Does knowledge only feed the ego?

I've been having trouble with this understanding as I suddenly find myself getting into the idea of spirituality. I have been reading books on Krshna consciousness and 2012 (Daniel Pinchbeck) and I find myself learning a lot more as I involve myself into the information found on the internet.

Now, I know I'm intelligent. I can spell and use proper grammar, I can comprehend complex ideas and I constantly have original thoughts. As an artist, a musician, and a dancer I have to keep an open mind as to allow my creativity to flourish.

So the burning question is...If I am trying to become "holistic" and free of ego, doesn't gaining more knowledge feed my ego, since knowledge is power?

I ask this because the more I learn and the things I talk about seem to be way over my friends heads, and they say I come off arrogant. Like, I am suppose to talk about the mind numbing things i.e. movies, clubs, cars, material things, etc.

Is it wrong to want to indulge myself into philosophy, UFOs, and conspiracies, the things that seem important to us as humans. I just believe we should be less focused on things that don't matter such as material things.

I hope I was clear on that subject and would like to hear what all the ATSers have to say about this question.

AND if you have any advice, please share.


P.S. - Link to my art blog site...

theawesomestguy.blogspot.com...


Thank you. Peace be with you.





-The Spiritual Warrior

One way to destroy your ego, is to destroy yourself. But you may regret it later, and remember you have to live in a real world too.

I cannot see how you can get rid of the ego any other way. People are scum, and you need an ego just to survive the bull in this world, or you will be walked on so much.

Be careful for what and how you do this, as there are forces outside of us, that can take over your whole life.

reply to post by The Spiritual Warrior


Friend Ego is not necessarily a bad thing.

I can give you some great advice for your spiritual wellbeing and perhaps a few exercises that will show you that you need not change anything about yourself.

You simply need to change your perception of things including your image.

U2U me if you'd like to know more, i'll be happy to help.

It is not your ego that makes you come off as arrogant my friend, it is the mind numbing stupidity of the masses. You are an intelligent person, you speak of intelligent things that actually matter. Most people aren't with this program yet, you need to pick your battles wisely, or perhaps frequent some older friends who share your views.

~Keeper

[edit on 3/29/2009 by tothetenthpower]

reply to post by The Spiritual Warrior


What you are learning now, on this spiritual journey, is that your friends are on a different spiritual plane. They're swimming in the sea of Samsara and are totally unaware of it. You, on the other hand, know there are shorelines to find and are starting to tell your friends about your exciting new knowledge.

They have no concept of the shoreline and think you are either crazy or arrogant for suggesting such a thing.

The fact that they are challenging your ego and you are concerned that knowledge of the shoreline might be inflating your ego means their game is working.

Be strong. It maybe time to swim with other fish who seek the shoreline as well.

Not really, there people of the Bible stories who had knowledge beyond most people, they were able to raise the dead and do all sort of miracles after Jesus poured his spirit out. What this means is that you can still be mighty and yet humble in your knowledge, its not always a one way neuron imput that puts the two together, having self control is also an option and putting care of others through selfless action can be achieved. Doctors are very smart people, does not mean they behave in the way you say out of ego, it depends on your control of one self too.

Some people say ignorance is bliss. It depends on who you ask. If you ask the Powers-That-Be, they will say it is true, PLEASE believe that; but most people would disagree, they would say that ignorance is NOT bliss.

'Ignorance is bliss' is a fine philosophy for subversive serfs.

Knowledge IS power, but the power should be for your own good and your own development, not to use the knowledge to subvert or hold back civilization, or gain advantage over it, like the PTB are attempting to do at this very moment.

I've learned very much from ATS's wonderful community and I'm very grateful for that.

Some people would just rather live inside the box and live a lie or believe the lie, because they can't handle the truth or not to have their creature comforts. I just feel pity for these people.

I don't feel any egoistical superiority, I just want people to wake up, and face up to the truth, and stop contributing to the subversion of the human race by the PTB, and to pull the rug on these traitors.

wow your pics are great

dont be afraid that your ego will become too high.

only that you ask this questions shows that you are a person who knows what souls, heart and peace means.

knowledge dont mean a high ego, if you dont let your ego become stronger as your heart.




NiaWind

Ignorance is not bliss, it just gives the scum in society more power of all of us. No one can find the real truths aout everything, so i doubt opening up will lead to you being to much of a ego maniac.

The more I learn the more I realize I don't know. The more I realize I don't know the humbler it makes me.

Learn as much as you can my friend, Just know that understanding is the crossroads between knowledge and wisdom.

Choose your audience. The members on ATS will discuss every angle of everything with you and they not only want to learn, they want to share what they know as well.

It's OK to talk about movies, Grandma and the mundane day to day with the folks who aren't ready for the really fun stuff yet.

Just my thoughts on it,

wupy

Originally posted by The Spiritual Warrior

I ask this because the more I learn and the things I talk about seem to be way over my friends heads, and they say I come off arrogant. Like, I am suppose to talk about the mind numbing things i.e. movies, clubs, cars, material things, etc.

It's called growth, and you are outpacing the people who think you are arrogant. I don't mean to come off as rude here, but you need to find some new friends that have likewise interests. What you are describing here is like trying to mix oil with water.

Don't be surprised if you find yourself spending more time alone, until you find more people who have like mindedness to yourself. It will give you more time to contemplate what is really important to you in your life of self discovery.

reply to post by mrwupy

It's OK to talk about movies, Grandma and the mundane day to day with the folks who aren't ready for the really fun stuff yet.

When it is all said and done, and you have explored every
aspect of existence, and found them all lacking, and realize you are still not satisfied, so you explore another avenue, and another,

It is the mundane things that keep you sane and grounded, celebrate the simple things of life.

There is a story about buddhist monks complaining about a fellow monk that escaped the daily meditations to go play with the children of the villiage,

The head monk told them he was the one who had attained enlightenment.

I always try to practice ego dissolution as a form of spirituality anyway. I know that if I have a big head, I'm going in the wrong direction. There's a saying that comes to mind too: "wherever I go, I'm followed by a dog called Ego" (and I probably paraphrase).

I say "try to practice" because to totally dissolve your sense of self, of being "other" than the rest of the universe, is to become absorbed into your environment one way or another, whether through a satori kind of state or physically dying. Unless I want to live like a monk on a mountainside somewhere, a certain amount of ego is what makes me get up every day and do "the daily grind" in our Western way. I know it isn't the "best" way to live but I still have too many selfish attachments to loved ones to completely abandon it.

[edit on 29-3-2009 by bsbray11]

reply to post by mrwupy

The more I learn the more I realize I don't know. The more I realize I don't know the humbler it makes me. Mrwupy

It is the mundane things that keep you sane and grounded, celebrate the simple things of life. Stormdancer777

Great stuff!
I think some may be getting ego mixed up with self confidence!
Ego bad, self confidence good! The ticket: HUMILITY rocks!
Peace to U



[edit on 29-3-2009 by dodadoom]

The fact that you are asking these questions, and thoughtfully going on this journey tells me that this is not about ego. It is about what journeys are... learning.

I have friends that arent interested in reading and learning or questioning things... we have different tastes... but you know what? They teach me plenty too.... sometimes really important things like how to stay in balance, or what kindness and real friendship is.

I wish you luck and peace!

is not spirituality closely connected with true purpose and meaning of your existence. It is a need that is wired into us which leads ones journey to find truth in conection to the creator.

Spirituality asside, I have gained a lot of knowledge and awareness of human behavior in my journey that has been a 5 year crash course out of necessity.

My personal development has been very empowering and i am grateful for my life saving progress.

But now i am aware of the behavior of people around me and i can see how they are imprisoned buy there thought order/disorder

It frustrates me because i want to help, but there is an inclination of ego that i am somewhat better than them in my new found knowledge of understanding and awareness and the power of acceptance. Ego and confidance are completly differnt i think. Not to long ago i couldnt look someone in they eye. Now with beaming confidance it feels like i can look through there mind and i wish not.

my wording is used in a physiological reference only not spiritual. My spiritual knowledge is gained from the bible.


i hope that makes sense to some, i feel alone in that regard. Oe maybe i am just cracking up

Originally posted by The Great Day

my wording is used in a physiological reference only not spiritual. My spiritual knowledge is gained from the bible.

My spiritual knowledge is gained from life. I suppose the source is not as important as the chance to share the insights we have learned with our fellow travelers.

When I was young I wanted knowledge. I believed this would fulfill that longing in my soul. I studied and learned all I could. Knowledge didn't fill the void though.

The knowledge I attained though lead to understanding. This became my new goal. The more knowledge I had the more understanding I had and I thought this would finally bring me the peace I sought. It didn't.

Understanding knowledge lead to wisdom and I was sure that wisdom was the very top of the totem pole. After basking in it's glory for a short while i realized there was more.

Wisdom lead to truth. Surely there could be nothing higher than truth. I sought it out with everything I had learned over the many years of my life, and it broke my heart. Truth can be bent like the rays of light, It is nothing more than perspective.

Then I learned of love. Love encompasses everything I had always been chasing. It accepts the knowledge, the wisdom, understanding, truth and makes them all into one wonderful idea:

"Unconditional love is the greatest gift you can give to this world, and to yourself."

This is where I am in my spiritual journey. I do not know if there is anything higher than love, but I continually search.

I only hope your journey has brought you the happiness that mine has brought me.

Love and light,

wupy

Love is key www.biblegateway.com...:8;&version=47;

and i probably shouldn't bring in the bible and drop scriptures if i don't want to confuse my point further or making this a debate about what is spirituality.

I have learned to love myself finaly.....well at least except myself with love. Without out that i think i could not truly express my love and compassion to others.

I was making an attempt to classify my knowledge in the field of self awareness and mental health and did not want to confuse that with knowledge of spirituality based on the bible in which i am limited.

Probably in my attempt to sound profound i made no sense

I appreciate your experience and can relate to some of your peace thanks. Isn't it great

Knowledge is POWER!
And ego is your remote, turn it up!

Wow. Thank you for the overwhelming response.

I know I came to the right place

I hope to learn much from everyone on here. I'll definitely consider some of the advice that many were willing to share.

I'm finding this spiritual journey to be very difficult as the more I indulge myself into it, the more and more less I feel connected to certain people. I live in Texas and I just moved to San Antonio from Houston. I hope here I can find some people who share the same thoughts and have the same questions that I have about this world.

I know that this is a personal journey but it would be nice to be able to talk to someone in person about this and not have to depend on the internet for sound people. I am grateful that I came across this site and I highly doubt it was an "accident".

Fate works in many ways.

Thank you again for all your helpful words.


Peace be with you all.



-The Spiritual Warrior

Originally posted by The Spiritual Warrior
...the more I learn and the things I talk about seem to be way over my friends heads, and they say I come off arrogant.

This is a result of 'outside the box' type thinking IMO, once you step through the door and journey outside the box you will never fit back in. The knowledge and understanding gained from opening your mind in such a way will cause you to be a contradiction to your friends and from my experience this can be very painful. There are many ways to deal with this but they take time and patience. If your focus is on the journey at hand and not where you came from then the answers will find you.

Ego pride is never a good thing but there are times when it is not that bad. Humility removes pride and if this is viewed as an opportunity much can be learned about our ego. I see this as a conflict inside our mind like two wolfs fighting to survive, the one that wins is the one that you feed the most.

Originally posted by The Spiritual Warrior
So the burning question is...If I am trying to become "holistic" and free of ego, doesn't gaining more knowledge feed my ego, since knowledge is power?

There is no doubt that this is a tough question and one I still have some trouble with. "Knowledge is power and power is an illusion",--this doesn't seem to make sense even though I see truth in it. I think the answer resides in a better understanding of the question, what is knowledge and how is it different from understanding?

This is what I came up with:
Knowledge is finite, it is eventually forgotten and it can be false. Knowledge is often used to manipulate others through the way it is taught. Knowledge is power making knowledge the deception and power an illusion. In order to gain power people must believe knowledge to be true and give up that which is far more valuable.

Understanding is Divine. Understanding can not be taught, forgotten, used to control others nor can it ever be false. Each of us must find Understanding in our own way and the only way to impede Understanding is by denying it from ourselves. Understanding is the path towards Truth and Truth will set you free