The Ego-dominated mind plays its games in daily life, and creates the characters and scenarios necessary for the games. The content of such a scenario is determined by the individual’s environment and upbringing, that is, the culture in which we grow up. As a result, entirely different scenarios are created in the various cultures of our Earth.
At the beginning of our spiritual journey, we identify with these scenarios. The scenarios provide us with the sense of a solid identity. The patterns of thoughts fixed in the scenarios are manifested in various mind games during our daily life.
In the course of our journey leading to Consciousness, our objective should not be creating a positive character, and thus a pleasant scenario, but finding the Existence behind every scenario. The first step is examining the scenarios, these conditioned thought-patterns, in the light of Consciousness. Let us of our most deeply rooted mind game.
An elementary endeavour of every Ego is growing: to be “more”, larger and powerful. They strive to be higher and higher in the hyerarchic structure of the world, conquering more and more territory. The individual’s ambitions grow and grow, reaching larger and larger areas.
Ambitions are planted in a child by parents and teachers. Parents tend to think of an even yet unborn child as someone who is going to achieve the parents’ own’s unfulfilled ambitions.
With the educational means of reward and punishment, children are conditioned to excel among their peers, to be the best, strongest, most beautiful, etc. When the children meet the parental–and thus the social–expectations, they are rewarded, when not, they are punished. They therefore soon learn to be ambitious.
These ambitions, though based upon the past, always aim at the future. All through our lives we pursue illusionary objectives, spurred by various ambitions.Naturally, it is not impossible to satisfy an ambition, but it is immnediately replaced by a thousand others, as there are so many areas of life where we have not yet reached our ambitions.
That is how we chase senseless goals all through our lives until we die, when we realize that everybody leaves this world empty-handed, even those who lived their whole lives chasing mirages of past and future.
Look into yourself to see what is in you now! See what ambitions are driving you along on the sea of life and in what direction?
Every moment spent awake we face two alternatives. A choice is to be made between the ambitions stretching between past and future or the quiet, simple, pure emptiness of the present moment, full of vibrating life. It is-however-only the latter that brings the Witnessing Presence!
(C) Frank M. Wanderer, 2013-2015
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About the author:
Frank M. Wanderer Ph.D is a professor of psychology, a consciousness researcher and writer. Frank is the author of the books “The Revolution of Consciousness: Deconditioning the Programmed Mind “, “The Biggest Obstacle to Enlightenment: How to Escape from the Prison of Mind Games?” and several books on consciousness. With a lifelong interest in the mystery of human existence, Frank’s work is to help others wake up from identification with our personal history and the illusory world of the forms and shapes, and to find our identity in what he calls “the Miracle”, the mystery of the Consciousness.
He has contributed to a few different spiritual websites including The Mind Unleashed, Wake Up World, Spirit Science, Waking Times, Zen Gardner, Awakening People, My Empowered World, ChangeYour Thoughts, and Body, Mind, Soul, Spirit.
Source:
https://fmwanderer.wordpress.com/2015/11/06/the-most-deeply-rooted-mind-game/