DISCOURSES Volume II - Avatar Meher Baba Trust

72 DISCOURSESand unassailable harmony which comes after the melting away ofthe entire iceberg of the ego.The digging out of the buried roots of the ego from thedeeper layers of the subconscious and bringing them to the light ofconsciousness is one important part of the process of wiping outEgo lives throughopposites ofexperiencethe ego. The other important part consists inthe intelligent handling of desires after theygain entrance to the arena of consciousness.The process of dealing with the components ofexplicit consciousness is by no means clear and simple, for theexplicit ego has a tendency to live through any one of the oppositesof experience. If it is ousted from one opposite by the intensiveoperation of intelligent consciousness, it has a tendency to move tothe other extreme and live through it. Through repeated alternationbetween the opposites of experience the ego eludes the attack ofintelligent consciousness and seeks to perpetuate itself.The ego is hydra-headed and expresses itself in numberlessways. It lives upon any type of ignorance. Pride is the specificfeeling through which egoism manifests. A person can be proud ofEgo is hydra-headedmost unimportant and silly things.Instances are known of persons developingtheir nails to an abnormal length and preserving them, despitemuch inconvenience to themselves, for no other reason than toassert separateness from others. The ego must magnify itsattainments in a grotesque manner if it is to live in them. Directassertion of the ego through self-display in society is verycommon, but if such direct assertion is prohibited by the rules ofdecency, the ego has a tendency to seek the same result through theslander of others. To portray others as evil is to glorify oneself bysuggesting a comparison, which