The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, The Ego From Birth to Rebirth

by Brunton, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780943914244
• ISBN10: 0943914248
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1987-03-15
• Publisher: Larson Publications

Summary

Part 1, "The Ego" is one of Paul Brunton's greatest and most unique gifts to the literature of realisation -- a truly earth-shaking piece of work for serious spiritual seekers. With no holds barred, it exposes, at an existential level, the most fundamental problems that obstruct achieving a life of unfailing self-integrity. Part 2, "From Birth to Rebirth", shows the role of death in the ongoing cycle of life, clarifies beliefs about reincarnation, and explores the creative relationships between fate, destiny, and free will.

Table of Contents

Editors' Introduction	p. ix
The Ego
What Am I?	p. 3
Egoself and Overself	p. 3
Body and consciousness	p. 9
I-sense and memory	p. 14
Ego as limitation	p. 15
Ego as presence of higher	p. 18
Two views of individuality	p. 20
Perfection through surrender	p. 22
Ego subordinated, not destroyed	p. 24
Ego after illumination	p. 30
Reincarnation	p. 35
I-Thought	p. 37
I-sense and I-thought	p. 37
Ego exists, as series of thoughts	p. 40
Subject-object	p. 45
Psyche	p. 47
Ego as knot in psyche	p. 47
The "subconscious"	p. 49
Trickery, cunning of ego	p. 51
Defense mechanisms	p. 58
Self-idolatry	p. 60
Egoism, egocentricity	p. 62
Detaching From the Ego	p. 66
Its importance	p. 66
Why most people won't do it	p. 79
As genuine spiritual path	p. 81
Surrender is necessary	p. 87
Its difficulty	p. 96
Ego corrupts spiritual aspiration	p. 99
Humility is needed	p. 106
Longing for freedom from ego	p. 106
Knowledge is needed	p. 108
Tracing ego to its source	p. 111
"Dissolution" of ego	p. 113
Grace is needed	p. 115
Who is seeking?	p. 118
Results of dethroning ego	p. 119
From Birth to Rebirth
Death, Dying, and Immortality	p. 3
Continuity, transition, and immortality	p. 3
The event of death	p. 13
The aftermath of death	p. 20
Rebirth and Reincarnation	p. 31
The influence of past tendencies	p. 32
Reincarnation and Mentalism	p. 40
Beliefs about reincarnation	p. 49
Reincarnation and the Overself	p. 59
Laws and Patterns of Experience	p. 64
Defining karma, fate, and destiny	p. 64
Karma's role in human development	p. 82
Destiny turns the wheel	p. 100
Astrology, fate, and free will	p. 119
Karma, free will, and the Overself	p. 130
Free Will, Responsibility, and the World-Idea	p. 143
The limitations of free will	p. 143
The freedom we have to evolve	p. 151
Human will in the World-Idea	p. 161
Index
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