So, what’s with the ego~compassion? What on Earth and in the heavens do these two words have to do with each other? The answer is everything we know, everything we say, everything we experience. And why the use of the “tilde” or “swung slash” connecting them? The answer to this question will help illuminate the answer to the first question.

The Lost Universes of the Diacrytical Signs
(The Great Extinction of Meaning in the Era of Industrial Printing)

A diacritical mark is a point, sign or squiggle that alters the pronunciation and/or meaning of a word. They were common prior to the advent of the printing press, adding to and refining the meaning of many words.
Our English keyboard has no such symbol to express the writer’s belief that a profound, interconnected, complementary relationship of meaning exists between two or more words.
A dash – or straight slash – is not helpful. In general the dash is read as signifying a break – or distinction – or separation.
A hyphen is used to signify the direct connection of two or more words, such as “son-in-law”. This signals that the combination of these words qualifies or modifies their meaning. However the hyphen does not indicate two words are necessarily interconnected in a profound, complementary way.

The “tilde” is on the keyboard because of the insistence of Spanish speakers, who use it specifically to type the letter ñ. It is used in Mathematics to signify an approximation. However, in general, it is not commonly used in English writing.

My use of the tilde harkens back to the pre-printing press era when this diacrytical sign was used to signal interconnection, albeit hidden connection e.g. “ñ” was short-hand for and had the same meaning as “nn”.

English has been a relatively dualistic language for well over a millennia, perhaps as a result of Britain being a colony of the Roman and Norman Empires for centuries. However this tendency to conflation and divisiveness has radically increased since the advent of the printing press and the English Combustion Revolution.
For example, the once powerful word “man”, which used to transcend the paradox of sex, now traps us in this paradox with “man” now conflicting with “woman” (compare older English “werman” and “wifman” when “man” simply meant “human being”, as in “mankind”).

Also many of the letters of the English alphabet were actually pictures or illustrations and these can enable us to transcend paradox in ways words never can. The characters or letters of other languages such as Mandarin Chinese are basically stylized drawings or pictures.
Nowadays few people are aware that many of the letters have stories, let alone know the stories behind the letters of the English alphabet in this New York Post article .

Hence my choice of the “~” symbol as the best means on the keyboard to evoke a sense of the vital, profound, dynamic, complementary relationship between two words or phrases.The tilde reminds us in waves ~ cycles ~ constant change. It is unique on the keyboard in its capacity to remind us of the Chinese yin~yang symbol – arguably the most famous and sustaining graphic symbol in known history, being born of the astute observation of shadows formed by a measuring stick throughout the great, vital Sun~Earth annual cycle at 42 latitude.

Here is a quote from thoughtco.com discussing the meaning of the Yin and Yang illustrating how the meaning of the word express in pictorial ways the nature of the universe.

“The Chinese characters for Yin Yang are 陰陽 / 阴阳 and they are pronounced yīn yáng.

The first character 陰 / 阴 (yīn) means: overcast weather; feminine; moon; cloudy; negative electrical charge; shady.

The second character 陽 / 阳 (yáng) means: positive electrical charge; sun.

The simplified characters 阴阳 clearly show the moon/sun symbolism since they can be deconstructed to their elements 月 (moon) and 日 (sun). The element 阝 is a variant of the radical 阜 which means “abundant”. So Yin Yang could represent the contrast between the full moon and the full sun.”
https://www.thoughtco.com/mandarin-meaning-of-yin-yang-2278446

Etymology of the word “Compassion”

Etymology of the Words “The Ego”

The word “ego” plays a profound role in our perceptions of Psychology~Psychology and is worthy of an essay in its own right. It arises from the Proto-Indian-European (PIE) word “”eg”- “I,”, which in turn gave rise to the first person singular nominative pronouns in European languages such as Proto-Germanic “ek” Old Frisian “ik”, Old Norse “ek”, Norwegian “eg” and “ic” in Old English, which was fore-shortened to “i” in the 12C. It is also the source of the Latin and Greek “ego”.

The word “ego” in English is taken directly from Latin and is translated as “I myself” to express emphasis. According to Etymology Online, by 1707, it came to mean in metaphysics, “the self; that which feels, acts, or thinks“.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ego now defines the “self” as “the union of elements (such as body, emotions, thoughts, and sensations) that constitute the individuality and identity of a person”

About 1894 Freud, an Austrian neurologist (and translator of some of John Stuart Mill’s collected works), introduced the psychoanalytic notion of “das Es”, “das Ich”, and “das Über-Ich” —respectively, “the It”, “the I”, and “the Over-I” (or “I above”).

“It is probable significant meaning was lost in translation into English. The terms “id”, “ego”, and “super-ego” are not Freud’s own. They are latinisations by his translator James Strachey.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego_and_super-ego

This series of essays illustrates how, in general, the English language has been co-opted by psychopathic City of London merchant bankers (the Crown) to enable the English Combustion Revolution (aka the English Industrial Revolution) and maximize their short-term profits. It is possible Freud was misinterpreted in the same ways that Darwin was.

So what is “the ego”? It is perhaps helpful to now widen our exploration of the cognitive linguistics of Psychology~Physics and our human condition in order to establish a more inclusive and sustaining definition. For the moment let us understand “the ego” is a dynamic force in the psyche that arises in any moment of self awareness in all men (human beings”. It is a state of being, just as “compassion” is. We are experiencing it every time we think or say “I”.

Brief Definitions of Four Great “P” Words
(FYI: 66,000? English words start with “P” – more than any other letter)

The four words are Psyche, Physics, Psychology and Philosophy.

The word “Psyche” speaks of our being, our existence, our breathing and living.
The letter “P” (the sound of “pe”) is silent in “Psyche” even though “P” was originally the symbol of the human mouth with its invisible forces of the breath and spoken words.

(The “P” is also silent in pneumonia, which arises from Greek pneumōn “lung,” altered (probably by influence of pnein “to breathe“) from pleumōn literally “floater,” probably cognate with Latin pulmo “lung(s),” from PIE root *pleu- “to flow.” Greek pneumōn also meant “jellyfish, medusa,” “perhaps from its rhythmical pulsation, as if breathing”)
Reference https://www.etymonline.com/

The silence of the “P” in “Psyche” speaks volumes of the ambiguity inherent in the invisibility yet the totality of the vitality enabling our human existence. We are animated by incredible, invisible, unspeakable forces. In other words, we are vitally intimate with energy with every atom and cell of our being even though we may never know what energy is because our thoughts (words) cannot transcend paradox and all our existence involves paradox.

In this context of the human condition, “Physics” is perhaps best defined as

“(the study of) the ways of the universe, all of which involve paradox”.

Note a paradox: physics is defined as both “the way” and “the study of the way” – the studied and the study are essentially the same action. Unfortunately the limiting nature of our English language stultifies the expression of this definition. The brackets form a clumsy way of saying, “the way~the study of the way”.

In terms of this definition of Physics, Psychology can be defined as
“(the study of) the arts (skills) of transcending paradox”
while “Philosophy” is best defined as
“the loving of the wisdom attained from the arts of transcending paradox”.

Wisdom of Psychology~Physics
Living is learning and loving wisdom

The wisdom of Psychology~Physics suggests we can usefully understand our psyche as having two inseparable elements or forces: “the ego~compassion”.
These two elements simultaneously arise together in any moment of self-awareness and exist as one of the other.
Together they form the essence of our being and thus, together, they can offer invaluable insights into our human condition. Indeed the relative balance of their co-existence determines our level of science and whether or not we are sustained as a species.

Much has been written and spoken about each. Famously, Sigmund Freud developed complex theories about “the ego” while the Delai Lama has expounded at great length on both the wonderful value of and our vital need for compassion. However it is rare to hear “the ego” and “compassion” mentioned in the same breath in our Anglo culture.

Indeed, while the word “ego” is commonly used, usually as a personal pejorative of someone else, the word “compassion” is rarely used and then it is commonly conflated with pity, sympathy and empathy. Our more ego-driven English culture very often associates compassion with weakness of character, woolly/mushy thinking and being delusional, especially the inability to be “Business-like” and face “Economic Reality!”.

My search of every national and state Education Framework in the Anglosphere that I could locate did not turn up a single mention of “compassion” – nor any mention of “the ego” .

This sort of invisibility is a typical of the ego, indicating our Anglosphere Education Frameworks are overwhelmingly ego-driven.
The ego, being exclusive by nature, has us abhor compassion because compassion is inclusive by nature and our experience of compassion forms inconvenient reminders of our mortal and moral states of being.

Also, paradoxically the intensity of the ego’s constant craving for dominance of our psyche is perhaps only matched by its fervor for evading our compassionate recognition of its role in our psyche. Ever a noisy, distracting force, it operates with incredible stealth in our lives.

This relative dominance of the ego in our Anglosphere culture is manifest in our extreme deductive, dualistic belief systems. It is also manifest in the relative inability of our modern English language to transcend paradox.

In brief, our Anglosphere culture lacks sufficient compassion with its requisites for true science to prevail and this lack is reflected in our ego-driven use of the English language trapping us in paradox. Without these requisites, true Civics cannot prevail. Consequently our society is not sustained by the principles of physics and tends to generate dystopia.

Say Again, What’s So Wrong with English notions of “Physics” And “Psychology”?

There are profound reasons why this discussion might not be making good sense to you. One reason is my definitions of physics and psychology are more compassionate than is customary. They postulate there is a profound, active interconnection between psychology and physics such that it is relatively meaningless to speak of one with referring to the other. This is very radical in our Anglosphere culture – particularly in terms of the severely dissociated notions of Physics and Psychology that our media inculcate us in.

It may be of comfort to be aware that such compassionate concepts are common place in many cultures and have sustained them for many millennia. Great European quantum theorists and inventors such Schrödinger, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schopenhauer, Oppenheimer, Capra and Tesla found profound sustenance in reading the Veda, the ancient texts of India. They were much comforted in the knowledge that the acceptance of psychology~physics was commonplace in the daily lives of millions of people and it formed a foundation concept of the Hindu religion.

It is helpful to be mindful our modern, compartmentalized English notions of Physics, Science and Psychology are actually very recent inventions, their advent coinciding with the English Combustion Revolution (Aka “the English Industrial Revolution”).
Our prevailing English belief is that it has been our superior intelligence and clever technology that enabled the vast, rapid expansion of the English~Anglosphere Empire this past three centuries.

The greater truth is the expansion of the mighty Anglo empire has primarily been driven by the belief of a clique of English-speaking people that it is their divine right to burn Earth’s biomass as they please. This fatal delusion has justified their decimation of forests and their vast combustion of ancient biomass in order to build an unprecedented global military~industrial complex.

In brief, our current English notions of Physics and Psychology are manifest in unprecedented wasteful, polluting behaviour and the mass extinction of species. These beliefs are so potent and radical they are recorded in the rocks and ice of Earth. No other human culture in history has left such a geological imprint of species extinction and atmosphere disruption.

This drastic cultural artefact invokes deep reflection on our future as a species, prompting questions such as: “What’s with these Wiki definitions that are so commonly taught in our Anglosphere Education Curriculum?” and “Surely radical beliefs such as these require radical correction?”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics Wiki 3 Feb 2023
Quote “Physics is the natural science that studies matter,[a] its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force.[2]”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology Wiki 3 Feb 2023
Quote “”Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline…”

Note how both definitions involve the use of the words “science” and “study”. In particular, observe how the authors employ them without caveats and assume we, the reader, share a common understanding of their meaning.

They and you may well be assuming “Science” is a special type of deductive thinking and/or an exclusive body of knowledge that exists “out there” – the exclusive domain of an elite group of men (human beings) who call themselves “Scientists”
Similarly they and you may have assumed the “study” referred to is an exclusive activity that is typically practiced in classrooms and laboratories.

People who are brought up in our English media, especially in our English education systems, rarely question such definitions. We tend to just assume there are “experts” who are the authorities on such matters and they know what they are saying. It rarely occurs to us to question if the definitions might be machinations of the ego, the exclusive, divisive, acquisitive element in all people.

Could it be the ego has us defer to “authority ” and find it so very easy and convenient to make such assumptions about our use of words? After all, the ego ever operates in ingenious ways to have us eschew our roles as stewards amidst the universal flux, the continuous universal transformation.
It is characteristic of the ego to have us believe “science” and “study” are somehow inert quanta or bodies of information, things separate to our daily lives that we can leave behind when we walk out the door of the classroom and laboratory.

It is more characteristic of compassion to remind us that both words involve the paradox of information.
Compassion enables us to embrace the reality that, if they are used wisely, “science” and “study” are active words expressing our actual state of being in any moment of our life amidst the continuous universal exchange of information.
Compassion fills us with sensations of humility, generosity and the paradoxical awareness that we are each informing all even as we are each informed amidst the universal transformation. We are all both scientists and non-scientists to varying degrees. We all teach as we learn. We are all paradoxical phenomena – we all live paradox.

Re the Ego~Compassion Imbalance
Three exemplars of the inability of Crown English to express paradoxical phenomena

These three examples illustrate how our English language reflects a fundamentally unsustainable world-view and lifestyle. The divisive use of words bear all the hall marks of the ego. Compassion is conspicuous by its absence. All are fatally flawed in terms of physics.

Example one: Teacher

Example two: Environment

Example 3 Energy

Our Crown English conflates the word “energy” with a few of the myriad forms it may be manifest in – namely coal, mineral oil~gas and Bulk-generated electrical products. This belief evidences complete denial of the principles of physics, obliterates a vast array of sustaining options and generates extreme psychopathic behaviour.
See essays, e.g. What is Energy? , What is Power? and What is a Resource?
…………….

The astute reader will notice that our contemporary English definitions of “Physics”, “Psychology” and “Philosophy” have two things in common:

• they are each defined as a discipline or “branch of instruction or education” i.e. a way of thinking and/or a body of knowledge;
• each definition denies the active role of our psyche in all human interactions with existence, including our role as informants amidst the universal flux of information.

This is consistent with the way the ego has us deny that “science” is an active, moral state of being and instead has us believe “Science” is an amoral body of knowledge, the domain of an elite of people who call themselves “scientists”.
It is also consistent with the way the ego has us deny that “study” involves our profound interaction with all – our psyche informing all even as it is informed by all. The ego would have us instead be the ultimate “know-all”, neither seeing nor hearing or sensing our universal connection in a self-aware way.

And perhaps you are asking, “Where are there any manifestations of compassion in these Wiki definitions?”
It would seem there is a distinct lack of compassion though nothing can be said with certainty, which prompts the question, “What can we know with a high degree of certainty”.

Wisdom of the Ways of the Universe

Perhaps you can sense a pattern emerging and you are enjoying a clearer picture of the relative, complementary roles of the ego and compassion in our psyche. However before discussing their characteristics more fully, it may be helpful to list a few things (ideas) what we can know of the ways of the universe with some certainty:

We live ambiguity.
All existence involves paradox.
We live and die according to the reality of the Conservation of Energy Principle:
energy continuously transforms all forms; energy is conserved.
(We can neither create, conserve, destroy nor save energy.
Change is a constant.)

Accordingly:

We live the paradox of energy.
Energy is continuous, universal, paradoxical transformation.
Energy is all forms; no form is energy
Everyone is energy; no one can know what it is.

We live the paradox of change:
The nearest we experience to a constant is continuous universal change.
Change is a constant.
The most certain form in existence is uncertainty.
Time is our measure of change; we are our measure of time.
(Our perception of time continuously changes.)

We live the paradox of forces
Any form, no matter how large or small, exists as a unique, finite (passing, transient) balance of the universal forces.
Action and reaction oppose each other; action and reaction are of each other.
A reaction conserves that which it reacts against.
Energy is the universal potential, all of which is active.
All potential is actual.
We are our actions.
Power is our measure of the rate the universal potential is manifest.
All power is of energy; power is not energy.

We live paradox of information
Any form informs all even as it is informed by all.
Information is physical and is thus subject to the principles of physics.
A principle is always an approximation of the truth of reality.

We live paradox of communication
Our use of a symbol simultaneously generates and reflects our state of being.
Our actions are our medium; our medium is our message;
Thoughts (words) can speak endlessly of paradox yet they can never transcend paradox.
A word used in accord (acceptance) of the principles of physics tends to generate joy and true hope whereas a word used in discord (denial) of the principles tends to generate misery and misery.

Transcending Our Human Condition

Hopefully the above exposition of our paradoxical experience of existence; the limitations of thoughts (words); and the ways of the universe enables us to better understand and share the psychology~physics of our human condition.
Questions arise such as: “How can we best transcend the limitations of self-awareness, thought and paradox?”,
“How can we better know what we are saying?”
“Oh, by the way, when are we going to define “the ego” and “compassion”?

Pictures can communicate in ways words never can and sometimes a preliminary sketch or cartoon can say more than the finished painted picture does.

The the red character and the green character are actually inseparable and together form the yin-yang symbol, that great, sustaining reminder we can never truly know what good comes from seeming bad and bad from seeming good.
The combined qualities of compassion and the ego can be divided into two columns of words with the caveat that this is unhelpful in that the existence of columns oversimplifies and obscures the complex reality that each pair of forces arises from the other and any force interacts with all the other forces in subtle ways:

COMPASSION	THE EGO
Inclusive	Exclusive
Open	Secretive
Honest	Deceitful
Humble	Arrogant
Generous	Selfish
Sharing	Acquisitive
Forgiving	Intolerant
Trustful	Fearful

Three insights may occur to you.

The inclusive characteristics seem familiar, as do the exclusive characteristics. It is probable you associate the list of inclusive qualities more with compassion and associate the list of exclusive qualities more with the ego.

The second insight is that these characteristics actually form profound states of being – they are far more than mere ways of thinking. In fact they shape our thought processes and inform our use of words in profound ways.

The third insight that may occur to you is that the qualities of compassion form the requisite states for us to experience the state of being of science. The state of science cannot exist without open, inclusive, humble inquiry; honest, careful experimentation; and the generous sharing of information.
Without compassion, the qualities of the ego prevail and we live a life of non-science and dissonance with all.

A More Wonderful Vision of Existence

At first reading, the notion of our psyche being a finite, dynamic, paradoxical interaction of the forces of “the ego” and “compassion” may seem unimaginable, implausible, insulting, radical and unsubstantiated nonsense. This is characteristic of the response of the ego in each us. It thrives in the domain of words and is genius at re-engineering the meaning of words to serve its own exclusive purposes.

However the rewards can be great if you allow yourself some time of compassion. Certainly the inclusiveness of compassion may remind us there is great inequity and suffering in life – much of it caused by human greed, envy, arrogance and delusions. At the same time compassion has the potential to remind and empower us in true hope of physics.

For instance, if you graduated from our English Education system, there is a 99% possibility you currently believe you are a Non-Scientist, a Non-Artist and feel powerless to improve the prospects for humankind.
Imagine if more compassionate definitions of science prevailed, such as those outlined above. These generate entirely different world views, which you may find very empowering. For instance, “Science” is understood to be a state of being – the state of being that occurs when we are experiencing all the qualities of compassion, this state enabling us to develop the arts (skills) that sustain humankind (Civics).

In other words, we are all students, teachers, scientists, artists and Civic beings to some degree. Consequently the truths of physics truths are manifest in our language, legislation and education frameworks so that our lifestyles sustain our children for many generations to come.
In other words we enjoy a healthy balance of the ego~compassion so our lives are more in harmony with the ways of the universe and its sustaining potential is more manifest in return.

Other essays in this series:

Medium part 1 Tongue-tied by the English Language
(On untying the bonds of the mother tongue)

Medium part 2 What’s in a Word?

Medium part 3 What is Energy?

Medium part 4 What is Power?

Medium part 5 What is Economy?

Medium part 6 What is Warming- Up?

Medium part 7 What is a Fossil Fuel?

Medium part 8 What is a Resource?

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First draft 26 February 2023