Opposition between ego and body is, as we have said, an original condition.  Containment in the uroboros and its supremacy over the ego mean, on the bodily level, that ego and consciousness are at the outset continually at the mercy of the instincts, impulses, sensations, and reactions deriving from the world of the body.  To begin with, this ego, existing first as a point and then as an island, knows nothing of itself and consequently nothing of its difference.  As it grows stronger, it detaches itself more and more from the world of the body.  This leads finally, as we know, to a state of systematized ego consciousness where the entire bodily realm is to a large extent unconscious, and the conscious system is split off from the body as the representative of unconscious processes.  Through the split is not in effect so drastic as this, the illusion of it is so powerful and so real for the ego that the body region and the unconscious can only be rediscovered with a great effort.  In yoga, for instance, a strenuous attempt is made to reconnect the conscious mind with the unconscious bodily processes.

• body vs. mind
• consciousness
• ego
• ego consciousness
• instinct
• unconscious
• yoga
• mercy
• uroboros
• impulses
• body