Chapter 22 Chapter 2 Emotions and Pain-4

All these different emotions and their consequences come from a wrong understanding, and this misunderstanding comes from one source, which is the root of all ignorance - attachment to the ego. Ego is just another misunderstanding.When we look at our bodies (rupa), feelings (feelings), thoughts (sannas), behaviors (shamana) and consciousness (consciousness), we usually create a concept of ourselves.People are conditioned to see this concept as constant and real.Hands up, we think I am this form.We think I have this form, this is my body.We think that the body is me, and I am tall.We point to our breasts and think I live in this form.We think the same way about feelings, awareness, and behavior.I have feelings, I am my awareness... But Siddhartha realized that there is no separate entity, either inside or outside the body, that can be called a self.Like the optical illusion of the ring of fire, the self is illusory.It is fallacious; basically wrong, and actually does not exist.But just as we are deluded by the ring of fire, we are all deluded by the ego. Clinging to a false ego is an absurd act of ignorance.It keeps creating more ignorance, which leads to all kinds of misery and disappointment.

When Siddhartha discovered that there is no ego, he also discovered that there is no fundamental evil, but only ignorance.In particular, he contemplates how ignorance creates a standard of "self," attaches it to a totally groundless composite phenomenon, attaches importance to it, and then desperately protects it.He discovered that this ignorance leads directly to suffering and harm. Ignorance simply means not knowing the facts, or understanding the facts incorrectly, or understanding them incompletely.All these forms of ignorance lead to misunderstanding and misjudgment, overestimation and underestimation.Suppose you are looking for a friend and you suddenly see him in a distant field.Get closer, only to realize you've mistook a scarecrow for him.You are bound to be disappointed.It's not some mischievous scarecrow or your friend trying to mislead you surreptitiously, it's your own ignorance that betrays you.Any action done out of ignorance is a risk.We have no confidence when we act without knowing or fully knowing.Our fundamental insecurity arises from this.Create all these named and unnamed, known and unknown emotions.

The only reason we think we can climb to the top of the ladder, or that the plane we are on is about to take off and arrive safely, is that we are enjoying the bliss of ignorance.But it won't last long, because the bliss of ignorance is nothing more than a constant overestimation of the possibilities that will benefit you and an underestimation of what hinders you.Of course, karma will come together and things will happen, but we take this success for granted.We take it as evidence, that this is the way it should be, that our assumptions are warranted.However, such assumptions are nothing but food for misunderstanding.Every time we make an assumption—for example, that we think we know our spouse—we expose ourselves like an open wound.At any moment, one of the countless situations that could overturn our assumptions pops up, throws salt on it, and makes us flinch and howl.