Week 5 -- Out of the Ego Cage
“If we could erase the I’s and ‘mine’s’ from religion, politics, economics, etc., we should soon be free and bring heaven upon earth.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
Affirmation:
"As I align myself with Spirit, I express love and compassion. I affirm my oneness with everyone and everything. I am forever free."
Study Questions - Out of the Ego Cage (Review Gandhi the Man, pages 28-29; pages 114-115 and Chapter 4, Gandhi the Man, pages 125-145, Mark 14:32-42)
What is the fear of giving up “I” and “mine?” Notes for discussion:
Fear of loss: our self/identity, happiness, personal satisfactions, pleasure, control, prestige, security, power, profit.
Fear of having to give up something: our likes and dislikes, judgments, opinions, habits.
What are the possible benefits? Notes for discussion:
We can live life in the Spirit, affirming our oneness with all peoples, all creatures and the natural environment.
At first, Gandhi found, “it was painful to give up his time or pleasure for the sake of others’ needs. But the freedom that followed was exhilarating. Gandhi’s joy knew no bounds.” (p. 28)
“Through many years of living for others, rather than himself, Gandhi found that what he had eliminated from his personality was only his separateness, his selfishness and his fear.” (p. 115). Like Gandhi, if you were to focus more on understanding the needs of those around you, how would this reduce your feeling of separateness from other people? Notes for discussion:
“He who devotes himself to service with a clear conscience, will day by day grasp the necessity for it in greater measure, and will continually grow richer in faith.” – Gandhi (p. 29)
As St. Francis said, “It is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in dying (to self) that we are born to eternal life.”
How does self-will or self-interest get in the way of being effective in our actions to help others? Notes for discussion:
“Self-will blocks the release of the tremendous inner power of satyagraha (soul-force); removing self-will frees it.” (p. 150)
“As his self-centeredness diminished, his spiritual awareness increased.” (p. 29)
“Truth is God . . .God alone knows absolute Truth” – Gandhi. “We . . .can pursue only a relative truth; but if our search for truth is pure and devoid of self-interest, Gandhi believed, we will not come to harm.” (p. 149)
"But truth alone is not enough. Gandhi knew human nature and felt that, by itself, truth could become ‘unethical’: ‘It is because we have at the present moment everybody claiming the right of conscience without going through any discipline whatsoever that there is so much untruth being delivered to a bewildered world.’ What can make the search for truth impure, ‘unethical,’ is his ‘self-interest.’ Gandhi’s antidote to untruth was the systematic reduction of self-centeredness, which he spelled out in a simple tenet, ‘Reduce yourself to zero.’ This reduction of self-will is the discipline he mentions above, and without it, the search for truth can lead to self-righteousness, arrogance, even tyranny.” (p. 149)
Why were Gandhi’s spiritual practices important in his quest? Notes for discussion:
Daily Meditation
Repetition of his mantram “Rama, Rama” – the “staff of life” which carried him through every ordeal
Put the welfare of others first. “Start where you are . . .with your wife, or your husband, or your children. Try to put their welfare first and your own last every minute of the day, and let the circle of your love expand from there. As long as you are trying your very best, there can be no question of failure.” – Gandhi (p. 126)
Gandhi strove moment to moment, to keep his consciousness aligned with God Mind so that in every aspect of life his thoughts, words and actions would be aligned with Spirit. Gandhi once said, “One man cannot do right in one department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole.” (p. 30)
Spiritual masters of many traditions have repeatedly encouraged the seeker to let go of the ego’s grasp. Mark 14:32-42 – one of three depictions in the Synoptic Gospels of the Garden of Gethsemane with Jesus, Peter, James and John – illustrates our need to release the ego and, at the same time, the disciples’ reluctance to do so. Step back from the literal/historical interpretation of this passage as a prelude to Jesus’ arrest and put yourself in the disciples’ sandals. In what ways do you fall asleep? What are your temptations? Consider your relationships, where you invest your time (“spare” or otherwise), and your work ethic. If you were writing a “how to” book on increasing spiritual attunement, why would it make sense to place this passage near the end as did the three Synoptic authors? Notes for discussion: