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
- thoughts and feelings produce the "six realms" (lokas) (81-82)
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