THE EGO, PERCEPTION AND BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY

According to Buddhist philosophy perception is one of the five aggregates.

The other four are FORM, FEELING, MENTAL FORMATION, AND CONSCIOUSNESS

Below are some thoughts pertaining to perception and the ego.

The eye sees only shape and color, but perception has the conditioning of memory. Somebody who hasn’t got a clock might think, “I want one like that too.” Or somebody who has a better one might think, “Mine is much more valuable.” Ego is arising immediately, asserting its desires or superiority feelings. In reality, all we have seen is a square little box black at the back and white at the front. Because of ego delusion and conditioning, perception creates a thinking process which we, of course, believe. There’s no reason to disbelieve it because we’ve never analyzed it. By believing it, we are perpetuating the ego illusion. We are constantly thinking because we have to support our ego illusion. The ego is so fragile that it will fall apart unless it’s supported. We keep adhering to the demands of the body and we become the feeling to support our ego illusion. If we were only to look at the feeling and say, “It’s just a feeling,” then there would be no ego affirmation.

Ego needs constant support because it isn’t real. We don’t have to keep saying, “This is a house. This is a big house. This is an old house.” It’s obvious. This house exits. But the ego doesn’t and therefore it needs constant confirmation. This support comes from our thinking process and gets additional help from being appreciated and loved and through sense contacts and our perception of them.

READ MORE AT:
http://www.compassiontemple.org/english/basicbuddhism/five_aggregates.htm