What Ego Is

[Victor Mgazi]

5 minutes ago, Prevailer said:

If a thought is just imagination ....that it just a thought that you have had.One of your EGOS has convinced you of this.THINK again....

No convincing needed, just awareness and careful observation. 

I use the term thought relatively in this reality we're in, thought also arises from consciousness. That's what I'm trying to point to when I use the term imagination. I'm trying to get you guys to see that consciousness is intelligent and ingenuous. That's how 'reality' is created, through consciousness and imagination.

There is something that transcends that what you're referring to as "Two Egos", it's always there and is capable of making observations. It's the very thing that's projecting those "Two Egos" and giving them undeserving credit.

Don't think again, just look.

[Victor Mgazi]

@DLH Yes, we're similar. ?

 

[Prevailer]

8 minutes ago, Victor Mgazi said:

No convincing needed, just awareness and careful observation. 

I use the term thought relatively in this reality we're in, thought also arises from consciousness. That's what I'm trying to point to when I use the term imagination. I'm trying to get you guys to see that consciousness is intelligent and ingenuous. That's how 'reality' is created, through consciousness and imagination.

There is something that transcends that what you're referring to as "Two Egos", it's always there and is capable of making observations. It's the very thing that's projecting those "Two Egos" and giving them undeserving credit.

Don't think again, just look.

Yeah look but don’t come to any conclusions one way or the other... period or else you will have fallen into the clutches of your EGOS again.I might be wrong and I might be right in this assumption ....All there is at the end of the day HOPE ....LOVE..and possibly something else I HOPE....

[gswva]

58 minutes ago, Victor Mgazi said:

If the attachment to the idea of self isn't real then recognize that you're God, do it right now.

By writing this post, I can change the content of your mind the same way you do it, or how "god" does it through what we call reality. All the religions and divine insights, ironically imagined by God, are layers of what the ego uses as self-preservation mechanism.

58 minutes ago, Victor Mgazi said:

Ego is conscious intelligence clinging to the idea that it is a separate self. It doesn't even matter whether this separate self  is human or not. Cling to any kind of form and you're attached. 

No, God is the only consciousness there is. There is nothing external that interact with it or cling to it. And not all state of consciousness leads to the ego, it's one carefully crafted set of interlinked thoughts that prevents itself from being forgotten.

38 minutes ago, DLH said:

We are basically using minute perspectives from our experiences, background and concepts of language to describe something that is formless.

It's true. We can grasp a good idea of how reality works within reality, but we may never know what consciousness really is about.

[Victor Mgazi]

@DLH 

29 minutes ago, Prevailer said:

You might be wrong..it’s only EGO that won’t le5t you accept this.

I'm open to the idea that I'm wrong. If someone knows me to be wrong then all they have to do is help me by pointing out something that I'm not aware of. If I see it then I'll integrate, if I don't see it then I'll point out why I can't see it. All of this is just a work in progress. 

What I like about this work though is that perspective doesn't matter. We're all looking for the truth and the truth can't differ for awareness. If it's truly there then we'll all see it, if it's not there then what is there is not of truth. It's that simple. And that's exactly why I love this work.

[Victor Mgazi]

@DLH 

16 minutes ago, Prevailer said:

Yeah look but don’t come to any conclusions one way or the other... period or else you will have fallen into the clutches of your EGOS again.I might be wrong and I might be right in this assumption ....All there is at the end of the day HOPE ....LOVE..and possibly something else I HOPE....

When you look.. you see, what you see is what is there... period. Truth is not conclusion, it is what is there. There's no outrunning or out reasoning truth, there's only knowing or not knowing. 

There's no controversy for truth. It is as it is. If reality is imagination, you can only imagine that it isn't.. but then behold the fucking irony in that too.??‍♂️

[Osaid]

15 hours ago, Victor Mgazi said:

It's not the sense of self.

What is your sense of self? It's all the sensations arising from the field of consciousness: the apparent localized 'personal' visual field, the apparent localized 'personal' auditory field, the apparent localized 'personal' sensational (touch) field, and etc.. These don't cease to exist when ego is no more, but yes.. without the sense of self - ego may not be able to exist.

Sense of self is when you believe to be the human body and nothing else. It doesn't necessarily refer to the sensations that come with the human body. Smell, taste, etc. is not the sense of self, but, believing that you are an individual human body BECAUSE of those sensations is.

Where does this belief come from? It comes from consciousness mistaking itself for a human body.

 

[Victor Mgazi]

26 minutes ago, gswva said:

No, God is the only consciousness there is. There is nothing external that interact with it or cling to it. And not all state of consciousness leads to the ego, it's one carefully crafted set of interlinked thoughts that prevents itself from being forgotten.

Okay, you might have misread my post. I'm not saying that there is an external consciousness that clings to a different consciousness. God is the only consciousness but guess what.. it's also infinitely intelligent. 

By form I don't mean state. Form is imaginary. State is of consciousness. Ego is the attachment to that imaginary form that came to pass as an idea but you gave it more attention that was needed and invested energy into it until that thought became an idea that you know believe to be the truth... ATTACHMENT 

34 minutes ago, gswva said:

1 hour ago, Victor Mgazi said:

If the attachment to the idea of self isn't real then recognize that you're God, do it right now.

By writing this post, I can change the content of your mind the same way you do it, or how "god" does it through what we call reality. All the religions and divine insights, ironically imagined by God, are layers of what the ego uses as self-preservation mechanism.

Lol.. are you aware that you're God or not??

[Victor Mgazi]

1 minute ago, Osaid said:

Sense of self is when you believe to be the human body and nothing else. It doesn't necessarily refer to the sensations that come with the human body. Smell, taste, etc. is not the sense of self, but, believing that you are an individual human body BECAUSE of those sensations is.

Where does this belief come from? It comes from consciousness mistaking itself for a human body.

 

Yes. The belief that you're a separate self is the attachment. But it won't be enough to say that "Yes, I'm not a separate individual." , there's years and years of conditioning that you have to undo. That's were I stand with Leo's take on psychedelics. Or you could.. I don't know, meditate all your conditioning away ??‍♂️

 

[Victor Mgazi]

4 minutes ago, Meta-Man said:

I don’t think he said that.

Saying it takes years and years to rid oneself of all worldly attachments doesn’t have to be true. How badly do you want to wake up? That’s the main determining factor. 

You might have misread my post. I didn't say "it will take years and years to rid oneself of all worldly attachments". I said that there are years and years of conditioning that need to be undone. How long it takes you to undo them.. doesn't matter the slightest. 

[Osaid]

@Victor Mgazi All of that conditioning ultimately stems from the sense of self. Acknowledging that you are not separate is a good start, but as you said, it doesn't instantly get rid of all the implications of the ego that still exist in your life. Realizing yourself to not be separate, if it is truly accomplished, includes getting rid of all that conditioning.

[Prevailer]

51 minutes ago, Victor Mgazi said:

@DLH 

I'm open to the idea that I'm wrong. If someone knows me to be wrong then all they have to do is help me by pointing out something that I'm not aware of. If I see it then I'll integrate, if I don't see it then I'll point out why I can't see it. All of this is just a work in progress. 

What I like about this work though is that perspective doesn't matter. We're all looking for the truth and the truth can't differ for awareness. If it's truly there then we'll all see it, if it's not there then what is there is not of truth. It's that simple. And that's exactly why I love this work.

❤️

[Victor Mgazi]

6 minutes ago, Osaid said:

@Victor Mgazi All of that conditioning ultimately stems from the sense of self. Acknowledging that you are not separate is a good start, but as you said, it doesn't instantly get rid of all the implications of the ego that still exist in your life. Realizing yourself to not be separate, if it is truly accomplished, includes getting rid of all that conditioning.

Yes

[Victor Mgazi]

10 minutes ago, Osaid said:

@Victor Mgazi All of that conditioning ultimately stems from the sense of self. Acknowledging that you are not separate is a good start, but as you said, it doesn't instantly get rid of all the implications of the ego that still exist in your life. Realizing yourself to not be separate, if it is truly accomplished, includes getting rid of all that conditioning.

 

11 minutes ago, Meta-Man said:

Conditioning = attachments

Conditioning is all the learning that you did growing up, all the absorption of things society taught you, all the training and programming, all the trial and error, all the believing in thoughts and the stories that you heard about how you were conceived and born. It's all of that, that's what conditioning is and that's what we're trying to undo.

Attachment is the result of you (God) having taken those things you learned and thought as true. Belief is the idea you imagined to be truth... ATTACHMENT 

[AaronB]

If different people define ego differently, then using the same word seems confusing. Perhaps by ego some mean a version of the big bad wolf that makes life difficult, others mean something neither good nor bad that allows for the experience of being a person in a world.

When I use the word ego, I'm referring to the strong driving force that is highly concerned about how I appear and how I can distinguish myself from others. It is all about becoming something through self differentiation. This is certainly not what everyone means, so I do not mean to address an alternate definition of ego. 

I have lived much of my life with the motivation of becoming more, of making something impressive of my self and my life. I would see all my accomplishments and feel good about my self, but see my shortcomings and feel ashamed. Because the accomplishments seemed short-lived, I usually lived with a deep sense of unworthiness.

My desire for self differentiation is being replaced with a desire for understanding. This desire just showed up when the other direction created too much pain for me to bear. Instead of wanting to be right, I am learning how to explore with others and learn from others. I recognize how limited my perspective is and how much others see that would have been difficult to see on my own. I also recognize that my unique perspective enables me to share with others things they might have a difficult time seeing on their own.

We all have a unique vantage point. To me ego is the desire to keep this vantage point separate so that I can get an advantage from it. The alternative is to share what I have hidden and in the process I learn how to communicate more clearly and how to listen more clearly without needing to win at anything.

[Victor Mgazi]

@AaronB I guess it all depends on what people want to achieve then. If people are persuing something that's not spiritual but fulfilling, then it's cool to have view points and all. But if you are persuing awakening then perspectives don't really get you anywhere. It should be clear what it is that you are persuing and it should be clear what your obstacles are.

If awakening to the truth is what you want then you have to be just as serious as you would with any other goal in your life, if not more. Merely having ideas and something to say about ego isn't enough. Make things clear. Awakening to Truth is your goal, ego is your obstacle. How do I overcome the obstacle? Know what it is first, become aware of it. 

I saw a lot of confusion in this forum regarding what ego is, and so I shared what I was aware of in the hopes that it clears up the confusion of people persuing awakening, that includes me if I had missed something. 

[Victor Mgazi]

4 minutes ago, Meta-Man said:

@Victor Mgazi 

Well it becomes problematic telling others when you yourself are not clear about what it is. This can lead to even more confusion for people. This thread demonstrates that people love confused complexity. Not clear simplicity. Leo cleared it up in 2 sentences. But the mind wants to go on and on entangling itself in a web of vague concepts.

But that is this forum in a nutshell. The blind leading the blind. Most of the time anyway.

That's precisely why I mention myself to be one of those people, in case I'm the one who's confused, then someone here could point me to the right direction.. that's of course if they are directly aware of what they are talking about. 

But it doesn't help if the blind are leading the blind and no one shares their glimpse of light. I am confident that Leo would let me know if I am wrong or not aware of something as means to get me walking toward my goal. That's why I post. Why should I think that I know then keep it to yourself if there's someone here who knows and can let me know that we're both seeing the same thing.

We have to help each other out and not watch someone drown in irrelevant thoughts to what they want to accomplish.

???

[Prevailer]

It’s not you who is saying I am God....I am God ....It’s not you who is saying I am not God...I am not God....It not you who  cant  decide with yourself whether this is true or not true......It’s your 2 off EGOS.....I hope so anyway....

[Victor Mgazi]

20 minutes ago, Meta-Man said:

@Victor Mgazi

I guess that is the limitation of an open forum like this. There’s no clear authority on the matter as opposed to a teacher-student setting.

Yep.. direct experience is the only authority we can work with. 

[gswva]

1 hour ago, Meta-Man said:

This thread demonstrates that people love confused complexity. Not clear simplicity. Leo cleared it up in 2 sentences. But the mind wants to go on and on entangling itself in a web of vague concepts.

It's not that bad. I guess Leo has been through all the thought process and confusion already before being able to figure out what he is. Many people like me would not be interested in awareness if we didn't have all this nonsense to unscrew the ego a little bit and fine-tune its desire. It can be counterproductive, but sometimes depending on who is perceiving, better than just "You are everything. Trust me!". The amount of content on the YouTube channel alone speaks a lot about how diverse the state of minds can be and how much effort is required to hook them out.

1 hour ago, Meta-Man said:

But that is this forum in a nutshell. The blind leading the blind. Most of the time anyway.

The blind following the authority isn't much better. It works here because we are fortunate to be taught the constructs of someone who is deeply passionate about Truth, but there are many traps in this ecosystem we live in that would twist yourself up.