Deep

No, Krishna was telling Arjuna what reality is. I don't think he was trying to enlighten him. @Prabhaker Krishna and Arjuna were strong, wealthy, courageous, intelligent, wise, compassionate, etc. I know Krishna was ego-less but his personality showed signs of a healthy ego. For a woman it would be different. A person with an unhealthy ego would run away from life out of fear.

@Prabhaker The ego taught in Indian culture is collective. For example, in Indian family structures most people will do things just to keep the peace in family. Then they become hypocritical. In western culture, the ego is individualistic. The person does what they feel is best for them. Are either of the ego types healthier than the other?

@Shanmugam Thank you very much!

I don't think eastern spirituality teaches unhealthy ego. For example, Krishna tells Arjuna to kill his relatives for the betterment of society. That's a healthy ego. I think Indians didn't understand their spirituality properly in the past (and still don't). That's why they became passive. I've never read any spiritual teaching that says one has to be passive. It actually teaches us to have a healthy ego so it can dissolve easier.

Hello, I was meditating and introspecting recently. I thought to myself about my birthday. On my birth certificate there is a date listed. In my experience, I don't recall ever being born. My experience has always been here in the now. If I say I wasn't born before a certain date, that is just a thought. There was never a beginning or an end to my experience. Therefore experience is not finite. The word death implies the end of experience. The only thing we know is our experience in the present. For us to know death is real, we would have to have an experience of "no experience." That is contradictory. How can there be an experience of "no experience"? That's impossible. That means even after physical death, experience cannot end. I also realized everything I "think" I know about reality is wrong. By wrong I mean outside of my experience. Everything I learned in school is wrong. It makes me feel happy and sad at the same time. Experience is the only reality.

@Prabhaker The west also has an unhealthy ego because they teach political correctness. It means being nice just to please people. Some people in the west have a healthy ego but not everyone. Same thing is happening in the east. The whole population can't be generalized.

@Loreena In reality there is no such thing as healthy or unhealthy ego. There is only God's will running through us. If God wants someone to be a serial killer, that's what they will be. They don't have choice in the matter. To answer your question, a healthy ego is living in alignment with your values. What are you desires? What do you want in life?

Okay I will try.

@Shin Maybe the correct word is "imaginative", instead of "wrong".

It frees me up to follow my heart. I don't focus on survival anymore. I still have limiting beliefs about what I can and can't do, which I have to overcome by taking action. We are co-creating our reality with God every moment. We're a lot more powerful than we give ourselves credit for.

It's unnecessary to say this because enlightened people came up with the concept of Vedanta. They had experiences similar to the one in my previous quote. You have to experience that to know for sure if the world is real or not. You can't just get it by studying Vedanta. I was saying the average person is trapped in the fantasy but enlightened people are not. For enlightened people, the body, mind, and world are unreal. They experienced God that's why they know.

The universe exists but our perception of it is flawed (maya). We see everything from our egoistic perspective. Enlightened people discovered that Brahman is real. People in the dream state aren't capable of that. This is how enlightened people perceive the world: “How silly! This jug is God! This cup is God! Whatever we see is God! And we too are God! Nothing could be more absurd.” Sri Ramakrishna came out of his room and gently touched him. Spellbound, he immediately perceived that everything in the world was indeed God. A new universe opened around him. Returning home in a dazed state, he found there too that the food, the plate, the eater himself, the people around him, were all God. Swami Nikhilananda. Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (Kindle Locations 1884-1887). Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York, Inc.. Kindle Edition. Swami Vivekananda thought enlightenment was delusional, until he me Ramakrishna. lol

People don't like how others behave, so they hate the person for acting obnoxiously, violently, or immorally. Their ego forms a concept in their mind of how the other person's behavior goes against their sense of morality. The ramifications are there can be negative behaviors towards the thing being hated. Example: Some people might assume all Muslims are terrorists so they'll say nuke the Middle East. lol

Everything is NOT God, but God appears as everything. Egoic experience is God dreaming. Non-duality means you become one with the universe, in other words no-mind. Non-duality means you experience yourself as God, not just intellectually know. @LetTheNewDayBegin In Hinduism, Brahman is defined as the following: formless, eternal, timeless, infinite, without attributes, but at the same time aware of itself. What this means is there no words that can describe God. You can't understand God through the intellect. Many people also like to think of God with form such as Shiva, Vishnu, Laxmi, etc. That is because meditating on the formless God is very difficult, so they gave God attributes but in reality God has no attributes.

Life is an illusion created by the mind. It's an ego game. We can speculate till the moon turns blue, but we'll never know why consciousness adopted the form of life.

@Ritu It sounds like you're a people-pleaser. You have to get in touch with your heart and stop looking outside yourself for approval. Not everyone will like you, even if you're the nicest person in the world. Be okay with that.

@Loreena The Loreena God has spoken. I am going through an awakening right now. It will take a few years to complete. All of the resistance in my body is fading away. I no longer feel like I have to survive. I don't take life seriously, but I still work hard. It's disturbing for people who don't about it, but I know, so I love the way it feels. My mind is slowly being destroyed.

@Stoica Doru I look at the ego as the character God is playing. We are all different characters in the movie. We suffer when we don't realize we are God and not the character we are playing. If God wants one character to be miserable they will be, because the character is not as powerful as God controlling it. Playing the character is a lot of fun, that's why God forgets itself.

I think you're the one who is holding onto concepts because you feel the need to correct people whenever they say spirit. You just have another type of ego that hates the ego. The ego has to be fully embraced before it can be dissolved. No spiritual teaching says you have to go against the ego. Maybe you should do more research on enlightenment and how to attain it. Be careful about believing everything Leo says, he's not enlightened. I don't think you understand what the ego truly is. Forgive me if I'm wrong. What difference does it make if people call it spirit/God/consciousness/infinity/void/Self? Our true nature is always going to remain the same, regardless of what words are used to describe it. Let them believe whatever they want.

@electroBeam Maybe your purpose doesn't involve having a degree. I dropped out of university once I realized that. The education is materialistic and doesn't provide any growth. Society lies by telling everyone they have to go to college. I'm now working on starting a business as an astrologer. I want to help people with my spiritual wisdom.

I pretend to believe in what others do such as death. I enjoy playing the game that way. Sometimes people ask me, "What is the concept of God in Hinduism?" I don't feel prepared to tell them yet, so I tell them you can think of God however you want. I know life is a huge delusion. After a person knows that, they can enjoy the world a whole lot more. Most humans are lost in the game because they think the experience is real. If the experience didn't feel real, the game wouldn't be fun. lol Do you pretend to believe the same things others do?

Yes beliefs are false and so is the experience we're having right now. My beliefs are constantly changing. I don't think beliefs prevent enlightenment like many people on this forum do. Sorry I forgot to add that in the question.

@elias There are two different types of yoga: physical and spiritual. The word yoga means to join or to merge. It's aim is to merge with the God within or to realize that you are God. The physical yoga is called Hatha yoga. Spiritual yoga is divided into 4 different paths. They are: Bhakti yoga, Karma yoga, Jnana yoga, and Raja yoga. All of them are difficult but Raja yoga is the most difficult. I will give you brief description of each one. 1. Bhakti (devotion) yoga: This involves being devoted to God or a higher ideal. The love between a devotee and God becomes so strong they no longer see themselves separate from God. This is not the same as believing in God, this is about experience. Many people who believe in God don't really love God. 2. Karma (selfless work) yoga: This involves doing selfless work for society like Mother Theresa. As a person works for society, they start to feel the separation between them and others disappear. They start to see in God in everyone else. 3. Jnana (wisdom) yoga: Through extreme wisdom one can discern what reality is. One discern the delusions of the mind until the mind is destroyed. 4. Raja (royal) yoga: This path involves meditation. The yogi practices severe disciplines before sitting down to meditate. Yoga is an entire lifestyle that a person lives. My favorite is Karma yoga because it doesn't require severe discipline. It's also possible to mix and match techniques from all of them. If a person succeeds in one of them, they get honorary degrees in all of them. They are designed to dissolve the ego over time.

Yes, God is always here. I'm suggesting we remain skeptical of that until we experience Absolute Infinity ourselves. The dream state is like being a zombie in comparison to that. Just because someone tells us we are God, doesn't mean we should accept it. If we blindly accept it, it becomes an airy fairy idea.

They would feel love but they can defend themselves if necessary. They know there is no death.