Ego Development

EGO DEVELOPMENT: A BUDDHIST PHENOMENOLOGY

Reference "the five aggregates" (skandhas)

Also see "The Five Aggregates: A Study Guide" by Thanissaro Bhikkhu at accesstoinsight.org

Lecture Notes (Moses 1/28/2008)

Based on Chogyam Trungpa (1940-1987) "The Development of Ego" in The Buddha and His Teachings, Ed. Samuel Bercholz and Sherab Chodzin Kohn (Boston: Shambhala, 1993) pp. 73-82.


 * The beginning point (Trungpa 74-75)
 * "Open space" as "basic ground" as "first instant of perception"
 * Vidya: "primordial intelligence connected with the space and openness"
 * "We are this space, we are one with it, with vidya, intelligence and openness"


 * Self-consiousness (75-76)
 * our dance, because it becomes "too fast", makes the open space solid
 * in the solidity we become self-conscious
 * duality between space and I, blackout, we forget the open space
 * Avidya: negation, unintelligence, ignorance


 * First Skandha: ignorance form (76-77)
 * as if a grain of sand upon a moonlit desert took notice of its separateness
 * "ignorance born within": I have always been separate!
 * "self-observing ignorance": "seeing oneself as an external object, which leads to the first notion of :*'other'"
 * one begins to create the world of forms as a pure reaction to one's projections


 * Second Skandha: feeling (77)
 * in order to feel, we capture the other, demanding a feeling as warrant for our existence, closing :*the open field in order to have something to respond to


 * Third Skandha: perception-impulse (77-78)
 * our feeling is hooked into a switchboard of perception, connected to action
 * there are three impulses: hatred, desire, stupidity


 * Fourth Skandha: concept (78)
 * name, categorize, label
 * the heavy ego speculates, names itself "I am"


 * Fifth Skandha: consciousness (79)
 * thoughts and feelings produce the "six realms" (lokas) (81-82)
 * Deva Loka: Heaven
 * Asura Loka: Jealous gods
 * Human realm
 * Animal realm
 * Preta Loka: hungry ghosts
 * Hell

From here we approach the teachings and begin the practice...

Chogyam Trungpa was a lama of the Trungpa line who fled Tibet following the Chinese invasion. He later resigned his office to become a lay teacher, creating several venues of education, including the Naropa Institute. A summary of his colorful life may be found at WikiPedia. See also an extended selection of an important book, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, at sacred-texts.com: http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/tib/cutting.htm