Leo, Should we even have a Self-Image? I'm Confused

[SQAAD]

So i have been hearing from Leo how people have a self-image. Even a Spiritual self-image. And i get the sense like this has some sort of negative connotation from the way Leo talks about it.

Is it wrong to have a self-image?

What self-image "Should' we have? I'm confused...

Can anyone give an explanation?

- Thanks .

Edited May 26, 2019 by SQAAD

[Leo Gura]

Self-image = ego

You can do/have whatever you want. Just understand that there will be natural consequences.

Ego = suffering

[SQAAD]

@Leo Gura What self-image do you have Leo?

Is it even possible to Not have a self-image?

 

Edited May 26, 2019 by SQAAD

[Shin]

3 minutes ago, SQAAD said:

@Leo Gura What self-image do you have Leo?

There is no self image to have.

Self image is just thoughts patterns you identify yourself with.

You stop that you don't know what you are capable or not, what you will do or not, and in the end

If you're even an human being or any kind of thing.

 

Then in some months you will panic, cry and run in the other direction backsliding like a crazy person ?

Edited May 26, 2019 by Shin

[Leo Gura]

14 minutes ago, SQAAD said:

@Leo Gura What self-image do you have Leo?

I have a complex Leo-God self-image.

Quote

Is it even possible to Not have a self-image?

To have no self-image at all is the highest level of awakening. You then become God.

God is what remains after the self-image is bypassed/transcended.

You are not going to transcend the self-image in one go. It takes years of deconstruction work and multiple awakenings.

[Bill W]

Being pragmatic, perhaps for people at a certain stage of their development (me for example) the issue is perhaps what impact does the self-image have? What problems does it cause? What can be done? For me a self image is there whether I want or not. Like delusional thoughts. They are here. It's what I do with them (or not do with them) that's important. 

[Leo Gura]

It's smart to improve one's self-image first before trying to totally transcend it.

Most of you guys would benefit from some basic self-esteem and self-image work.

A weak self-image is too insecure to allow itself to be transcended.

Transcending the self-image is the highest stage of Maslow's pyramid.

[Preetom]

Start seeing self image, purpose, meaning, context, morality etc like specialized pieces of a gigantic puzzle.

Each piece/group serves you in some particular way while simultaneously limiting you in some other ways whether you know it or not. In other words, each setting comes with pros and cons.

And as Leo mentioned, the highest awakening is transcending the entire game. Total absence of context, image, agency.

[SQAAD]

@Leo Gura

2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Most of you guys would benefit from some basic self-esteem and self-image work.

 

So much goddamn work Leo. If i was God (i don't say that i am not) i would first & firemost know that i am God and then create whatever i want for myself. Total Paradise.

I would be in a beach alone with 100.000 beautiful women, whatever food & luxury i wanted & that's it. Why God is such a masochist?

That fantasy of mine could be theoretically  accomplished by a God who has Infinite power at his disposal. It sucks being God but not feeling like you are one lol. It sucks dreaming realities without knowing that you are doing so.

So much suffering for nothing.

Edited May 26, 2019 by SQAAD

[EvilAngel]

I'm interested in this too Leo. It's like I've done things backwards. I started deconstructing my self image 16 years ago, before I had constructed a healthy ego... This led to mental illness. I've now had enlightenment experiences, yet I have never even tried to create a healthy self image, so have basically lived without an identity for the past 16 years. I'm now 32. Would you suggest that I attempt to create some sort of identity now, or just continue bringing the ox back home? Thanks. 

[Preetom]

5 minutes ago, SQAAD said:

@Leo Gura

So much goddamn work Leo. If i was God (i don't say that i am not) i would first & firemost know that i am God and then create whatever i want for myself. Total Paradise.

I would be in a beach alone with 10000 beautiful women, whatever food & luxury i wanted & that's it. Why God is such a masochist?

That fantasy of mine could be theoretically be accomplished by a God who has Infinite power at his disposal. It sucks being God but not feeling like you are one lol.

Advaita Vedanta understood this common fallacy of God and thus pointed something more skillful and deeper to seekers.

But if you only stick with Leo, I mean if Leo is your ONLY source to educate yourself and building a solid intellectual foundation about nonduality and spirituality then you sure have many years of a rough, long road ahead man. Every week, he will come with more metaphors and ways of explaining this thing and every week you become more and more confused and frustrated lol. Paradoxes after paradoxes without any clue

 

[Shadowraix]

@Preetom Yeah paradoxes I see as a big confusion people have. And when you work one end of the paradox people assume the other end is false when really we are just highlighting awareness of it. 

Very tricky stuff. 

[SQAAD]

@Preetom

13 minutes ago, Preetom said:

Advaita Vedanta understood this common fallacy of God and thus pointed something more skillful and deeper to seekers.

 

 

Why is it  a fallacy? 

Why can't i as God create whatever i want? That fantasy of mine lets say.

I also watch  Rupert Spira. But i am tired of theory already. Can't understand these things with theory.

Need some more awakening experiences.

Gotta buy shrooms again i guess. 

Edited May 26, 2019 by SQAAD

[Leo Gura]

24 minutes ago, SQAAD said:

@Leo Gura

So much goddamn work Leo. If i was God (i don't say that i am not) i would first & firemost know that i am God and then create whatever i want for myself. Total Paradise.

I would be in a beach alone with 100.000 beautiful women, whatever food & luxury i wanted & that's it. Why God is such a masochist?

God's paradise is a trillion times greater than the hell that you imagined above as paradise.

God's paradise is so infinitely good that it allows you to create your own hell inside it. Which you have just done unwittingly.

Quote

That fantasy of mine could be theoretically  accomplished by a God who has Infinite power at his disposal. It sucks being God but not feeling like you are one lol. It sucks dreaming realities without knowing that you are doing so.

So much suffering for nothing.

Since you are God, you are doing it to yourself. You could stop doing it. But that means you'd have to surrender your false paradise.

[SQAAD]

@Leo Gura Thanks for your time.

I am willing to surrender to be honest. I am tired already of my egoic problems. So much delusion, pain and suffering.

Edited May 26, 2019 by SQAAD

[erik8lrl]

@Leo Gura

If everything the ego does is for survival, then what will survival look like after you transcended the ego? How would one live?

If all desires hold the image of the ego, then how can one become desireless? Since the desire of desirelessness is in itself a desire.  

Even the act of doing nothing is for the survival of the ego, then how can one survive without the ego? 

From my experience, love/wholeness is the opposite of desire/survival, but it is very difficult to distinguish the difference when the ego can turn everything to its benefit.  How would you distinguish when you are acting from your ego or not? When everything can be used by the ego? 

[Preetom]

28 minutes ago, SQAAD said:

@Preetom

Why is it  a fallacy? 

Why can't i as God create whatever i want? That fantasy of mine lets say.

The fallacy here is in the definition of God that you are currently making up. That definition doesn't correspond to anything close neither to your own direct experience nor to an open minded thought experiment. That is why this creates all this confusion and frustrations.

We need to be extremely vigilant on the word 'God', it's meaning and consequences before starting flinging it at everyone's face like Oprah's EVERYBODY GETS A CAR!! Let's look at it this way.

The Absolute is undefinable. Anything that can be said about it, is not it. You are that Ultimate Reality. Plain and simple. No buts, no questions asked, nothing more or less. It's the proclamation upon which all nondual text relies upon.

Now take a look at God. God is that Absolute WITH a bunch of definitions such as omnipotence, omnipresence, existence, consciousness, bliss, all powerful, all merciful, infinite will, the creator, sustainer, destroyer of the universe etc so on and so forth. Now Leo might send me into exile from this forum if I say this but guess what... You are NOT this God. 

The ultimate pointer is You are the Absolute prior to this God(with definitions). You are the Absolute that makes it possible for such a God to appear in the first place. Now this might bring in a serious argument that how can it be non-duality if 'I' as Absolute remain separate from God, World etc. So are there multiple absolutes now?

The answer is no. When the Absolute is directly realized, all ideas of God, world, subject, object, consciousness, absolute etc become null and void. The absolute is absolute. Non-duality. And it can't be talked about. 

So the bottom line is, the God that has the infinite power to manifest 10000 chicks and living comfortably in a mansion(lets say there is such a God), YOU ARE NOT THAT GOD. You are the Absolute Reality that makes it possible for such a God to exist and do his/her shit.

That is why you can't manifest 10000 hot chicks. That is God's power, not your power. Your truth and reality is even deeper and prior to that God. You are the Absolute. When you realize that, then there is no God, world, subject, object, 10000 chicks and a mansion left

Edited May 26, 2019 by Preetom

[erik8lrl]

@Leo Gura

The ego is within the wholeness and the wholeness is the ego.

The sense of separateness is in itself the result of wholeness. 

But then in that perspective, there is nothing more but the ego/wholeness.  

Is this my ego's trap? 

[Preetom]

19 minutes ago, erik8lrl said:

@Leo Gura

If everything the ego does is for survival, then what will survival look like after you transcended the ego? How would one live?

 

Really transcend the ego first and then see if such a question arise or not.

[Ananta]

15 minutes ago, Preetom said:

Now Leo might send me into exile from this forum if I say this but guess what... You are NOT this God. 

I "just" brought this up in another thread and instead of agreeing you said I was starting world War 3. What a hypocrite you are.