The Victim Identity: How the Ego Uses Suffering

You don't know that much. You don't have much. Your body isn't great. What do I do now? The ego says, I need something to It doesn't say that. It's an unconscious process. But if if it could speak, the ego said, "What can I identify with?" Oh my god. No matter what you achieve, no matter where you are, there's always something missing. So this is we we come to the the limitations of what people call their identity, their self. Uh you can never be fulfilled for very long when you're trapped in your egoic sense of self because ultimately it is a a story in your mind that you tell yourself. It's a narrative me and my life. My life. But it's not your life because the only only place where your life happens is in this moment. This moment this is your life but not the all the memories and the accumulated conditionings in your mind. That's I call that sometimes your life situation. You have a life situation in time. Everybody has a past. So you have a past that you identify with certain things from the past you identify with good and bad. I forgot to mention that sometimes the ego cannot does not find enough things to identify with. So it it let's say for example you don't have many possessions certainly don't have more possessions than others. So you can't identify with that. Maybe your body doesn't look particularly great. So it's you you can't you know that your body isn't superior to most people's bodies. That was the case with me and it still is obviously. So uh and then other things that people invest knowledge. I know more than you. That's another big thing. And perhaps you don't have that either. You don't know that much. You don't have much. Your body isn't great. What do I do now? The ego says I need something to It doesn't say that. It's an unconscious process. But if if it could speak, the ego said, "What can I identify with?" Oh my god. Oh, I got it. I got some. You created thought form because ultimately they all thought forms. If you go down to the root of all identification is thought because even your possessions you experience them as thought forms. my car, my house, my this and even the body becomes it's a thought form of body. You have a body image, a thought form. So ultimately all identifications although they maybe seem to be external but if you go to the root of it, identification is always with thought. And so let's come back to this person who doesn't have anything to make him or her feel superior because that's what the ego is looking for and find some superiority so to give we sense a to give me a sense that I exist and so then what it can easily do it creates a thought form in which it perceives itself as unfairly treated by life and start from I'm not denying that there are many people who looked at it uh from a certain viewpoint one could say well they have been unfairly treated by life there is a of course there are many people in this world where you could say that happened to them but the question is are you transforming that into an identity there's a fact that may be true or not true. But are you transforming this? And then you create a thought form as you as somebody who has been unfairly treated by life. And that thought form can get very big and can be as powerful and even more strong even stronger than a thought form that is perhaps usually associated with an ego that says I'm the greatest. I'm the best. Uh, nobody is better than me. Look at me. Some well-known politicians may be like that. Not mentioning any names. Uh, so you have a thought form. It says uh ultimately the the term we could use to describe this ego identification is victim identity. And this is a very um many people have that it's become almost fashionable these days to have a victim that you see yourself or the group of people that you belong to as a a victim of others other groups of people not denying that that people have been treated badly group ws of people by others all these are facts but the important Question is are you transforming that into an identity for yourself and then it becomes a huge prison for yourself and it it it you you have built your own prison and and then now what the question may arise if the ego seeks superiority how can you be superior if if you've been treated unfairly If you're a victim of others, well, obvious if you are a victim of others, you are automatically morally superior to the others as a victim. That's how that identity works. It's an unconscious process. So people may not be conscious of that. But it makes you immediately it makes you morally superior to all the others. no matter what they have achieved it becomes irrelevant. You are superior and that that we have that is another ego strategy that operates in many people. Uh I'm again I do not deny that people and groups of people have become victims of other people and other groups. People do bad things to to each other and collectives to do dreadful things to each other. Millions millions have been killed, enslaved, all kinds of things. So you you you can see these as facts. But the danger is you can facing the facts is good to recognize facts is good. But the danger is that you transform that into an identity which means it becomes a thought form. This is who or what I am. That's the that is the present. And so this is where we are at in our evolutionary development. Most humans are trapped in the egoic sense of self. And the egoic sense of self operates both on an individual level where it tends to create a lot of suffering that ultimately is unnecessary and on a collective level where it creates a lot of conflict between nations and so on. the the in the collective ego in its more extreme forms is even more dysfunctional and more insane than the individual ego. The if you are trapped in a collective ego, people have done the most dreadful things to each other. People who were trapped in a collective ego image, that's us against them. us against them. So you dehumanize other human you a whole group of humans mentally because you you you construct a conceptual reality for them. That is who or what you you attach certain labels or names to groups of people whether it's religious or political but they are the enemy. they are the others. So you create a collective a a conceptual identity for others and for yourself also. You have you belong to this group and then you you no longer can sense their inherent humanity that they are human beings. So and then the next step is physical violence and that's how um n in Germany national socialism have millions killed other groups dehumanizing a certain group in communist Russia Soviet Union also millions killed internally China under maong cultural revolution millions killed internally by dehumanizing others and simply attaching a label uh class enemies in communism. These are the our the class enemies. They are the traitors, the class enemies. Let's eliminate them. They are less than human. They're class enemies. Okay? Total craziness. If you read history, I don't know if I would recommend that you should read a book on TW just 20th century history. You would go crazy if you read what what what did they do to each other. There was not only the warfare, there was genocide. There was within nations, nation against nation, n genocide, but within nations and I don't know whether you would get very depressed if you read that you would say or it might suddenly enlighten you and say yes there is there is a huge streak of insanity in the human mind. There can be no doubt about that. Yes, humans have created great things also. But uh undoubtedly there is something not right in the human mind. There is a dysfunction there hidden. Perhaps it's manifesting even more strongly now than ever before. There's something not right in the human mind. And that's an important recognition. But you don't only recognize it by reading a history book. You can also recognize it on a collective level just by listening watching the news tonight not the oilers the other news watching the news tonight and most of that shows the deep dysfunction in the collective human mind that's happening and you can also see it perhaps if you look at your own life maybe not right now because you're already um awakened ing at least if the brought awakened but if you look back in your own life how very often you you suffering was created completely unnecessary unnecessarily uh and that's a quite a realization when you see the un how suff suffering is created simply by misuse of the mind.