You're very welcome:)

Nancy Harris hummmmmm

Aren't we all x

Ego is the thought "I am the body" which is the basis for all other thoughts. This is not a New Age teaching, it is the teaching of Ramana Maharshi and Advaita Vedanta. Actually, it is the "astral body" which is a New Age teaching - it does not appear before being invented in the 19th Century. Ego cannot be "an energy field", because when you look for Ego, you will find that it does not really exist. It is a like a character in a movie you are watching, it is fictional. And actually liberation is very easy, but people are simply unwilling to give up the "I am the body" thought.

Most neoadvaita instructors have some kind of awakening and that's all. They are neither realized beings nor have worked deeply with their ego. They are still influenced by their ego and don't know the whole story of the ego. Neoadvaita speak about "The story of me"; they say that this story is only the thoughts about me, and that the thoughts create emotions, which is ignorance. The story of me it is made of desires and emotions which of course are associated with thoughts and objects. Thoughs are only serve the desirous ego to achieve its goal in material life. Viz. to seek pleasure, power, money, fame, name, possessions, and comfort basically. All lower emotions are created by desire and our interaction with external reality, objects and situations. Desires and emotions cause the mechanical compulsive thinking,(the voice in the mind) and not the opposite. Although your ego is functioning (almost all day) the thought I doesn't appear always in your mind. Then what? There is n need to appear the thought I in order your ego to manifest it self. WHen you see something while you are in the metro for example and a like, dislike , attraction or repulsion arises in you this is youe ego. And this is not a thought simply is a vital emotional reaction which is compulsive and you cannot stopo as lond as this energy field of ego exists in your subtrle body. Do you understand what I say? The Ramana maharshi said that I is a VRITTI. A VRITTI is a Sanskrit word and means a MODIFICATION OF THE MIND. Then vritti can be translated as a thought, emotion, sensation, impulse. In some cases in Ramana sayings the ego or I is translated as a thought and others as a sense. The same happens with other !masters like Sivananda. viz.,they refer to I some times as a thought and some times as sense. NISARGADATTA said once: The problem arises only when the memory of past pains and pleasures remains as a reflex, dominating behavior. This reflex takes the shape of 'I' and uses the body and the mind for its purposes, which are invariably in search for pleasure or flight from pain.” If ego is a thought then eliminate this thought and you are free! But this is no sense. Ego is desire itself. Ego is a plurality not a singularity as think most of instructors. All egoic aspects (greed,,avarice, jealousy, anger, depression, impatience, pride etc) are only aspects of ego and desire is the fundamental aspect of ego. All these are a field of energy in our astral body. The astral body is mentioned from thousand years ago in traditional advaita as Suksma Sarira (Subtle body) and is made by pranayama sheath, manomaya sheath and Vijnamaya sheath FINALLY , the ego or I is energy field and not simply a thought. Appears as a thought only in the thinking mind, as a sense to the vital mind and as a conviction or belief in the intellect Doesn't matter if you agree or not. What I say is the result of 25 years of enquiry of my own ego, and is in accordance the teaching of great teachers. Om peace

All of Advaita Vedanta - Ramana, Shankara, Gaudapada agrees that the whole world (including all the "energy fields") is only thought. Your version of reality is materialism. There are plenty of Advaita Vedanta texts on the web to verify this. By the way, your analysis leaves out genetics. Compulsive thinking (" Did I remember to put a last piece of wood in the fire by the cave opening? ") is a huge survival instinct, even though it makes the jiva less happy. Being genetic, it is part of the physical body (and of course, unknown to the sages who wrote the scriptures). There are many instincts and they determine most thoughts, feelings and reactions before they even get to manas and buddhi. The term "astral" is from the West and was popularized in the 19th Century by charlatans who came up with many fake additions to the yoga scriptures' systems. If you are referring to the Asian yoga system, then just call it Subtle Body. Lastly, I don't want to egoically compare "number of years" with you, so let's just agree to disagree.

Dear I know", Read what Swami Sivananda (great master from India) says about the astral Body: The astral body is the subtle body which is within this physical body like the bladder of a football. It is an exact counterpart of the physical body. It is made up of the five organs of action, the five organs of knowledge, the five Pranas, mind, intellect, Chitta or the subconscious mind, and Ahankar or egoism. Some call it “the double”. It is this astral body that comes out of the physical body after death and moves to heaven. Death of this astral body through the knowledge of the Eternal frees one from the cycle of births and deaths. From "May I answer that" by Swami Sivananda (1987-1963). Second. The vedantic teachers especially Adisankara, Gaudapada, Ramana Maharshi and NIsargadatta they don't speak a lot about the universe and the details about the mind because they focus more on the Self and the discrimination between the Self and the Non-Self (the ego and the five sheaths). Thus they speak to the world in general terms as an illusion created by the mind. The say that all universe is a creation of the mind. But the mind is not only thoughts and is not separate from vital energy known as prana in the eastern traditions. Did you know this? It is better to keep an open flexible mind than to believe that you know. if you want to find the truth.

Having just looked up the SIvananda web sites, they are using "Astral Body" as the English translation instead of "Subtle Body". Either term is a translation of the same Sanskrit term. Sivananda lived during the height of the popularity of Western charlatans who added fictional things to the original Eastern teachings. So, his English translators may simply have used the most popular English word of the time. If you are using it as Sivananda did, then it is not an issue. --- There is no "Non-Self", there is only the Self (Atman). That is why it is called "Non-duality". "Student: The mind is said to be from the brain. Ramana Maharshi: Where is the brain? It is in the body. I say that the body itself is a projection of the mind. You speak of the brain when you think of the body. It is the mind which creates the body, the brain in it and also ascertains that the brain is its seat." and also Ramana stated: "Though the yogi may have his methods of breath control for this object, the jnani’s method is only that of enquiry. When by this method the mind is merged in the Self, the sakti or kundalini, which is not apart from the Self, rises automatically. The yogis attach the highest importance to sending the kundalini up to the sahasrara, the brain centre or the thousandpetalled lotus. They point out the scriptural statement that the life-current enters the body through the fontanelle and argue that, viyoga [separation] having come about that way, yoga [union] must also be effected in the reverse way. Therefore, they say, we must by yoga practice gather up the pranas and enter the fontanelle for the consummation of yoga. The jnanis on the other hand point out that the yogi assumes the existence of the body and its separateness from the Self. Only if this standpoint of separateness is adopted can the yogi advise effort for reunion by the practice of yoga. In fact the body is in the mind which has the brain for its seat. That the brain functions by light borrowed from another source is admitted by the yogis themselves in their fontanelle theory. The jnani further argues: if the light is borrowed it must come from its native source. Go to the source direct and do not depend on borrowed resources. That source is the Self. The Self does not come from anywhere else and enter the body through the crown of the head. It is as it is, ever sparkling, ever steady, unmoving and unchanging. The individual confines himself to the limits of the changeful body or of the mind which derives its existence from the unchanging Self. All that is necessary is to give up this mistaken identity, and that done, the ever-shining Self will be seen to be the single non-dual reality " --- Ramana also stated: "The ego identifies itself with some object simultaneously with its rise. It cannot remain without such association with objects. The false identification of oneself with the body is dehatma-buddhi or ‘I-am-the-body’-idea. " and " ‘I-I’ is the Self. ‘I am this’ is the ego. When the ‘I’ is kept up as the ‘I’ only, it is the Self. When it flies off at a tangent and says ‘I am this or that, I am such and such’, it is the ego. "