108 yogasūtra 3.0 yogasūtra 3.0 109 #yogasūtra 3.0 curated by Sandro Di Domenico tale of the ego and the troublemaker āsana We are what we think and what we do, even if we do it unwillingly, because even what we would like to do or being done, and feelings and morals determining our actions, are part of us. We are simultaneously the perfect universe of morality and beauty that we desire for ourselves and for our world, and actions, perhaps contrary to our intentions, that we undertake in confrontation with reality. Freud indicated with the word Ego that precise part of us that dialogues with the outside. Ego as our rational part, pondering impulses and teachings. Since Freud and to date, things have changed: conscious, preconscious and unconscious models have lost the validity with which they had been proposed, and neurosciences have not found a place of the brain assigned to perform the Ego function. Poor Ego, no longer solidly defined by psychoanalysis, as non-existent at all for neurosciences. «Ego doesn’t exist in the brain – says Jerome Kagan, American psychologist, professor emeritus at Harvard University, pioneer in developmental psychology – We are nowhere near naming the brain circuit that might mediate the feeling of ‘God, I feel great’; ‘I can conquer the world’; ‘I believe it’s possible to do, but no one knows that chemistry or that anatomy’7». If not within theories mentioning it, Ego does not have a definite meaning. In a more mystical embrace than the psychoanalytic one, on the other side of the spiritual world, Ego represents the number-one enemy in Buddhism and yoga philosophy, where it symbolizes projection of oneself towards something that does not belong to us and from which we should all break free. Regarding Ego, Dalai Lama wrote that by affirming the self, our sense of egocentrism increases and solidifies8. Ego as one of the worst enemies of yoga also for Patañjali, Indian philosopher of the second century BC, which frames Ego – Ahaṃkāra in Sanskrit – like that latent force that drives us to excel, to be better than others. Less intransigent adaptations aim to resize the Ego, to make it less subject to compulsions’ influence. So said Sri Aurobindo, Indian mystic and philosopher [1872-1950]: «At any moment, those who practice yoga must remain vigilant about deceptions of the Ego [...] considered as the only possible solution, only source of light and truth9». In Eastern spiritual paths, Ego stands as a level to be overcome, and yogic or meditative practice proceeds according to this perspective. Nevertheless, an Occident without a strictly defined Ego at the level of psychology and neuroscience posed an embarrassing question coming from two of its European universities, Southampton and Mannheim: can yoga and meditation swell Ego more than they wish to calm it down? In a few words: is there any risk that practices involving mind and body may increase self-centeredness in that precise path of evolution from compulsions of the self? The answer is yes, and to practice yoga and meditation posing the wrong question can actually create problems in managing one’s own self-image, becoming in a strange, almost absurd way more full of themselves, while working out with movements that should elevate from certain impulses. At the beginning of 2018, the aforementioned two universities of Southampton and Mannheim published the results of the shared research Mind-body practices and the self: yoga and meditation do not quiet the ego, but instead boost self-enhancement10. It is a study which opposed the hypothesis that yoga and meditation should be able to calm down Ego through the universally considered assumption of the Self-Centrality Principle [SCP], corroborating thesis according to which self-centrality increases self-exaltation and selfcenteredness. Starting point for the researchers have been William James’ teachings11 [18421910], American psychologist of Irish origin among the first ones to describe SCP, illustrating how practice of a skill increases its centrality in one's system to full advantage of a selfcentrality that generates self- exaltation, ergo egocentrism.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDUzNDc=