The ego

Originally posted by MrVertigo
It's essential for our survival...

The ego is not who we are, just as our thoughts are not who we are.

Haha, you contradicted yourself!

One does not need the ego to survive. One will survive with or without it, and it is much more enjoyable to be without it!

Originally posted by coodeytarWe are where we are because of the brilliance of the individual and the ego of those individuals.

Hahahaha! The delusions of ego truly know no bounds!

Do you see how the ego loves to control and claim responsibility for everything that happens? Haha!

There is no "doer." The ego will never control anything. It is an illusion and does not truly exist.

The world will go where it is going, no matter what your ego tells itself or tries to do.

As someone in a spiritual awakening process and as someone who is trying to overcome their ego, I seriously thank you for posting the video. Very informative... thx.

Originally posted by OmegaPoint
Simple question: Who are you?

Not "what are you?" but WHO are you, and I don't mean your attributes either, no WHO?

Have you ever done that exercise "who are you?" it's so uncomfortable. You sit knee to knee with a partner, each taking turns, looking directly into eachother's eye's asking "Who are you". The ego does not enjoy this exercise. LOL At least mine didn't.

Interesting thread.. the ego is something we all have to deal with, be it consciously or otherwise. Well, if there's anything that could be called a 'solution' to the 'problem' of ego, this is it: (an important key anyway)

www.youtube.com...

It is fun reading through this thread.

Some people believe that if you meditate... 'You will find enlightenment'
Or if you fast, sit quietly and think about... 'You will find enlightenment'

This IS the ego. It is genius. The ego trying to protect itself by allowing you the feeling of, what in essence is superiority. The sense that 'I am now or soon will be enlightened' because I am meditating. I do not argue that one can get definitive experience from meditation. It seems to me to be everything but enlightenment.

Whatever you TRY to do it will BE ego.

This is because trying IS EGO.

It seems as though I have an ego. Ok, that's just the way it is.

Now let’s have some fun seeing what it wants to do. Let’s try and identify what it requires, what it demands during every day life.

If one seems to get very angry or frustrated in a certain situation then who is angry.
Is it YOU who are angry?
Or ... do YOU 'know' that you are feeling angry

Egos are silly things.

All we need to do is make everyone experts at identifying their own ego. That's all. No need to change a thing. If the ego wants to have a tantrum then I am sure it will tell you. Just reply 'go ahead, I don't really want to at the moment, but you can if you want,...'

By being able to identify the ego in oneself then you are free to make choices again.

By TRYING to train, control, conquer or otherwise manipulate the ego then you must utilise the ego. So this is impossible. The ego will let you do it, or should I say, let you think that you have done it. You will feel the satisfaction of success, provided free of charge by the very ego you think you have mastered control of.

It is. (I don't even believe that really... It 'maybe' seems more accurate)

What is? I hear you say…

This is… I say.

Your ‘is’ and my ‘is’ are very different. This is qualia.

Darkness is that which prevents you from seeing.
Light is what enables you to see.
We are in a dark world because of the lack of truthful information. We are fed ego food direct to our homes.

[edit on 1-8-2009 by Pentothal]

[edit on 1-8-2009 by Pentothal]

[edit on 1-8-2009 by Pentothal]

So what exactly is the ego?
The ego is everything.
We are nothing.

I think that's the ultimate explanation, can't get any better then this.
I'm defying everyone to give a better explanation.
Lets see what you guys can do.

reply to post by Geladinhu

You've got it backwards. The ego is nothing, and we are everything.

Don't make that mistake, you're getting tricked by your own ego into elevating it.

It's nothing, there is no ego, only awareness, joyful, compassionate awareness, bliss, of the all in all which is eternal.

There is no ego. You're mistaken. It's only who we THINK we are, but that's not who we really are, which is everything and nothing.

reply to post by OmegaPoint

Very well said.

I see it as a part, only a small part, of existence. The part that is aware of itself. Given awareness is universal it must be aware of itself, more so since we are portions of it.

Because we in our human perception raise the concept of Ego to such heights, we slowly learn how to balance it in this here and now like all things here. And later we remember it isn't anything of importance in any bigger picture. Again, just like all things.

Originally posted by Geladinhu
So what exactly is the ego?
The ego is everything.
We are nothing.

I think that's the ultimate explanation, can't get any better then this.
I'm defying everyone to give a better explanation.
Lets see what you guys can do.

Hey... information is just information. What you make of all of it its
the only thing that matters.

“We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
— Anais Ni

I see the 'ego' as a mental construction, and the way psychologist
relate to them is at a very base level, very "body consciousness" and
"brain related" kind of way, as in response of "the child, the parent and
the adult" poster.

For me, its a bad construct [in the end], but as all belief systems are
vehicles that only can go so far, use this untill your freedom is challenged
as most posters here are telling EXACLY this.

Go see some David Icke presentation, as "Above the cutting edge" is far
superior and extend the 'base level' of ego.

But treat information in observer mode, and never cease to be intuitive.


“It is by logic that we prove but by intuition that we discover”

— Poincaire


[]´s
RP


[edit on 2-8-2009 by RobertPaulsim]

reply to post by OmegaPoint


I'm not making any mistake.
I know what I'm talking about.
So your ego is telling me that I'm being tricked by my ego?
Thats a good one.

If there is no ego why is this thread here? Why are we speaking of something that doesn't exist? I mean, c'mon, the ego is a great topic of spirituality because it is real.

We think we are everything.
But in reality we are nothing, we are emptiness.
Nothing is the only thing worth worshiping because its beyond all other concepts.

[edit on 2-8-2009 by Geladinhu]

reply to post by cindymars


To answer your qusetion in one word: God.

Only God is real. And God is in everything, in you and in me.
You and I are not we, but one. Everything is Everything.


What is ego?

I also feel ego is not real, it's an illusion. it's like dreaming, it's not real.
nothing is real, but god & god is everything.


[edit on 3-8-2009 by corusso]

Originally posted by Tayesin
reply to post by OmegaPoint

 

Very well said.

I see it as a part, only a small part, of existence. The part that is aware of itself. Given awareness is universal it must be aware of itself, more so since we are portions of it.

I'd say that it's the unaware part which thinks it's the real self, the voice in the head, the seeking, grasping mind, the part which just won't shut up.

OTOH, the part that is aware if the It-self (the ego), that, is the indistinguishable awareness, whereby, if one were to alter their identification, would have the ability to dissolve the ego and unite with God as the eternal "I am" of being and non-being.

Again, the ego is telling you it's real, and the part that is aware of itself - it's a tricky little bugger.

The way I see it, the ego is a PROGRAM and nothing more, built solely on past memory and conditioning, but has nothing to do with the creative human being as a free will quantum potentia in coherence with the Godhead or the fully in-formed Akashic Field.

In other words the only abiding self is a no-self who is a nothing which contains everything, God-self.

Ego would like to say that it's God, that self is God, but it can still be differentiated by the transcendant awareness who is one with God, and so therefore it cannot be either God or self aware of itself.

It's the controller, but it's NOT the master of the house, and it can be made into a servant I believe, with work, the work of increasing our awareness and observing the machination of the ego-self, the IT-self. It's not a person, just a program, that's why I call it the IT-self. It's just an it, just a machine. The spirit OTOH is the real you and me.

Therefore, we must die to self and be re-born to God in spirit and truth.

[edit on 3-8-2009 by OmegaPoint]

reply to post by Geladinhu

It's just who you think you are.

The need to be right, for example, that's your ego. Or the one who claims "enlightenment", that too is ego. The one who get's angry at being called an ego, is ego, or who accuses the other of being ego-driven, also ego.

But it's just an illusion. You are right that we are nothing, but nothing is also everything. In nothing is everything.

The ego is just a program, and a projection, is a false self identity.

A fully self expressed and authentic person doesn't know who they REALLY are, but only that the roles they are playing are their own creation.

You are playing the role of the enlightened one who knows.

And I am doing the same thing btw - takes one to know one!

P.S. No one can't out non-ego another person either!

But you've got a point about acceptance of ego-self, but it must not be elevated to the throne.. then it becomes satanic, destructive, a dark force of entropy, in opposition to the creative principal of love which rules the universe from end to end, a force which has no opposite, and which has transcended the duality, a force which, to oppose, is to be destroyed.

And if you've really had the transpersonal entheogenic experience of the all in all, then you will have encountered that force, and it's unrelenting, thank goodness!

[edit on 3-8-2009 by OmegaPoint]

reply to post by OmegaPoint


We are nothing.
The ego is everything.

Everything is deceiving.
Nothing is truth.

Originally posted by Geladinhu
reply to post by OmegaPoint

 

We are nothing.
The ego is everything.

Everything is deceiving.
Nothing is truth.

Then we are both nothing and everything, so there's no worries..

What you're saying is that content and form is maya, and I'm just saying that there's no use denying everything either, as the fullness of the expression of nothing, or everything, intelligency substracted into something, so that nothing can have the experience of something, for fun.

Reality as entertainment.

But the ego, or who we THINK we are, is never authentic or fully self expressed, until it knows that it's just an expression, a filter, and a reality tunnel.

Once it's distinguished by the observing self as nothing special, then there's something special and unique, athentic and fully self expressed, for no other reason than because you can.

We can never take ourselves too seriously however, from the perspective of nothing, and no opinion or particular viewpoint to which we are attached as something.

There's freedom and liberation in that - that it's ok to be a something in nothing, and get to experience the delusion of everything, at least in part, as a subtraction from the infinite, but still a variable, of the supreme value, of nothing/everything.

something like that.. ?

I got this in an email this morning.
I thought it was appropriate to this thread.



Two wolves.

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, ' My son, the battle is between two ' wolves ' inside us all.

One is Evil. - It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. - It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. '

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: ' Which wolf wins? '

The old Cherokee simply replied, ' The one you feed. '


Personally I don't buy the good and evil thing but if you feed a character aspect it grows.






[edit on 4-8-2009 by cindymars]

If you 'try to be'; this is ego.

We just are.

The problem is that some people seem to believe they are something that they are not. That the part is the whole.

There is no past; this is your mind.
The future is a concept. Tomorrow does not exist.
There is and always has been only now. It is just one big now. In fact, to say it is big is just the mind again. It is just now.

I find it very funny that there are CDs that one can buy to help you 'be in the now' I would like to see someone who is not in the now! It is impossible to not be in the now since we are, and that is all there is. The funny thing is, that the ego is telling them to buy the CD sit quietly and feel like you are in the now... It seems to me that they can do little (if anything) about it! They just are.

They seem to be looking for 'sensation' or a more vivid experience or to feel alive. A spiritual bungie jumping kinda thing

If you want to feel something powerful, go and feed a hungry child and see how you feel when you look into their eyes! Then you will feel alive.

[edit on 4-8-2009 by Pentothal]

[edit on 4-8-2009 by Pentothal]

[edit on 4-8-2009 by Pentothal]