The Enlightened Ego - Solving the Problems of Awakening pt.1

The Enlightened Ego – Solving the Problems of Awakening pt.1

Here I would like to discuss something very important for those who desire to become awakened. It is a problem or a hindrance that many of us, if not most of us, will experience during our journey. Unfortunately, it is such a tricky thing that we cannot always see it as true, like a grand illusion, and thus some of us can never move beyond its grips. It is like a shadow of the mind, when we carelessly look for it, it is not there thus we cannot rid ourselves of it. It is the “enlightened ego”.

There are many viable paths to take while searching for awakening, so instead of fixating on describing what is the ‘best’ path or method for achieving this, I have chosen to go beyond that and speak of the problems that are a commonality to all these paths. Since the “enlightened ego” is the broadest, most generalized form of description to categorize our hindrances, I have decided to start here and then follow this thread up with others that break down these problems in even further detail.

I too have suffered from this, and still do, but I have identified this problem as true and begun to watch my thoughts closely to see how and why this is happening, insofar as the consequences of its presence within me, and thus I have come to realize many things about it that I would like to share with you.

It shall be known that many of those seekers who suffer from an “enlightened ego” have already had a deep realization of some sort or at least a brief glimpse into the awakened state. That is how they have come to this problem. Whether they have concluded that things may not be what they seem as quantum scientists are finding, or that society and its worldly desires are misleading them away from their true Self as Krishnamurti and Sri Ramana Maharshi spoke of, or they had a brief glimpse into the Oneness of all things that Jesus taught, or began to see the truth behind the Buddha’s teaching of Anatta (no individual self)… they have come to a ‘road block’, the ego, that has kept them from achieving full realization.

In fact, many of us seekers do not stop and study the egos validity when we run into this problem as maybe we should, but instead we misidentify it for something else and thus as we continue our search for awakening we are in turn only “enlightening our ego”, not our Self. This is a major problem that creates even more delusion for us then we had before, for, it is nothing but another form of the “dream state”.

(To be clear, when I use the word “Self” with a capitol S, I am referring to the absolute Self that pervades all of reality, the oneness that connects everything. Others may call this God, Universal Consciousness/Energy, or something else. And when I use the word “self” with a small s, I am referring to the sense of individual or independent-self, or the ego. Do not fixate on these things too deeply right now as they are merely symbols to point to a higher meaning that is difficult to explain in a short amount of words.)

Superiority

One of the biggest consequences a seeker who “enlightens his/her ego” will find is that of a stronger sense of superiority. We begin to look at ourselves as already awakened or wise and thus we look at everyone else in society who does not speak of the same things as un-awakened or unwise. Our family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, bosses, leaders… all of them suddenly become the ‘sheep’ while we remain the ‘good guys’, the awakened, in our mind. We see them as blind to reality and judge them accordingly for this. Thus we seek to awaken them by telling them our perspective on life, on reality, and when they reject this notion or do not understand what we are saying we become frustrated and angry. This of course only shows how un-awakened we truly are, for, a truly awakened person will not act out in frustration or anger at anyone, even those who are rejecting what we ‘know’ to be the truth. Christ and Buddha are perfect examples of this.

From my own experience I can relate to this manner of thinking, this sense of ‘awakened superiority’. What’s crazy is I have always been a rather humble and quiet person who listened more than I projected, befriending people of all social classes, races, cultures and religions. However, after I began searching for higher realizations, for awakening, I all of a sudden lost this sense of humility, of being able to listen without judging or projecting my own thoughts.

One day, about a year ago, I came to a deeper conclusion than I ever had before that the ego was not only ‘bad’, but it was the cause of all of our conflict and problems. At that time I was volunteering for a non-profit organization helping minorities get employment, health care and find better schooling for their children. We began to work on building our own school, one directed towards offering a better education for minorities and closing the achievement gaps between White and Black students. Many people in the community stepped up to help and the leader of this organization was/is a truly wise and compassionate man. However, I all of a sudden began to see these peoples egos more-so than I saw their selfless motivation. I would be sitting in on meetings with very important community leaders, business owners and politicians, who were speaking of very important social issues but all I could hear was nothing but their egos. Everything I heard was, “I have accomplished this and that with my life, I feel this way or that way about what you’re saying, I want to see this or that happen, I want to give this person or that person an award…” By the end of these meetings I would literally have no clue what was going on, all I knew was I didn’t like these people. All I knew was that they were egotistical ‘sheep’ who couldn’t think outside of the box, who couldn’t do anything without patting themselves on their backs or without claiming a position of authority in which they could hand out awards or compliments to others who agreed with them. It literally drove me crazy to the point I had to remove myself from that position.

Later on looking back on this situation I have realized something truly shocking, that it wasn’t their egos creating this problem for me but it was my own ego that was creating this problem. I surely thought my sense of Self had moved beyond the ego, for, I had come to the realization that the ego was messing everything up. But to the contrary, it was my ego that had this realization, not my Self. So in the end my ego was blinding my sense of Self, and it was hiding from my sense of Self by focusing in on everyone else’s egos as the problem. It wasn’t until I spent a good amount of time reflecting on why no one understood me, or felt the same way as I did, that I came to the realization that I had “enlightened my ego” and not my sense of Self. It wasn’t until I had this realization that I found out that my dislike for ‘their’ egoic projection of superiority over others arose from my own egoic sense of superiority over them. Sure, they may have had this problem too, but that was not something productive for me to focus on. It only hindered my ability to listen to them, insofar as hindered my ability to progress further in my spiritual awakening.

In other words, if you find yourself feeling superior over others because you have had some sort of a realization or glimpse at awakening, you have done nothing but “enlightened your ego”, not your sense of Self. And that is just another form of the “dream state”, so in fact, you are no more wise or awakened than them.

Depression

Another consequence of “enlightening the ego” is depression. Some of the things we come to realize begin to truly disturb us as we think about their validity. Of course this is only because we are contemplating these things through the ego and the ego does not like these realizations so it paints them as threatening or Self-defeating, when in actuality they are empowering and self/ego-defeating. It is like a corrupt or unmoral politician who gets caught up in his own feces pile and seeks to paint the accuser as the bad guy to divert attention away from his own wrong doings.

When we have a realization, such that; our perception of individual self is merely an illusion and nothing more than the construct of our ego, or that free-choice is a very limited and illusionary thing, or that physical death is truly inescapable, or that suffering pervades all of life and in every form, or any other truly ego shocking revelation, it literally can break some of us. Some people begin to look at life as having no meaning, no purpose, as being inescapable pain, and thus become severely depressed, hopeless, frustrated and angry. They may even run away from this feeling, quit their search for awakening, and retreat back into the ego for safety. This is very normal and has happened to many people including myself.

At one point I became so lost in these feelings and ideas that I seriously contemplated suicide. I began to train in sensory deprivation and deep meditation in hopes of one day being able to self-immolate myself for a worthy cause, like monks did during the Vietnam War and like that guy did recently in Egypt. The things I was contemplating on, like: “Who am I? What is reality? What is intrinsically right and wrong? How did the universe come into being? Where is this all heading?”... on and on, left me with only more and more questions until I felt completely overwhelmed. I could find no answers that satisfied my egoic mind. It was like my ego was running me in circles and saying, “It’s all good, you may never find the answers to satisfy me but you must keep searching.”

That is until I just let go of these questions and ideas. I realized my ego wanted to know things that only my higher sense of Self could. I realized many of these questions could not be conceptually answered in any satisfactory way for my ego and so I decided to just try and find harmony with my sense of Self, with nature as it is, and with the process of life in its totality. I realized that it was my ego who was searching for these answers, and doing so forcefully, thus I was merely “enlightening my ego” and not my sense of Self. I realized sometimes we just need to let go of what we are searching for to find out its true meaning.

That may not make sense to you right now, but if you feel depressed about the things you are contemplating on, or the things you have realized, I suggest you just let go of them and not forcefully focus on them anymore. That doesn’t mean you should hide from them or create optimistic illusions for yourself to feel better temporarily, as many positive psychologists recommend, but rather just let go of the whole idea of searching for anything, be that the truth or happiness or liberation. Just become a watcher, don’t judge anything or contemplate on its meaning deeply at all. Just be one with what you are experiencing and accept it as that, a simple experience.

Then when you feel better, when you are no longer so depressed, when you are no longer so attached to these concepts, ideas and realizations, you can again look at these things in a deeper more contemplative manner.

Ultimately we must remember that depression is rooted in the ego, and if we don’t feed the ego, it, thus depression, will starve and disappear from our minds. I am not promoting for you to get off of any medication if you are already on it, but just know that depression can be overcome without any psychological counseling or medication. It can be overcome by overcoming the desire to feed the constant bombardment of your ego on your mind, which is struggling to postulate itself as the prominent leader of your mind. Stop feeding the ego and your depression will begin to disappear, this I can attest to as true with my own personal experience.

Next time

I will continue this series of "Solving the Problems of Awakening" next with talking about some fundamental aspects of awakening, such as; what role sincerity and honesty have in the process of awakening, insofar as I will go into further detail of why the ego is so intrinsically natural within all of us and why it is always so damaging to us, even when it doesn’t seem like it is.

Hope you enjoy this as much as me!

P.S. If you have some things you’d like to add to this then please do so! I obviously, by no means, own the totality of truth.

Your friend, L.I.E. (read between the lines)

reply to post by LifeIsEnergy


ATS has some kind of bull crap where they don't let you publish threads in parts. (pt. 1, pt. 2, etc.)

reply to post by LifeIsEnergy

One of the biggest consequences a seeker who “enlightens his/her ego” will find is that of a stronger sense of superiority. We begin to look at ourselves as already awakened or wise and thus we look at everyone else in society who does not speak of the same things as un-awakened or unwise. Our family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, bosses, leaders… all of them suddenly become the ‘sheep’ while we remain the ‘good guys’, the awakened, in our mind. We see them as blind to reality and judge them accordingly for this. Thus we seek to awaken them by telling them our perspective on life, on reality, and when they reject this notion or do not understand what we are saying we become frustrated and angry. This of course only shows how un-awakened we truly are, for, a truly awakened person will not act out in frustration or anger at anyone, even those who are rejecting what we ‘know’ to be the truth. Christ and Buddha are perfect examples of this.

Took the words right out of my mouth. A very eloquent and honest post with great sensitivity and insight.

I have stumbled on this continually. This is where the depression is. One's soul has reached a certain level of consciousness, but the harder part is learning true humility. I am drawn to the example of Christ washing the feet of His disciples, revealing true Leadership. That is the One who is enlightened and wise enough to lead should serve those he/she leads. The toal reverse happens in the dynamics of our societies where the ruler or leader is so choked with ego that leadership becomes corrupt and trapped in the lowest realm of the ego.

Our world is upside down. Some would call this the state of our fall from grace and a symptom of it. For our grace to be restored...well those of us for whom it has importance, we must find our way to becoming what we were meant to be. We choose our paths and we are entitled to have the freedom and choice to follow our choice of path as we see fit.

Thank you for the insight and experience you have shared.

Ok, but so cerebral, the intellectual part of you could use some silence. The bridge between intellect and intuition is where true insight resides.

Thank You for your post.
I too have been going up and down with these same realizations.
Most recently I was fighting questions on what is the purpose of everything we do?
Your advice to let the questions go and not worry about them is good and true, and has helped me remember the Truth.
Thank You for putting this out there for us to see, looking forward to future posts.

reply to post by Revolution9


Great! The point where you said the most difficult part of awakening is finding humility within it is worded so perfectly! Thanks for your contribution!

smithjustinb: Ok, thanks for the heads up.

Antar: You are most definitely correct, silence is a true virtue, but so is sincerity, honesty and compassion. Part of sincerity, honesty and compassion is sharing your wisdom with others, helping others overcome problems that you have previously had. It seems many people suffer from both the feeling of Superiority and Depression while on their journey to awakening, problems I can admit to having most definitely experienced myself. Anyways, I have remained silent in meditation for the entire past two days. I thought it would be virtuous of me to post this, maybe not, maybe so. I will take your words into consideration though friend.

JoyDreamer: Great! Good luck on your journey friend! All is good, all is right.

Great post, you have helped me clear up some issues a little bit. I look forward to reading your other post. In the mean time, maybe you can get some more insight on some of mine.
Oneness. Life as God. ---> www.abovetopsecret.com...
The ultimate truth ---> www.abovetopsecret.com...
A questionnaire for observers of oneness
Oneness. All is One.
Service to Others

reply to post by LifeIsEnergy


Thank you for your excellent and timely post.

In other words, if you find yourself feeling superior over others because you have had some sort of a realization or glimpse at awakening, you have done nothing but “enlightened your ego”, not your sense of Self. And that is just another form of the “dream state”, so in fact, you are no more wise or awakened than them.

This sums it up really nicely. Spiritual pride is a great obstacle for anyone on an inner journey of enlightenment, and in some cases it becomes such an insurmountable hurdle that the journey itself is discarded rather than confront and recognize the reality of the ego.

One way that this insidious ego may be identified is if we are unwilling to acknowledge that beliefs about reality and truth contrary to our own may be the right ones and that our own beliefs may not correspond to the truth. The "enlightened ego", as you call it, cannot bear to contemplate being mistaken about its spiritual convictions, and it will defend its "truth" to the death.

How can one not feel superior, be it morally, intellectually or spiritually, to some yellow ribbon wearing, flag-waving, support the troops/stay the course nimrod? Be him/her a part of our oneness with the universe or a reflection of our multi/one consciousness, that does not take away their ignorance and dark nature. Worse is when they reject enlightenment and prefer to continue approving of bloodlust for power and money for the billionaires. To ascend means you are above something, right? What about those that stay below and reject your hand to help them rise? Billybob approves of torture for men, women and children yet rejects sanity, are we to hug the bastard? LOL

What do you think?

My personal opinion after dabbling into the "new age" literature?

Bull#.

How much money is made off of this "ego talk"? How many are led into a false sense of reality, where all they do is "love"? Sure it's nice and all that, but get off the high horse and see reality for what it is. I would give it some more thought if this was, lets say 2211 instead of 2011, but not now. The theory does not reflect on reality (look at how people live and what they believe) and so becomes a worthless theory, unless it is used to scrutinize and research the ideas/behavior of the people who believe in it.

reply to post by LifeIsEnergy


I think that the depression and anxiety is all part of the awakening experience. When we awake, we become very, very aware. We become very sensitive to everything that is going on around us. The world is seen raw, this in your face ness has not been experienced since we were first born. And since you were born there have been many layers of conditioning, like clothes of lies. When all this lifts suddenly (which is what happens in an awakening) it is a shock, beautiful and astounding visually and peaceful.
However, we soon start to see the workings of the human manipulation, we can't help but see what is going on, everything is clear to us. I aways remember that it was just my fathers fault that our family was the way it was but after the awakening i used to watch how my mother wound him up (i had never seen it before). I found this totally shocking and it shook my world - i saw through one of my delusions. Suddenly there were all these people i had believed to be angels falling off pedestals everywhere i went.
I had put them on the pedestals, made angels out of them. I saw how i had been deluded. It can be quite terrifying.
They know not what they do!
I watch what is going on because i have no choice now.
I am here and there is no way out, i realize that now.
I see everything from here and i know i can not change the funny people, or the funny world.
Each part of this movie is for my viewing pleasure, i can deem it a drama, a comedy, a tragedy.

Don't beat up on your Self for seeing the truth.
No one liked Jesus in his day.
Jesus was sad at what he saw.
All we can do is forgive them and know each of us is searching for home in our own way.

It is hard when we can see all the tricks and games people play. It suddenly makes us responsible because traps are seen. We have to act a different way, we respond to reality. We think that this change will be noticed by others, this brings in paranoia.
Before we know it we are back to ego, worrying.

It is ok to see the traps, and it doesn't matter what others think.
Peace is what you are.

reply to post by LifeIsEnergy


The thoughts that appear are auditioning for your attention. The thoughts that appear are no different that all the people and 'things' that appear. Give all things the attention they deserve, pat them on the head and let them pass. You are the 'one' that all 'things' appear to.
The 'one' that the body, mind and world appear to.
This 'one' is the still, silent space that allows and welcomes the 'ten thousand things'.

Namaste.

Originally posted by Snoopy1978
How can one not feel superior, be it morally, intellectually or spiritually, to some yellow ribbon wearing, flag-waving, support the troops/stay the course nimrod? Be him/her a part of our oneness with the universe or a reflection of our multi/one consciousness, that does not take away their ignorance and dark nature. Worse is when they reject enlightenment and prefer to continue approving of bloodlust for power and money for the billionaires. To ascend means you are above something, right? What about those that stay below and reject your hand to help them rise? Billybob approves of torture for men, women and children yet rejects sanity, are we to hug the bastard? LOL

What do you think?

You raise a good point, but rather extreme. I was more-so talking about feeling superior over your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors... the average joe who does not agree with you, or see what you see. But yes, you should give old Billy Bob a hug, if he asks for one.

You and him are not much different, you both share the same qualities and characteristics, he may just act upon the 'bad' ones more than you do because he has not seen what you have. Becoming awakened does not mean you no longer have feelings of anger, sadness, lust or greed. It only means you see these things for what they are, what they will lead to, and so you do not fixate or become attached to them, or let them control you or let them determine who you are or what you will do. Thus they leave you as fast as they came. This may happen so fast that it is as if it never happened, but it did. Often times we get confused by the Buddha's or Jesus's words when they said "let go of all worldly desires", and think to ourselves that they had absolutely no desires within themselves, but this is not correct. They still felt desires, but they let go of attachment to all of them except for obviously one, which was a desire to teach others their wisdom and help them see more clearly.

It is ok to be discontent with something, especially something that is so obviously destructive and corrupt. But think of it like this, if 'they' do such corrupt things to other people because they feel their beliefs are superior over these other peoples, and you feel superior over these corrupt people because you feel your beliefs are superior over theirs, then the only difference between the two of you is that they act more extremely on their belief of superiority then you do. And if you allow your sense of superiority to grow then maybe you too will end up doing unjust things to others based on your beliefs, so then where does it end?

I hope I answered that well enough for you. It is a hard question and I just woke up so if someone else wants to chime in on this that would be great, otherwise I will come back to this later.

Peace my friend.

I just want to add a scenario that has been bothering me for some time. There is a group of people I have the misfortune of knowing aged twenty something to 30. The eldest is 30 I believe.

I have to observe them because they are always interjecting crap into scenarios... like a bad reality TV script. All their gestures seem so fake. They seem to like to start crap behind the scenes. In short, they act like "youngins"

Why am I bringing this up? They are completely ALOOF. They *think* they are onto it, so to speak. They talk like they know... you know? When they start talking about the things they know it makes them seem very silly because of all they missed but are so proud for being "onto it".... they are learning. They don't seem to be awake yet... at all. they seem to be more mixed up and involved in their party scenes or he said she said bull#.

... but here is the biggest reason i think they are not awake.

They hate.

I don't mean they get mad and vent and say they wish the world would end. I mean they pick sides... like a dog taking up with a pack of wolves because he knows the dogs are gonna get their asses kicked by the wolves. To look good, they have to have someone to make look bad. To gain, they have to take something from others. To feel good, they have to try to make others feel bad. They're "youngins"....yes, even the thirty year old.... he is not too bright to say the least and that is why he is still in this kid mindset.

...some may argue but what that is deep down inside is raw hate. It's not the learned kind of hate. It's ignorance.

When I get around people like that I try not to engage too much until i have felt the situation out and observe them.... they sense something as well and start walking on pins and needles in thought but it makes them so uneasy they start attacking me. I don't even think they know why. It is completely irrational what they do.

I bring this up because people on this forum talk a lot about "love" and some people get tired of hearing it because it sounds so wishy washy to them, but it's important. It may not be what you think it is.

People need to grow up.

I love children but if you know them, you know they have to caroused constantly and they are selfish and self centered and have to be taught how to treat people in many cases. Sure, a lot of times they show this pure innocence that is unmatched and you feel you can blame them for nothing. You certainly can't blame them for the state of the world. In them there is hope. In many adults, there is NO hope because they are just children who never grew up and now they are set in their ways. Above all the crap kids learn in school, more importantly people should be learning how to treat each other, but what they teach them is competition and dog eat dog.

Can't people see that love is having compassion for someone regardless of who they are, their standing in life, their status.... it's the idea that I am you and you are me. That is not some huge mystery or riddle to contemplate, it's a simple practice!

All I feel around them is all black and sick and fake. they are not the only ones who make me feel this way. I have tried to approach them in friendliness and boy did that surely NOT work. They are the types that like to reel you into their drama and trouble and then try to make you crawl. For what? Their misery? It's crazy, but i have come to the conclusion that they have serious issues. They have this ego thing they are dealing with. everyone does but they are just learning... and they are at that stage where they think their ego is their tool to wisdom. they think they already know it all. Oh HOW many people are walking around right now in that mindset? Thinking they've got it figured out.

they have this wayward ambition to succeed in a nowhere world of materialism, these urges and misdirected desires, uncertainty for anything that lies ahead without recognition of just that fact... it is festering in them but it is fear and it is infantile anger for what is happening to them and it is hate. Instead of tempering it.... and growing up.... they push it into holes where it seems to settle like a kid hiding food under his plate. They direct it at "others" because "others" is what they know. They direct it out into the world they see in their silly little ways.

It's hate.

I believe more than half of the world is operating under subconscious hate taking things out on people in totally misdirected ways.... and they don't even know it.

I have felt so much hatred inside of me, I could not even pretend. I could not play games with it. I felt it destroying me but I could not remove it. I could remove the things people reflect to me from themselves and even from me, I could remove their own inner hate by avoiding them altogether but I still have to deal with myself. When left alone the self will start fighting to find connections in fear and become restless until the hate just grows but it can also start blending in to it's surroundings. In many ways it can sort of dissolve because any state of existence should explore the potential of nothingness. It is very much a part of us. A part that many cannot stand to look at. I think it's a reality that you have to accept though... and accept that others are going through the same.... or no superficial connection to this materialistic world is going to comfort you when your soul finds itself alone, merely in a world of built up circumstantial illusion. Another fading memory is what you are.

If anything can save us from that, it is each other. It is the consciousness and love of each other.

Love *is* most important.

Interesting post. And on some level it's true, but...

I struggle with this whole enlightenment thing. Do we have a purpose here? Is it a single purpose? Is becoming enlightened something that is the purpose for just some of us?

On top of these questions, I often wonder if seeking to become awakened or enlightened is counter productive. According to some belief systems, it's not something to search for because it's right under our noses.

I don't doubt the phenomena of someone becoming enlightened, I just wonder if it should be our focus. People say that we choose our experiences to work out issues during our spiritual growth process. To me that says that some may have thier final purpose, to become enlightened, while others have some pre-requisite issues to work on. How can you "skip a grade" and become enlightened if you still need true understanding in other areas like compassion and understanding?

There are times I want to be enlightened but there are others when I question whether it's my time. I may want to incarnate some more for other experience. After all, this reality is quite a ride!

Like I said, I don't doubt that some are ready to take the final step in the process and thus the OP gives a piece of the puzzle, I just doubt it's really something that everyone is ready for.

reply to post by ChaosMagician


Why do you worry about them? Did you read the section of the OP dealing with Superiority? It's something I struggle with as well. I think rather than feel superior to others we are supposed to feel compassion for them but I'm not enlightened and still trying to figure it out.

I truly believe that the people you describe have the potential to take the next step but choose, as part of thier path, not to. You may look at them as lost souls but I choose to look at them as being on a different path, a different ride and at some level it's helping them grow. No?

Excellent thread OP.

Only when one understands that when you are projecting this ego that is really just seeing your own shortcomings inside, and casting them out to others, then you can loose this in my opinion. Then your and their eyes and ears will open to the Self.

Looking forward to the other parts.

Here's a sych for you we are neck deep in this same conversation here....

ATS The Time Is NOW! STOP THE FEAR!!

reply to post by ChaosMagician


I feel what you are saying, you speak a lot of truth and offer a lot of honesty in this post. But I worry you are focusing on everything but your Self, be it; concepts, ideas, other people's projection, trying to enlighten others who aren't willing or ready... all of this seems to be distracting you and creating anger and frustration for you. Passion can be a good thing in moderation, but too much can quickly throw you off balance and delude your original intentions. You seem to have a good heart, maybe you should just let go of the whole idea of awakening, of what is intrinsically right and wrong, of these deeper concepts for awhile and find some inner peace, then you might clear your mind of these problems. Try not to think to hard about anything for awhile. If that is too difficult, and it is for many of us, try focusing in on your breathing, or go outside and just listen to the birds and the wind without judging it, just listen. There is no rush to save yourself or others my friend, rushing will only make things harder.

Peace my friend.

Originally posted by Mike.Ockizard
reply to post by ChaosMagician

 

Why do you worry about them? Did you read the section of the OP dealing with Superiority? It's something I struggle with as well. I think rather than feel superior to others we are supposed to feel compassion for them but I'm not enlightened and still trying to figure it out.

I truly believe that the people you describe have the potential to take the next step but choose, as part of thier path, not to. You may look at them as lost souls but I choose to look at them as being on a different path, a different ride and at some level it's helping them grow. No?

edit on 21-5-2011 by Mike.Ockizard because: Typo

A different path is not one that is attacking me. How is that a different path? I don't understand what a different path has to do with it when they have consistently turned negativity towards me on multiple occasions and there is nothing I can do about it due to my position.

You don't know my circumstance but this entire thread is not about me. It is about enlightenment and the concept of love was brought into and I was stating how important that concept is and gave a scenario of regular people I deal with on a daily basis... and they are not the only ones, who do not uphold this concept. They uphold materialism and they bring negativity into situations for other people. You do not know them. I do.

I bring them up as an example in retrospect to identify the importance of being a compassionate loving person and that it isn't just a bunch of new age hogwash. yes, i understand people get tired of hearing it because that is all they hear. They don't hear the everyday circumstances where people in general would fair much better as whole if they upheld and practiced the concept of love and compassion.

I hope you now understand why I gave them as an example.

Until I find another job, I have to deal with their negativity constantly and when i come home I have to make myself not think about the fact that I am abused an an employee and have been talked down to, lied to, lied about and had people make multiple attempts to make me feel awful.... and I have to push that out of my mind until I can put it completely past me and remove myself from the situation altogether.

The point is, it's a dog eat dog world and people practice this instead of love and compassion and that is why companies will rip you off, the government will # on you and establishments will stomp all over your rights... because they are full of fear and anger. It's the aggressive survivalist way. It is what is fundamentally WRONG with the entire world. It's not merely a different path. It is the sickness of the entire world. It's rooted in greed, fear and anger.

Thank you for posting this, I have been struggling with this for awhile now, seems like you can conquer it for a few days and then the ego creeps slowly back in the picture. Star and Flag