Light a dit:
Allusion said all structures are unstable, and you say the ego is only unstable in the 'psychedelic state'.
Yes if you think of ego as the basic sense/feeling/experience of 'being a person', then it is an absolute constant during ordinary waking consciousness (ie almost all of the time), you are ALWAYS yourself, except when you are tripping hard and your basic sense of stable self-identity entirely dissolves (ego death).
Ego is the part of you that maintains permanent identity as you move forwards through time, you always have a stable sense of self-identity, you believe that you are 'the same person' as you were 5 minutes ago - that is the basic essence of ego. For example, the fact that you have a
name for yourself is an obvious indication that an ego is present, your name is permanent, it never changes throughout your life, because you stay permanently the 'same person' - ie you retain your identity across time
EVERYTHING else about you changes, all the time. For example your health, your age, your weight, your mood, your experience etc etc etc is constantly changing, - the ONLY thing about you that
doesnt ever change is your ego ie your identity, - you are permanently the 'same person', with the same name (the same ego). Ego is the permanence of our personal identity, it holds together the overall 'person' across different moments of time
all of your qualities are variables, in constant flux, except for ONE single quality = your identity (ego), which is utterly permanent and unchanging
Light a dit:
I think what Allusion is alluding to is the buddhist notion of impermanence
The buddhist concept of impermanence is first and foremost intended to explain the metaphysical insights that are revealed during the course of psychedelic ego death and rebirth/transcendence. This is true of all buddhist philosophy, - at the very foundation of all of buddhism, is the enlightenment experience of the Buddha under the Bodhi tree, ie a psychedelic-plant induced ego death/rebirth experience. Everything that follows, ie all of canonical buddhism, is ultimately a reaction to the ego death/enlightenment experience which the Buddha underwent when he sat under the tree.
The unenlightened mind is the mind which fully believes in ego, ie the mind that believes in the permanence of its own identity, the mind which fully identifies itself with the permanent ego and cant see beyond this identification. The enlightened mind has had its belief in egoic permanence shattered by the experience of ego-disintegration in the psychedelic state of consciousness, this is the esoteric meaning of the 'impermanence' principle in buddhism.
it's a contrast between 2 different worldmodels, the unenlightened, egoic belief in permanence, versus the enlightened, transcendent recognition of impermanence. The ordinary state of consciousness is strongly misleading, it creates a strong impression that ego is real (ie that identity is permanent), the psychedelic experience breaks through this illusion and reveals the transcendent truth of impermanence. The Buddhist concept of 'enlightenment' describes the state of the mind after it has seen through the illusion of permanent ego-identity.
Light a dit:
My ego isn't stable all through the day. At some points I am in a flow, not seeing myself as a separate entity but just doing what needs to be done, while at other times I protect myself from others and retreat into the illusory safety of my own ego. I therefore wouldn't say that ego is stable in the normal waking state.
you are always yourself, at all times of the day, if someone stopped you and asked you 'who are you?' you would always reply 'I am Light'. The identification which your mind is making to a person named 'Light' is entirely stable and reliable during the ordinary state of consciousness, it is highly unlikely that you would forget who you are (ie forget your name), or think that you were someone else, when you are in the ordinary state of consciousness, it takes powerful entheogenic drugs to make you do that (Salvia divinorum for example)
