Why Does Ego Exist?

[Cesar Alba]

If the mind has the tendency to complicate everything making unhappy all the people, why does exist? I don’t know if there’s more life in outer space, supposing that’s not the case and we are the only “thinking” beings in the universe, why? Why us? Why “God”, “Existence”, or however you wanna call it, gave us that gift/curse? 

[Joseph Maynor]

This is a great question.  This is speculative, but I’ll bite!  

The mind augmented reality because we have been conditioned to identify with the mind and body instead of identifying with awareness.  The mind screwed us up basically.  The mind is a double-edged sword.  The problem with the mind is we don’t know how to use it constructively without a lot of awareness.  Maybe this is caused by the fact that thoughts and other mental events are hard to see because the information is not laid out plainly before us like other sensations are.  It could be that simple — the mind operated for a long-time virtually under the radar and unchecked, and it mucked-up the system.

Edited October 9, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[WelcometoReality]

@Cesar Alba The egoic drive of never being satisfied and always being unhappy with what it had was great for survival. When we lived out of scarcity it makes sense that the one accumulating more stuff had a better chance to survive. But now times have changed. We live in a world of abundance so it makes no sense to live in that old paradigm. We can see that the same egoic drive has caused major concerns both from an individual and worldly perspective.

 

[Leo Gura]

@Cesar Alba You still aren't grasping the existential significance of this.

Ego is you!

No ego, no you.

[Joseph Maynor]

I was addressing why the illusion of ego exists in my answer.  Yeah — you don’t wanna assume that the ego exists.  The ego is illusory.

Edited October 10, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[pluto]

[Heart of Space]

The function it has is advantageous to our survival.  If you look at the basic function of ego, to not be satisfied and grasp at the external world in pursuit something, it makes sense that a high functioning creature would evolve such a thing.  The function of ego is very beneficial for your survival, especially in a high stakes environment like humans were in 100,000 years ago.  

The problem is that in modern society everything is handed to you and pretty much everyone can survive with no trouble at all.  The result is that the ego is emphasized and strengthened because it's constantly grasping to change its situation for the better and it's doing it successfully almost 100% of the time.  Because the function of the ego is to continually grasp even when you have a society set up seemingly to satisfy all desires, it is not successful in bringing you happiness.  Not only that it only really sets a higher standard for which you must grasp, as in more pleasure and more avoidance of discomfort.  

Once you understand this you see the importance of lessening or eradicating ego completely for the sake of your happiness.

[Nahm]

20 hours ago, Cesar Alba said:

If the mind has the tendency to complicate everything making unhappy all the people, why does exist? I don’t know if there’s more life in outer space, supposing that’s not the case and we are the only “thinking” beings in the universe, why? Why us? Why “God”, “Existence”, or however you wanna call it, gave us that gift/curse? 

Your questions are based on a false premise that a seperate entity (God, Existence) exists, and that you exist as a seperate entity. So you are asking ‘why’ was this done to me? Why was I ‘made’ to experience this? When in actuality, there is no seperate entity, it is you doing this, and in your manifestation you are missing that the gift is that you can answer these questions. That is your life and the present. You can even think of the miracle of life & your mind as a curse. That’s how deep your unconditional love is. 

[electroBeam]

@Cesar Alba the ego = you, your family, the laws of physics, objects, materialism your mum, your dad, and most scary of all... spirituality. Everything related to spirituality.

No ego, no of the above. 

The only thing left is, something that cannot be told to you. 

[egoeimai]

@Cesar Alba to protect you 

[Emptystickfigure]

It doesn't exist. But it feels real, doesn't it? 

[Brimstone]

lol @Emptystickfigure

Who says that the ego exists or doesn't?

[Emptystickfigure]

Just now, Brimstone said:

lol @Emptystickfigure

Who says that the ego exists or doesn't?

Now, now, be gentle. I'm new at all this. 

[Brimstone]

Haha, sorry mate 

[pluto]

If you want a deeper answer, well.. simply to experience separation and expand and grow via subjective experiences.

Without ego we are singularity. We become infinite oneness.

Infinite intelligence knows everything, but it didn't know one thing, that is to NOT KNOW.

So it began

Edited October 13, 2017 by pluto

[Nahm]

@pluto awesome.

The proximity of the ego from source is Goldilocks-ish, like the distance between the earth & sun.