Dictionary.com defined ego as “a person as thinking, feeling, and willing.” “Feeling” is another one of those “slippery” words that can be tough to place boundaries on. The question is, are feelings something the ego or self experiences or creates, or both? Or are the origins of feelings, all feelings, external to the ego? Clearly, the conscious self experiences feelings, but more importantly has the capacity to judge those feelings, as appropriate or inappropriate, based on beliefs that are also often largely resident and originating in the subconscious. Feelings can influence choices of will, but cannot dictate what choices the ego will make. Can Creator help us sort out the reality and flow of feelings or emotion, and what the ego’s role is in experiencing them, judging them, and acting upon them?

The way human beings work is that you have multiple and separate levels of the mind, each with resident beliefs and expectations accordingly, and all are connected to the body in a way that will produce emotions in reaction to what is being perceived. This is a very, very useful attribute because, in a sense, it is your internal truth detector doing frontline duty from moment to moment about everything that happens. In every new situation, you will often have an emotional reaction generating feelings about it before your mind truly comes to grip in any way with a true understanding of what is happening. What is felt first is the gut reaction, and those feelings, likely as not, will be telegraphing deeply held inner beliefs and will hold up over time as an accurate reflection of the relative merits, pros and cons, helpful or unhelpful, happy or sad contrasts in what is unfolding with your life. There are many other comparisons and contrasts that can be expressed through feelings that represent alignment with what you wish to happen versus some kind of diminishment, and will play out as a corresponding feeling of equanimity and contentment or happiness, versus uncertainty, anxiety, or unhappiness to a small or large degree. So, in a sense, this is something you could consider the feeling level of the mind in its levels of existence and expression. The deep subconscious might be most concerned with survival, things that are a threat or menace, and be most sensitive to those broad issues. It is often looking at other lifetimes, and whether in past or future yet to come, this can be a tremendous source of anxiety and insecurity if much suffering is observed and taken to heart, and by that we mean reacting emotionally, to suffer the consequences. The ego, as an aspect of consciousness, is a part of the mind that taps into other levels, through association, which have a functional role in things. But because the ego is a shallow vessel it will have a more limited array of emotional responses it is likely to generate. So the range from positive to negative will encompass things like pride, a gleeful joy when victorious in a competition that is more about a reward to the self than a love feeling encompassing others as well. And then, on the darker end of things, anger and resentment when slighted, or even when bested, with often a judgmental assignment of the victor being a lesser talent than the self because of the presumed superiority of the ego that is a kind of fabrication, a kind of mask it wears to provide strength simply because this is its priority and not the consequence of careful study, evaluation, and thorough justification for the assumptions it makes in putting the self above others as a natural bias. So, in all cases, the feelings flow from conscious awareness of what is taking place and provide a readout as a measure of how the mind is reacting to things, much akin to taking one's temperature to see if the body is overstressed and fighting an inner invasion. The greatest contributor to emotions is the deep subconscious, on a percentage basis, but the ego, existing to be a strong force of will, is capable of generating quite strong feelings as well, in keeping with its role to dominate things if not held in check. And by virtue of the fact that when the ego gains the upper hand, and people act accordingly, that lack of self‑control, to let the ego be unbridled, will likely let strong emotions take place that are similarly left unchecked and may well cause great difficulty for the person.