't say "focus on non-ego thought" was the correct way to see it because non-ego thought is not very attractive and the mind will become bored unless it can find something to focus on that is continually uplifting. I'd say to focus on the Self instead, except that you can't really do that because It is much subtler than the mind of the one who would be focusing. So again we come back to the fundamental issue in this spiritual world...who? Who is focusing on what? Who am I?

Joe: Just what that might be is as yet and perhaps forever non articulatable but the basis for my position is that nothing dies for nothing is born and thought although mechanistically said to be destroyed is not destroyed as much as no longer commander in chief.

Ram: Yes. Thought, mind, ego, etc. these are ever-changing phenomena and therefore unreal. How can you destroy what is unreal? And the real is something that never changes so it can't be destroyed either. So the idea that "you" have to destroy anything except ignorance is silly. Ignorance is in a category of its own. It is neither real or unreal so it can be destroyed. If I don't know where the supermarket is I can ask someone and the answer can destroy my ignorance.

It's like this with the guru too. He or she can give you the answer that can destroy your ignorance of the Self. So the issue should be on who am I, not on the mind. The mind is not the Self, so why should I bother with it? True I need to do enough work on it to get it to a clear, humble position, but then I need to train it to inquire into the Self, not set out to destroy itself. The mind is a very useful tool here in this world. Show me someone without a mind in the waking state and I'll show you a vegetable.

Love,

Ram