It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
"What is the ego then? It is something intermediate between the inert body and the Self. It has no locus standi. If sought for it vanishes like a ghost. At night a man may imagine that there is a ghost by his side because of the play of shadows. If he looks closely he discovers that the ghost is not really there, and what he imagined to be a ghost was merely a tree or a post. If he does not look closely the ghost may terrify him. All that is required is to look closely and the ghost vanishes. The ghost was never there. So also with the ego. It is an intangible link between the body and pure consciousness. It is not real. So long as one does not look closely at it, it continues to give trouble. But when one looks for it, it is found not to exist." - Ramana Maharshi
"In reality there is no person, only the watcher identifying himself with the 'I' and the 'mine'." Nisargadatta Maharaj
Destroy 'the ego', hound it, beat it, snub it tell it where it gets off? Great fun, no doubt, but where is it? Must you not find it first? Isn't there a word about catching your goose before you can cook it? ........The great difficulty here is that there isn't one" Wei Wu Wei
"Not to identify oneself with something, or to associate things with the 'me' and to see that the idea that there is a 'me' is a delusion. That is true wisdom." Dalai Lama
"There are many persons who have a great attachment to their own individuality. They want first and foremost to remain as an individual and then search, for they are not prepared to lose that individuality. While retaining their identity, they want to find out what is the truth. But in this process, you must get rid of the identity itself. If you really find out what you are, you will see that you are not an individual, you are not a person, you are not a body. And people who cling to their body identity are not fit for this knowledge." Nisargadatta Maharaj
No Separate Self Yes, everything is made of this basic energy, and it is this basic energy that connects every thing to every thing; there is no 'separate self.' Not one single thing can originate, exist, or be sustained 100% alone, on it's own, without using or depending upon something else. Look deeply. All of the separation is superficial!
originally posted by: Sahabi
Liberation means to set free from imprisonment or bondage. We need Ego for our existence, but we must not be its prisoner.
originally posted by: Visitor2012
a reply to: Sahabi
No Separate Self Yes, everything is made of this basic energy, and it is this basic energy that connects every thing to every thing; there is no 'separate self.' Not one single thing can originate, exist, or be sustained 100% alone, on it's own, without using or depending upon something else. Look deeply. All of the separation is superficial!
The "ones-ness" of everything is much more profound and does not merely refer to the interconnection and codependency of one form with another. Essentially and Fundamentally, I am what is looking out of your eyes, and you are what is looking out of mine. There is just One.
It is said that there is no dialogue happening anywhere in the Universe at any time. It is all a monologue.
originally posted by: Itisnowagain
originally posted by: Sahabi
Liberation means to set free from imprisonment or bondage. We need Ego for our existence, but we must not be its prisoner.
The word 'ego' seems to imply a 'thing'. It as if there is a 'thing' (you) that has this other 'thing' (ego) and 'you' want rid of this 'thing' (ego).
What if there are no things at all?
What if 'ego' is an activity and not a 'thing'?
originally posted by: Sahabi
No killing of the self,... no killing of any egos,... no denying or rejecting anything,... and no creating concepts for our intellectual meanderings,.... just a simple conscious awareness of the influence.