Originally posted by tracer7
amazing thread. I battle MY ego on a daily basis...(cut)

You can battle your ego if you wish. But there is a better way. Withhold new energy from it and the ego will wilt away and go back to it's more basic state. By battling it, you give it new energy from your awareness, and in the battling, you just empower it more.

When your ego re-acts just be aware of what is happening. Don't enable it, nor fight it. The ego is just re-acting, acting again in a way it has always acted, acting with the past stored energy and thoughts from within itself. Just allow it. After you get used to that, Allow the energy, Without the story.

We can react from the ego. Or respond from conscious awareness.

The ego is a valuable tool to our existence. It's not to be killed, just put in it's place. You couldn't drive to McDonalds and get lunch without the million innate unconscious decisions your ego is making.

The challenge is multi-fold though with the ego. Most people think they are the ego; e.g. I am my thoughts, I am what I do, I am separate from everything else. They don't realize yet that they are conscious awareness at their core. And most people are slaves to the reactions of their ego, not knowing any better, anger begetting anger etc.

The first step for everyone is to see it. The mind is part of the ego. You can observe your thoughts going on in your head. For the most part, this is usually a split within the ego. The little me ego observing the unconscious ego. Behind that, there is you as you are: Conscious Awareness connected to Source Spirit able to observe the mind/ego/persona. (Eckhart Tolle is a master teacher at this. And ChannelHigherSelf on Youtube is really good as well)

You are actually infinite consciousness having an experience as one Schrodinger's Dog

So if I accidentally get myself banned one day , you are saying you wouldn't be upset or miss me at all?


Cool thread, mate. I used to listen to Ram Dass's book Be Here Now on cassette tape/audio book back in the late 90's. His messages about duality still resonate with me to this day.

And you're absolutely right about crushing DesCartes. I'm glad you did it, something always annoyed me about that phrase and I'm happy someone (you, in this case) finally reversed that bit of pedantic banter.

One bourbon, one star, one scotch, one beer, one flag, and one sharona for you, dog.

(wait I don't think they have emoticons for all those things)

there is nothing wrong with using the word "my" as a possessive term to describe something. It's the only word the English language can convey.

The 'wrong' part is in attachment to the 'my' associations.

What people identify with as being part of "them" is what causes to the ego to be reinforced.

I also find that people who are immersed or obsessed about their IDENTITY or IDENTIFIERS , are many times closed off to actual facts or evidence.

Today we have issues with:

MY RELIGION
MY PARTY
MY IDEOLOGY
MY FOOTBALL TEAM
MY FRIENDS (And their beliefs)
ETC.

What the OP is saying is that these are COLLECTIVE Egos, and collective Egos can usually be destructive because their IDENTITY clashes with another, and the facts are thrown out in favor of the collective ego or MASS BELIEF (usually delusion)

What we cling on to destroys us. I have learned this the VERY hard way myself.

The fact we have things and claim ourselves as 'things' is not erroneous. The ATTACHMENT and identification to "our" lives is what is.

I wish the world was more open to this...or what the OP stated. Even the mantra of 'deny ignorance' would thrive more is Ego was left out of all debate.

Deny ignorance....ignore Ego.....

New Mission Statement anyone?

I've learned from Eckhart Tolle that once you 'battle" Ego, Ego has won.

It seems the only remedy for the Ego is to simply acknowledge you are acting from it...then it will be exposed in that moment and fail to have power.

This of course takes practice and a conscious effort on our parts. But it is a step on any path of Enlightenment. We aren't perfect, and the striving for perfection is an illusion.

Just be aware of WHAT the Egos is and it loses it's grip.

I have learned this and try to walk the 'path' daily now.

The Ego, enlightenment, and "Zen" can be found in the now.

Between now and................................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................................... ..NOW...you thought nothing. You were aware and in the moment. Enlightenment is maintaining this through habit. The Ego cannot survive in the NOW.


[edit on 1-9-2010 by Prove_It_NOW]

You are really special.

Originally posted by Prove_It_NOW
The Ego cannot survive in the NOW.

Agreed! The ego can only fantasize about the future or 'live' in the past. And there is no Life in either.

Living Life truly only happens in the Now.

[edit on 1-9-2010 by ajkesh]

Just on a side note ... Eckhart, Adyashanti, Ram Dass, Alan Watts, Krishnamurti, Albert Camus, Ramana Maharshi, Jesus, Buddha, Einstein, and millions of other writers, artists, scientists, ordinary folk, have touched and expressed these pointers.

This is not secret knowledge by any means it is simply part of what we all already know unobscured by layer upon layer of mental noise and external information the mind labels as knowledge.

And I also wanted to echo what others have said ... this isn't not about removing words from the vocabulary, of course one can say 'my family' when one describes something. It's about dropping the personal attachment that family, just like anything other concept borne of one's thoughts, need be owned by you to define you. Once that dependency has been shed, once one doesn't have a personal mental position and stake towards the universe, words can actually be free exist as what they are meant to mean ... no more, no less.

I like to think a lot about things. And I can say that I am always thinking. Either about work, about my home, or about things that just make my mind happy to think about.

"Self" is one of the things that I think about a lot. I apply my thoughts in various contexts, such as if there is a God, if there isn't, what kind He is, etc. I then try to answer the questions that arise during these little thought experiments.

I would say I have an intellectual capacity that is at least average, and have been like this since i was a kid (by the age of 10 i had read all 6 encyclopedia sets that were owned within my family of aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc, because i enjoyed reading to give me things to think about). I am now 38 (a couple months shy). I have thought a LOT, and quite a bit of it was in analyzing who i am, who we are, and what a human is.

I can honestly say, all these years later, that I still cannot tell you a single damn thing that is anything other than superficial.

I think that S-Dog hits on the issue, too: there are only so many words to describe things, and we lack adequate vocabulary.

I do not mean that I don't understand more. I just mean that I am unable to express abstract thoughts. Maybe this is why i am so fond of analogies. 1 analogy can express a volume of concepts.

Originally posted by bigfatfurrytexan there are only so many words to describe things, and we lack adequate vocabulary.

Or look at it another way...as it says in the Tao Te Ching...

The name of the thing is not the thing.

Edit: It's the egomindpersona's "job" to classify things, put things in a certain labeled box, patch various thoughts into the belief system. We waste so much energy doing that in our own personal mental realm, we're too tired to Live in reality.

[edit on 1-9-2010 by ajkesh]

[edit on 1-9-2010 by ajkesh]

Originally posted by Esoteric Teacher

however, i would warn against the practice of no ego altogether, as having no ego may lead to avenues of apathy.

Such a warning isn't needed. If you were to manage the monumental task of attaining "no ego altogether," you would no longer be concerned with the material world and its toils. This wouldn't be "apathy," since apathy is a condition of the egoic mind. It would be enlightenment.

Moreover, I would argue the opposite--finding silent spaces in one's day in which one overcomes the ego and becomes its observer is uplifting and allows access to the creative mind, not apathy.

One needs to consider that the source of the fear of such a negative outcome comes from--the ego! The ego is very afraid for its existence because it knows it is an artificial facade.

The self, consciousness, is the animator of the ego. The self is real, not the ego. That's why one can't "hate the ego"--if the ego is hated, it's the ego hating itself. The true self, consciousness, can't hate anything because there is no duality to allow it.

Originally posted by tribewilder

Originally posted by keepingtheblade
I believe, IMHO, that the key to all of this is balance.

Exactly, balance is what is needed.

we are conditioned to think (judge) in a linear way.

left or right
up or down
frontwards or backwards
right or wrong

there are only two places on the scales:



and if there are only two places on the scales, then why are there three components to the psychi to place on the two scales for judgment???

ego, superego, and id

just a thought,
et

Just wanted to add:

Is it wrong for my ego to take the credit for keeping my ego in check?

To me there is always intent.

So what I write.....is really only intended for an audience other than myself.

what thoughts I put into these words aren't for my reaction but yours.

But only unless I intend a specific reaction, have I desired control.

If I desire control, then any reaction unintended, will give to resistance.

Where there is resistance, there is tension, uneasiness, disapproval, unto dislike and malevolence

Without control there is freedom, but then how are you in control?

....well...if you do not define yourself, then control is irrelevant, because a definition is only explanation of an experience...and an explanation is only the understandable rules of language...but do you actually need language to experience?

That is why you are in control.

Wow... this thread is like.. light =)

Don't change man. Ever.