What is the self, what does it want?

[rachMiel]

@gettoefl What mean you by "I identify with everything"? 

[rachMiel]

@gettoefl Are you speaking from the pov of Guro-vinavian solipsism? (I'm not very familiar with.) Or gettoefl-inarian I-am-ianism? 

[gettoefl]

44 minutes ago, rachMiel said:

@gettoefl Are you speaking from the pov of Guro-vinavian solipsism? (I'm not very familiar with.) Or gettoefl-inarian I-am-ianism? 

No idea about that sorry

What i meant was, ego seeks being emperor of the whole sprawling dominion and is unabashedly unwilling to settle for less

Edited September 3 by gettoefl

[rachMiel]

@gettoefl Guess you are the wrong person to share my Enlightened Ego theory with? ;-)  

[LastThursday]

The self is an identity much like the body. As such it has to maintain its own existence against possible destruction. The body uses pain, and hormones and its immune system; the self uses stories, hallucination and ownership. In reality the self is an extension of the body, it's just another way a body maintains its identity. The body has learned to abstract away parts of its identity to gain advantage by having a self.

[Yimpa]

The self is a dumbass 

And, that, is intelligent.

[Paradoxed]

The self prioritizes survival

[Yimpa]

 

[Breakingthewall]

17 hours ago, rachMiel said:

But not terribly kind, open, generous, altruistic.

Could be all that if the circumstances are optimal for that. It's like a software programmed by millions of years of evolution, the basic lines are survival, then others. If the survival lines are activated, the others are in background 

Edited September 4 by Breakingthewall

[rachMiel]

@BreakingthewallThe ego is, by nature, self-centered, right? It may learn (be conditioned) to be kind, giving, loving, compassionate, generous. But its highest priority is always itself. Regardless of evolutionary fitness. Does that resonate with you? 

[Breakingthewall]

7 minutes ago, rachMiel said:

@BreakingthewallThe ego is, by nature, self-centered, right? It may learn (be conditioned) to be kind, giving, loving, compassionate, generous. But its highest priority is always itself. Regardless of evolutionary fitness. Does that resonate with you? 

Yeah I guess so, it could be educated to putting the common good first than that of the individual. You can also break your limitations and stop being a human ego, but this seems to be extremely difficult.

[rachMiel]

@Breakingthewall What are you when you do not identify as a human ego? 

[Breakingthewall]

13 minutes ago, rachMiel said:

@Breakingthewall What are you when you do not identify as a human ego? 

30 minutes ago, rachMiel said:

@Breakingthewall

Someone for whom life and death are the same, and therefore can perceive himself without limit. 

It doesn't have to be all or nothing, there are several degrees, but supposedly there is a total degree, which is enlightenment

Edited September 4 by Breakingthewall

[rachMiel]

Let's say you do not identify as a human ego, what do you identify as: awareness, brahman, God? 

[Breakingthewall]

2 hours ago, rachMiel said:

Let's say you do not identify as a human ego, what do you identify as: awareness, brahman, God? 

Any identification is ego. In fact, identification is what ego is. 

Edited September 4 by Breakingthewall

[rachMiel]

Advaitins are wont to say: Stand as awareness. This can be understood to mean: Identify as awareness. But this is I think a common misunderstanding. When you identify as X, you are positing (unconsciously probably) two things: a you and an X. Subject-object duality ensues. Standing as X otoh is the knowing that there is no difference between 'you' and X, there are not-two. ?  

[Breakingthewall]

The absence of ego is the fluid and unlimited mind. Anything other than this means suffering to some extent, as it is what they call contraction, a mental bubble that maintains itself by a constant energetic flow of fear. It is the situation in which we humans are always, and what is attempted is opening, breaking that bubble and flowing without limit. To do this, being human, it is necessary for the ego to reach a point of dominance, otherwise it cannot let go.

If we were, for example, a jellyfish, this would not be necessary, but if we were human, it would be, since we are gears in a hive and we have to learn it. It is a circle that must be closed, and it is not an easy process at all from what I see.

[rachMiel]

17 hours ago, Breakingthewall said:

The absence of ego is the fluid and unlimited mind. Anything other than this means suffering to some extent, as it is what they call contraction, a mental bubble that maintains itself by a constant energetic flow of fear. 

Good way putting it. 

17 hours ago, Breakingthewall said:

being human, it is necessary for the ego to reach a point of dominance, otherwise it cannot let go

Please explain reason the ego must become dominant and what 'dominant' means here. 

[Breakingthewall]

59 minutes ago, rachMiel said:

Please explain reason the ego must become dominant and what 'dominant' means here. 

Maybe it's not the right word. I meant an ego that has overcome the challenges that life has put before it, that has managed to find its place in the human machinery without hiding parts of itself. Maybe this is not necessary but it seems to me that it is.

[Salvijus]

19 hours ago, rachMiel said:

Advaitins are wont to say: Stand as awareness. This can be understood to mean: Identify as awareness. But this is I think a common misunderstanding. When you identify as X, you are positing (unconsciously probably) two things: a you and an X. Subject-object duality ensues. Standing as X otoh is the knowing that there is no difference between 'you' and X, there are not-two. ?  

22 hours ago, rachMiel said:

Let's say you do not identify as a human ego, what do you identify as: awareness, brahman, God? 

Either you identify with everything. Then there is no duality. Or you identify with nothing at all. Then there's no duality also.