What actually is the ego?

[Surfingthewave]

There seems to be mixed messages on here about this. When going deeper down the rabbit hole what becomes of the ego? To get rid of something you have to be aware of what it is. 

[Leo Gura]

It's a state of consciousness.

When that state changes, ego goes poof! like it never was.

[Truth Addict]

@Surfingthewave

Ego is your imagination in contrast to the actual thing. All of your ideas are ego, including the one you just read. Ego is the map.

17 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

It's a state of consciousness.

When that state changes, ego goes poof! like it never was.

It either tunes into another frequency, or dissolves completely.

[LastThursday]

@Surfingthewave what's your favourite film and who's your favourite actor? 

You go to the cinema and eat popcorn and drink Coke and for a couple of hours let go of disbelief and immerse yourself in the experience.

For those few hours, you forget who you are and become part of the action and the drama. 

Why do you find it so easy to do this? Why are you so flimsy? Why are you so easily fooled?

Aren't you just immersed in the movie of your life, acting out your favourite part: yourself? What are you when you stop acting?

 

[Aakash]

@Leo Gura i need to know so I can stop barking up the wrong tree and instigating conscious warfare making myself look silly. On behalf of all enlightened people on this forum. 

Is non dual consciousness or the current version of enlightenment that individuals experience only a state of ego, which they are unaware of ? 

[Jack River]

Perhaps consciousness imagines states?

[Leo Gura]

31 minutes ago, Aakash said:

@Leo Gura Is non dual consciousness or the current version of enlightenment that individuals experience only a state of ego, which they are unaware of ? 

A) I don't know what you mean by that. You are painting with a broad brush here. People experience and realize different things.

Nondual consciousness is not a state of ego, it is the absence of ego, and the realization that your true nature is nothing and everything, or infinite, or God.

There are many people here who are unaware of many things. Just because they have some degree of realization does not mean they are aware of the deeper layers.

Ego dissolution also has layers and degrees of depth to it. The ego is a complex and relentless structure. It takes a lot of deconstruction work to fully get beyond it.

B) Do not start yet another nonduality debate.

[Bill W]

My idea of what an ego is, is probably not what any other person would say it is! I have developed my own theory on this that I mostly keep to myself. I'm not sure if my idea of what the ego is correlates with what any authorities on ego would say. 

Actually to call it my own theory is a stretch. I think books like the Chimp Paradox have helped me form this opinion and belief. 

Our ego is a major reason for monkey mind. It is a mostly dysfunctional alarm system that one day might evolve into a more functional part of us, but until that happens, all we can do is try to transcend it. There must have been a good reason for it, but somehow it has malfunctioned mostly. It see's danger where there is none. It wants us to strive for things that are not actually always in our own best interests. The ego is willing to sacrifice the whole of the rest of the person to meet it's needs. People killing each other over an insult, or road rage are examples of how dysfunctional the ego is. It literally kills you. It makes you the dumbest motherfucker around. 

I'm not sure if we need to work on eliminating or just retraining it. I'm not sure if there would be any catastrophic consequences of eliminating it. 

For me, Enlightenment is the transcending of the ego. Intentionally transcending the ego is the most advanced life skill there is for me. You would be in the top 1% of the world, if not the top 0.1% in terms of being an advanced human being. You cannot be offended. You always forgive. Life holds no fear.

If there was a medication or therapy that got you to this point, it would be the most valuable thing in existence, especially if you had it and others did not. You would be in the top 1% or 0.1% even of the most effective human beings on the planet. It would be like steroids for the mind and soul. 

The mind with a transcended ego is a fortress. It would be like Neo from the Matrix when he is dodging the bullets for the first time. 

This is Heaven on Earth. 

[SunnyNewDay]

It's an apparatus which links the inner world with the perception of the outer world.

You don't even have to get rid of it and it isnt a bad thing if you're living as a good person and getting rid of it doesn't necessarily mean happiness, fulfillment or meaning in life. 

[Aakash]

@Leo Gura okay I will refrain from starting a non dual debate using what is said here. 

29 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Nondual consciousness is not a state of ego, it is the absence of ego, and the realization that your true nature is nothing and everything, or infinite, or God.

There are many people here who are unaware of many things. Just because they have some degree of realization does not mean they are aware of the deeper layers.

Non duality is the absence of human ego. I agree with this. What I’m trying to argue here is that the “ego” which is understood to be a human does not actually exist. It is much deeper than that. 

From my point of view in my direct experience. The ego denoted in all the religious text is actually a facet of mechanism of god. It is the reason why animals have survival needs, why ideologies have survival needs. The commonality between all these egos as you’ve stated above “levels of consciousness” are their attempt to encapsulate reality into their own domain. 

However any paradigm is destroyed by Godel. Therefore, this would suggest that we are dealing with a universal ego or a god ego which is embedded into all of our realities, to sustain the imagination of the reality. As it must be. 

As a result, conscious states are defence mechanisms to stop GOD from reaching total enlightenment. These defence mechanisms are infact the facet of ego. 

My claim is that the absence of ego that non dualist experience is not complete ego dissolution. It is the mistaken teachings that the facet of ego implies implicitly to human ego. This is not the case, the inherit self deception of the mind, the lack of understanding of epistemology and the attempt to encapsulate reality all Help to cover it up. 

So to conclude: non duality is not the highest state of enlightenment. The absence of a human ego is NOT the absence of a universal god ego. 

 

[Leo Gura]

@Aakash Way too much theorizing.

As I already said, ego is a contracted state of consciousness. Changing the state makes it go away.

[Aakash]

@Leo Gura I see, to be honest. before I signed on.. I lost track of my knowledge and thought how much the possibility of me bullshitting myself is. It’s quite high lol 

 

Edited July 3, 2019 by Aakash

[Pacific Sage]

Disidentifying with the inner voice and just experiencing what is without bias could be one state of mind without the ego.

[Preetom]

5 hours ago, Aakash said:

@Leo Gura okay I will refrain from starting a non dual debate using what is said here. 

Non duality is the absence of human ego. I agree with this. What I’m trying to argue here is that the “ego” which is understood to be a human does not actually exist. It is much deeper than that. 

From my point of view in my direct experience. The ego denoted in all the religious text is actually a facet of mechanism of god. It is the reason why animals have survival needs, why ideologies have survival needs. The commonality between all these egos as you’ve stated above “levels of consciousness” are their attempt to encapsulate reality into their own domain. 

However any paradigm is destroyed by Godel. Therefore, this would suggest that we are dealing with a universal ego or a god ego which is embedded into all of our realities, to sustain the imagination of the reality. As it must be. 

As a result, conscious states are defence mechanisms to stop GOD from reaching total enlightenment. These defence mechanisms are infact the facet of ego. 

My claim is that the absence of ego that non dualist experience is not complete ego dissolution. It is the mistaken teachings that the facet of ego implies implicitly to human ego. This is not the case, the inherit self deception of the mind, the lack of understanding of epistemology and the attempt to encapsulate reality all Help to cover it up. 

So to conclude: non duality is not the highest state of enlightenment. The absence of a human ego is NOT the absence of a universal god ego. 

 

"As a man is, so he sees"

This explains your current view. Since you still have a human ego, you see a massive, intelligent universal/god ego at play all around you as well.

Just like you sense that you are an individual, intelligent agent with choices and what not; you also feel the universe also has agency.

But you are failing to see that the universal ego is merely the projection of your own human ego.

This is what happens when an ajnani tries to put a jnani into his models and paradigms. This is why you are now crusading against enlightened people thinking that they transcended the human ego and still blind towards the bigger game about the universal ego. 

As if, universal ego was a real thing in the first place. Did the universe come and tell you it has an ego, agency, purpose? No. Its you who sees something, then makes some pattern and then more theories and beliefs over it. Does the universe say 'I'?

Edited July 3, 2019 by Preetom

[Aakash]

@Preetom ? yes you are right and I was wrong. 

[Shadowraix]

I like to think of it elaborated out as a concept that is used as a tool for modifying mechanisms affecting perceptions, thought and behavior. 

[Aakash]

@Shadowraix that’s actually a great way to put it ??

[Pacific Sage]

Ego Is a survival guide.

[Surfingthewave]

"As a woman so she knows" 

The ego appears to take on many forms, with many layers that tricks itself into believing its own status. When you reduce it to just a state, one can transcend it. 

I'm interested to hear people's positive or negative versions of ego. 

@Aakash have you reflected on the role your own ego can play when disidentifying the mind? 

@Bill W illuminating the ego could begin the path to transcending it. Trying to retrain it might give you a bigger ego, as we have seen. Interesting metaphor used - Neon and the bullets. 

@Preetom If you are infinite how does this fit in with your idea of a universal ego? 

@LastThursday Absolutely - all the world's a stage, all the men and women are merely players. This "stage" is consciousness, or the screen of the mind. I tend to have different movies playing out depending on the day. Yesterday it was Neverending story, I'm hoping today it'll be Die Hard. 

 

Edited July 3, 2019 by Surfingthewave

[LastThursday]

@Surfingthewave ha! Groundhog Day for me, without the comedy or explosions. I'm praying for Inception tomorrow. Still, if you're going to start trying on a different ego every day, then that's a step in the right direction.