Volume II  Page 59  §  The Nature of the Ego and Its Termination

DISCOURSES by Meher Baba

The Nature of the Ego and Its Termination

Part I
THE EGO AS THE CENTRE OF CONFLICT

IN the pre-human stage consciousness has experiences, but these experiences are not explicitly brought into relation with a central “I.” Origin of the ego The dog is angry, but he does not continue to feel, “I am angry.” Even in his case we find that he learns through some experiences and thus bases the action of one experience on another, but this action is a result of a semi-mechanical tension of connected imprints or sanskaras. It is different from the intelligent synthesis of experiences which the development of I-consciousness makes possible. The first step in submitting the working of isolated impressions to intelligent regulation consists in bringing them all into relation with the centre of consciousness which appears as the explicit limited ego. The consolidation of the ego-consciousness is most clear and defined from the beginning of human consciousness.
        Process of ego formation Human consciousness would have been nothing more than a repository for the accumulated imprints of varied experiences, if it had not also contained the principle of ego-centred integration,