Richard Rose’s Psychology of the Observer The Path to Reality Through the Self

228 Richard Rose’s Psychology of the Observer: The Path to Reality Through the Self
even then. To these three might also be added, to varying degrees: atheism/cynicism, vanity/pride,
“Pollyanna”/hedonism, and grief/mourning. Along these lines, one’s more deliberate philosophical
assumptions and projections onto life also need to be acknowledged and then questioned for their
accuracy, as such major gestalts not only affect the course of one’s life but may determine whatever
spiritual destiny one may have beyond this life. It could be said that our very identity as a person is
ultimately found to be a subliminal state-of-consciousness as well. The final overlay on our vision to
be removed is us!
These various forms and instances of coloration can be considered as egos, or are derived
from egos. One of the purposes of meditation is to recognize all egos for what they are and free
oneself from those not helpful to the search, while deliberately using, yet remaining disassociated
from, the ones that still are. St. Paul’s famous declaration: “I die daily,” can be understood in this
context to refer to the progressive relinquishment of the egos of self-importance and willful individuality,
and the gradual giving up of oneself to the holistic becoming of Truth.
Rose echoed this sentiment when he referred to the necessary transition from dualistic, externalized
mentation to the direct, intuitive insight that makes realization possible: “Somewhere in the
being of man, there is an eye that must open. We open it by closing all other eyes, or egos” (Rose,
1978, p. 225). Every desire, every assumption, every identification, every hypnotic obsession is an
ego that must die; an investment in the illusion that must end. As long as any other strident or
beguiling voice takes precedence in our lives over the sole, quiet voice of Intuition, demanding our
allegiance, we are not only trapped in Maya—we are Maya, as we are what we do and we do what we
believe.
Rose has defined no-mind as that state (or more precisely: that non-state) which remains when
all egos and their related mental patterns end. However, it is a troublesome fact of the path that the
pseudo-self that we are is reluctant to die; thus all the varied techniques, strategies, and disciplines
taught over the centuries to aid in bringing about the death of this congregation of false masks and
filters with which we have otherwise helplessly identified.
The psychology of this letting go and becoming is complex and individual. No standardized
formula can be provided. As Rose has mentioned, generally some severe shock or emotional crisis is
necessary to change major states-of-mind. However, in the same way, sometimes a trauma can make
one hold on even tighter. This “grasping” onto our concept of selfhood or ego is not always due to
self-love or complacency, which is the most common cause cited in puzzlingly uncompassionate
spiritual critiques of human nature. It can also be fear and the feeling of isolation in an increasingly
empty and hostile world.
A more mature cause of the ego-self’s reinforcement can be the growing awareness of and
concern about the difference between how things appear to be and how one suspects they really
ought to be. In other words, the development of a dense and tenacious ego can be due to a spiritually
immature individual mind becoming aware of the evident absurdity, injustice, and pointlessness of
life, as seen from the human level, and finding no trace of a wise and benevolent “God” to make
everything all right. Such an ego then becomes a substitute for this God, who seems to be absent in
the midst of the on-going trauma, needing to be the only resource of sense and meaning in a world
apparently without either, and being the vector towards the possibility of attaining that comprehensive
vantage point where all could be known. This insistent desire to know is one aspect of the larger
philosophical koan itself—the “doubt sensation”—and can be the origin of possibly the only legitimate
ego there is.
A further, significant, yet little recognized point should be made about the psychodynamics of
reaction to trauma. When a person experiences severe life trauma and collapses into despair or