EGO

[karkaore]

So I've been contemplating about the ego lately. I have noticed that the ego is getting a lot of judgment and hate due to its unconsciousness. Yes, its ultimately true that it causes suffering because of that. And that is fine! It is true that the ego has to be transcended if one is seeking liberation. Although the approach to the path will not get you anywhere if it is done in a brute, aggressive manner. I feel like the ego is treated like a dog who just peed on a carpet. Intuitively one gets mad at it, rubs its face in its urine. But is one conscious enough to remember that the dog was not taken for a walk in the morning? The dog didn't mean any harm. It just did what it had to do. It's natural. Same goes for that 'devilish ego'.

So imagine. One has been doing all the practices - meditating, self-inquiry, kriya everyday for some time and then one day wakes up to be depressed, anxious ect. What is the approach to dealing with it? Does one start judging oneself ? Or does one brute force through it, doing the practices mechanically? Like a robot that is supposed to be programmed to keep going? If that is the case, how does one expect to 'achieve' infinite love, compassion and understanding that way? What are the odds?

Wouldn't it be better to understand the motives of the ego? Wouldn't it be better to show love and compassion for oneself? The thing I am struggling and I feel, that majority of us is struggling with is lack of compassion and too much of ignorance, brutality towards ego. The way I see this concept 'ego', is like a child desperately wanting that sweet looking candy, willing to sacrifice anything just to taste it. Does the child has some other 'devilish' reason for wanting the candy besides the genuine desire? Does the ego want to sustain itself because it is 'evil'? Does it deserve all this criticism and aggression? 

I feel that ego is getting too much shit it doesn't deserve. It is only trying to keep you alive! Does it deserve all this negativity? Yes, it is unable to see the bigger picture. That is not a valid reason for judging it, can't you see? Do you go around criticizing high school kids for not understanding rocket science?

It's all fine. Everything is a lesson. I hope one could get something out of this post.

All is love, including ego. It needs to be loved just as much as anything else.

[Truth Addict]

@karkaore 

The ego is an immature, selfish, untamed beast. It doesn't really care about your survival, it cares about keeping you unconscious, which in some way means its own survival.

It's neither positive nor negative. It's just unconscious, uncaring, unloving of others. Which eventually fires back at it, and makes it want to die. And there where the spiritual journey begins.

Ego does not neef to be blamed or killed or tortured. It just needs to know its role in life.

And as the saying goes: The ego is a bad master, and a great servant.

Edited February 12, 2019 by Truth Addict

[karkaore]

@Truth Addict precisely. I think it appears as if it is unloving and uncaring because it doesn't grasp the fact that love and care is the core of happiness. In fact it doesn't know what these concepts mean. But again, that doesn't mean that it should be treated without love and compassion. Everything and everyone just wants to be loved. In one form or another. My point was that I have noticed ego being demonized just for being ego. I see it all across spirituality.

Ego? Its BAD, it just wants one to SUFFER! When in fact, ego is the only reason one gets to live, breathe, taste and smell. In a way, I feel like this approach to the ego is a shadow on the spiritual communities. Yes, it needs to be taught and shown the path, but in what manner? Now, I might be completely wrong here about all this. It's just the way it looks like to me.

Edited February 12, 2019 by karkaore
grammar

[Nahm]

Merely seen through, that’s all. 

[Truth Addict]

@karkaore 

The Devil is always a devil.

Nevertheless, God allows it to be, and showers it with love.

Only an ego is not capable of love.

[Nahm]

@Truth Addict There’s no devil, no evil, no ego it is a perspective and it is not yours - it comes and goes!. God allows no thing to be, there is no thing, there is only God, no allowance - even that would be a limit, a condition. This often appears to be a “higher level” realization, but consider taking away “higher levels”, in actuality, this is appearance of appearance as one is closer (more accepting) of one’s self. One’s self is God, so upon encroaching in ‘proximity’ - thus “the teacher appears”. In actuality though, One, only consciousness. So we say things like when the student is ready, the teacher appears. One can always flip the coin though (if one is willing to let go of the currently ‘held’ perspective / need for understanding). So say there is no spiritual master. Kill The Buddha, he begs you to.  If that’s too much too soon, say - a spiritual master might not be as I think it to....consider this profound wisdom and “it’s source”...

 

“I'm a man without conviction, a man who doesn't know how to sell a contradiction. You come and go, you come and go.  Loving would be easy if your colors were like my dreams! ....Didn't hear your wicked words every day and you used to be so sweet, I heard you say that my love was an addiction. When we cling, our love is strong. When you go, you're gone forever. You string along, you string along.”

[Truth Addict]

@Nahm

I understand, all thoughts and concepts are projections. But also there's no thoughts or projections, because they're all experience, and experience is ultimately one Consciousness. Even to say it's Consciousness is too much, because it is just what it is, and even that is too much. There's really nothing to say.

But.......

We use language and metaphor to communicate ideas, nothing more and nothing less. I was just trying to be practical.

In the ultimate level, I understand it's just me. But what does this even mean?

(I'm not speaking from full consciousness of the matter, but it seems right, and I haven't been able to doubt it yet in any possible way.

[Nahm]

15 minutes ago, Truth Addict said:

@Nahm

I understand, all thoughts and concepts are projections. But also there's no thoughts or projections, because they're all experience, and experience is ultimately one Consciousness. Even to say it's Consciousness is too much, because it is just what it is, and even that is too much. There's really nothing to say. 

But.......

We use language and metaphor to communicate ideas, nothing more and nothing less. I was just trying to be practical.

In the ultimate level, I understand it's just me. But what does this even mean?

(I'm not speaking from full consciousness of the matter, but it seems right, and I haven't been able to doubt it yet in any possible way.

Yes! 

What specifically are you saying you ‘haven’t been able to doubt”? 

 

[Truth Addict]

5 minutes ago, Nahm said:

Yes! 

What specifically are you saying you ‘haven’t been able to doubt”? 

 

I can't really point to it.

Edited February 12, 2019 by Truth Addict

[Nahm]

@Truth Addict Sweet.   Whatever is perceived as not-me, once inspected enough, it’s me too. Toasters, hubcaps, etc. 

[karkaore]

Yes, all is one. Oneness is all there is. There is no 'there' or 'here' for that matter. Just ISness is. That being said and 'true?' (i didn't have a non-dual experience yet) means that everything is an illusion. The phrase 'separate things' doesn't make any sense, ultimately. So if we are all so non-dual and spiritual, authentic and all the other pretty ideological words (yes, i am a bit frustrated here), why demonize this poor little ego filled with confusion? After all, the illusion of there being a self is just as real. As you guys said, one consciousness. Conscious of itself or not.

I remember when I first started meditating my friend said 'It would be nice to kill the ego'. Now that statement didn't sound  right for me from the start. Not long after I wondered upon Actualized to find that yeah, people just want to crawl out of their skin and fucking burn it. I do know that I am not this body, not my thoughts/feelings, not my ego. I know it caused me suffering. But I just can't grasp why such negativity is implied when it comes to the ego, like it's a rock dragging all to the bottom of the ocean. How is it possible to see it this way?

One is where one is precisely because of the ego. Ones ego is what made everything possible. Even if it's unconscious. I guess my understanding of the concept differ. Maybe.

[Truth Addict]

@Nahm thank you man!

I don't care about the consequences of finding Truth, I just want Truth for Truth's sake.

Let the Truth come (realisation), and the rest is peanuts.

[Highest]

The ego is Like a dead character trying to hold on to a dead self-image. I was wrong: fuck the mask, fuck the character. It's useless. I can play it out, master it. Because I am not the mask, I am That (Consciousness, God) which uses the mask in whatever way it feels like. However better yet, is Being, Consciousness. Prior to the mask, prior to the ego. The ego is a secondary derive from consciousness, having no existence apart from it. From Being, everything happens effortlessly. In the end, the ego will learn to obey it's God. Only Being, Consciousness will remain. Consciousness, the only doer, will do things flawlessly as soon as the ego and person character/mask has been surrendered completely. The imaginary beast of the mind will eventually surrender as well, without little resistance,