What is ego-death?

[tentacion]

What actually happens in ego death and what happens after the moment the ego dies? After my intense weed experience I got a feeling of how it might be like but it wasn't close to an actual ego death, especially after that I have been very fascinated by the term. 

[Shadowraix]

For me it was quite literally the epitome of nonduality. Just clicked. All is one. There was no me or identification with anything. It was just pure unity. it was one of the most blissful States I have ever been in but that varies with people 

[ivankiss]

It is total surrender to what is.

When ego dies, one realizes the infinite naure of existance. Ego is not separate from it. Just makes it a bit trickier to recognize.

[tentacion]

2 minutes ago, Shadowraix said:

For me it was quite literally the epitome of nonduality. Just clicked. All is one. There was no me or identification with anything. It was just pure unity. it was one of the most blissful States I have ever been in but that varies with people 

That sounds awesome, I'm glad for you.

 

Yeah, the process and all is probably unique to each person.

[Antonius]

For me ego death happens so gradually I don't even notice. I just find myself sitting, not knowing my name, how do I look, where am I, that I'm human, that I'm alive, that I have a family... nothing I just exist.

[tentacion]

I wonder if the ego is an entity of it's own who has possessed human beings or is it actually just who we are, our self-identity? Because in ego-death I imagine that the ego would be seen for what it is and exposed, and what is scary is to realize that it is actually an entity. Is that false to say?

[Rilles]

3 minutes ago, tentacion said:

I wonder if the ego is an entity of it's own who has possessed human beings or is it actually just who we are, our self-identity? Because in ego-death I imagine that the ego would be seen for what it is and exposed, and what is scary is to realize that it is actually an entity. Is that false to say?

The ego is not a thing, its an idea, how can an idea be an entity.

[tentacion]

5 minutes ago, Rilles said:

The ego is not a thing, its an idea, how can an idea be an entity.

It can't of course, if it is only an idea.

[GeoLura]

12 hours ago, tentacion said:

It can't of course, if it is only an idea.

And you are that idea.

[Zigzag Idiot]

Internalized images are basic to Ego.

Ego structures are built off of internalized images which give us a sense of identity. In Inquiry, observing our inner life can reveal our internalized images. This seeing helps dissolve ego structures. Our experience becomes more 'spacious'. We can then experience the presence of being after we become quiet inside.

 

[Leo Gura]

In the very moment of ego-death it is realized that your biological birth was just a story. It is realized that you are not a physical or a biological object, but an idea. This idea is eliminated, as though it never existed. Not only that, it becomes almost impossible to imagine how you ever thought you existed.

Imagine life minus you.

That's ego death. Everything stays the same. But you are missing!

In other words, absolutely nothing changes! Just its always been, and how is right now!

There is no you reading this sentence. The sense that there is a you reading this sentence is a fantasy. The end of this fantasy is ego-death.

Ego-death is not an idea or a belief, it is state of consciousness. Accessing this state of consciousness requires intense concentration and stillness of the conceptualize mind. The conceptualizing mind is what is sustaining the fantasy of a you in the same way that a video game console sustains the appearance of Super Mario. If the console is unplugged, Mario disappears.

[who chit]

It's seeing "what I thought I was,never existed" and realizing "what I am, is eternal and has never not existed".
No beginning and no end, "You" have always been and will always be.
 

Edited January 13, 2019 by who chit

[inFlow]

4 hours ago, who chit said:

No beginning and no end, "You" have always been and will always be.

Yeah that moment when the realisation occurs, the most shocking thing is that "YOU" were never actualy born.

[tentacion]

Tnx for the answers, they really help. I had an experience last evening after smoking hashish again which lasted for like 10 seconds where I dissolved and became very still awareness, I merged with all objects around me and awareness was all that there was, then I suddenly came back and saw I was in this trance state. I could have gone deeper into it but I was in a restaurant with some friends. I didn't want to lose myself or something like that which I'm sure would have happened if I went deeper into it so i pulled myself back, and it feelt like I was in another reality after that for  like 1 hour. I can imagine how much powerful it is with real psychedelics, how deep it can go with awareness etc. It's scary and liberating at the same time, if you go the whole way and just surrender or let go. I feel I need to be alone to do that, to go the whole way.

Edited January 13, 2019 by tentacion

[Nahm]

@tentacion You’re right. 

Have you worked on your “Alone”?

[Forestluv]

@tentacion I’ve entered the same space while in cafes. You described it very well ?