Spiritual ego

[Alysssa]

What is spiritual ego? How one can know if he uses spirituality as an excuse to escape life? 

[impulse9]

Spiritual ego is when you're searching for something you already have.

[Alysssa]

@impulse9 People who want to experience enlightenment in order to realize they are God are included in this category?

Edited August 27, 2021 by Alysssa

[impulse9]

Yes, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. You know, just like if you want to drop your desire you must first drop your desire to drop your desire. It's all one enormous mindfuck and the fact that it doesn't make sense is pretty damn clever of God. This way we can run around in a circle forever. The question is how do you escape the circle?

[Alysssa]

@impulse9 I don't know

[FlyingLotus]

@Alysssa Here's a good video about spiritual ego.  It's also another way to say Zen Devil:

 

 

 

Edited August 27, 2021 by FlyingLotus

[Flowerfaeiry]

2 hours ago, Alysssa said:

How one can know if he uses spirituality as an excuse to escape life? 

For example, when going through a difficult time you say something like: "I need to meditate more" rather than going into the problem and actually figuring it out. Spiritual bypassing is another name. 

[ValiantSalvatore]

@Alysssa You can make the simply rule, if you make an identity out of it it's going to be ego involved. Not being open-minded that you are wrong. As well as neglecting past wounds. Also, having a healthy ego is perfectly fine IMO, in spiritual circles having an unhealthy ego mainly causes issues. 

Also, not working on goals that are ego-based / survival based doing that is absolutely fine, creating financial independence etc. When you spend to much time not creating a life that has a solid ground for spiritual work and you escape into spirutal work, you can notice that it's spiritual bypassing / spiritual ego. Emotional issues being neglected.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_bypass

There are other tools, yet even some are meditative so you can work around that issue a bit if you enjoy meditation, yet what mostly happens nowadays is I presume survival neglect. Not creating a stable life that allows spiritual growth etc. 

The enneagram for instance is used to become aware of vices people have which is included in integral theory, so you can check where as an individual you have a bias. Also, how spiritual bypassing can occure. 

Dealing with real life issues is important, I've spiritually bypassed myself, so it's not the best thing to do.
 

Edited August 27, 2021 by ValiantSalvatore

[FlyingLotus]

Good points!

@Emerald has an excellent video on Spiritual Bypassing:

 

 

Edited August 27, 2021 by FlyingLotus

[hamedsf]

sound a lot like drinking bitter alcohol to avoid the bitterness of reality. 

but still even gaining insights from doing spiritual works will help you grow in material life too. so don't underestimate the power of consciousness development. 

[mandyjw]

Suffering.

[Guest EmptyVase]

Two types of spiritual ego come to my mind.

One way of looking at it would be the content of ego. To make an example, one person might be interested in making tons of money, whereas another person might be interested in deconstructing the mind or bombarding the apartment with incense sticks.

Another way of looking at it is the conceptualization of actual spiritual experiences. Within those spiritual experiences, whole structures of ego fall away. An example could be a direct encounter with truth. During the experience, your ego is on standby, partially dead, allowing insights into reality. Eventually, you will come back. As you (=the ego-you) come back, you try to make sense of what happened. During that sense-making process, your ego tries to conceptualize what happened. You give birth to spiritual ego. Suddenly, there is a you which had a spiritual experience; a you which became conscious of truth. This kinda loops back and becomes, yet again, content of ego. As you melt your ego, you identify with something new. As you melt your ego, you identify with something new. As you melt your ego, you identify with something new. 

As with many things, it's a matter of degree. Both types of spiritual ego point to the same, constructed entity.

[Nahm]

Wow! There’s really no ‘me’, there’s actually no separate self! No separation! 

Now how can I use this to my advantage…?

Muah ah ah ah ah 

[gettoefl]

6 hours ago, Alysssa said:

What is spiritual ego? How one can know if he uses spirituality as an excuse to escape life? 

renunciation is spiritual ego

this world is terrible despicable toxic ... i must keep myself uncontaminated ... i will stay fixed on god and not let the world corrupt me

detachment is healthy ego

the world is basically me ... i need to embrace and love myself ... everyone is part of me disattached needing reatatchment, my long lost limb

second part of your question:

if someone shows seeks speaks spiritual it's fake

if someone shows peace joy wonder love silence ... he got it

Edited August 27, 2021 by gettoefl

[Raptorsin7]

The goal of spiritual practice is to find peace in the present moment, and stop seeking for a better experience. That seeking can be drugs, spiritual practice, relationships etc.

Basically, if you are still seeking and aren't at peace and happy then you have some form of a ego/spiritual ego. 

Many people on this forum have a spiritual ego. They talk about meditation practice, psychidelics etc... but if you honestly ask them are they happy and at peace right now they will say no.

[Breakingthewall]

the ego is the set of concepts, ideas, memories that make up the i, right? then the spiritual ego is to replace part of that baggage with spiritual ideas, concepts. and feel superior to the "normies" for it. true spirituality is non-ego, not believing in thoughts or ideas. not to tell yourself I am god but to live it.

Edited August 27, 2021 by Breakingthewall

[Kamo]

54 minutes ago, EmptyVase said:

Two types of spiritual ego come to my mind.

One way of looking at it would be the content of ego. To make an example, one person might be interested in making tons of money, whereas another person might be interested in deconstructing the mind or bombarding the apartment with incense sticks.

Another way of looking at it is the conceptualization of actual spiritual experiences. Within those spiritual experiences, whole structures of ego fall away. An example could be a direct encounter with truth. During the experience, your ego is on standby, partially dead, allowing insights into reality. Eventually, you will come back. As you (=the ego-you) come back, you try to make sense of what happened. During that sense-making process, your ego tries to conceptualize what happened. You give birth to spiritual ego. Suddenly, there is a you which had a spiritual experience; a you which became conscious of truth. This kinda loops back and becomes, yet again, content of ego. As you melt your ego, you identify with something new. As you melt your ego, you identify with something new. As you melt your ego, you identify with something new. 

As with many things, it's a matter of degree. Both types of spiritual ego point to the same, constructed entity.

I feel like you explained this very well! It seems like one is to just live life and let everything go and everything happen. This also seems to drop any reasons to do the work? What is the reason of doing any of the "spiritual work"  without a spiritual ego that seeks, questions, and wants to understand reality. I feel like at this point I'm just cultivating knowledge, insights and constructing my ego. There seems to be a desire to improve quality of life. It feels like this too is ego. Ive made it a lifestyle and feel like I'm getting to a point where I'm like questioning why do any of this (besides for self betterment) as it all is just spiritual ego, as It feels ego driven, useful for survival, and "the best method" to live life, to be meditating, and introspecting to construct the highest quality of person I can be, which is all ego. Then the awareness of the fact that even "seeking" to see through the illusion of ego as if that "State" will be more optimal is also ego. I experienced non-duel states before and it's as you said your ego is on standby and your just existing there until "You" come back. It's been highly useful for me however I can see how it keeps looping back to the spiritual ego?  It's as if I'm trying and usually not even trying but happening to realize myself again and again, Where do people see a point in it all after having realized deep Truths, who aren't coming from the spiritual ego? I feel like there is no point, but it's happening anyway. The mere appearance themselves are the point it seems.  I'm open to your opinion here if you could offer some feedback, if you don't mind?

Edited August 27, 2021 by Kamo

[VeganAwake]

2 hours ago, Nahm said:

Wow! There’s really no ‘me’, there’s actually no separate self! No separation! 

Now how can I use this to my advantage…?

Muah ah ah ah ah 

?

[Batman]

Identification with "seeking" or "spiritual pursuit". Having a "spiritual" false self. This is actually quite common, because those who pursue Consciousness will probably read many spiritual texts and engage in spiritual practices such as yoga and meditation. This means that they rearranged who they are for this pursuit, and adopted a more spiritually inclined perspective of life and world. Even the distinctions they make in their experience will tilt toward spiritual understanding and analysis.

[Thought Art]

Simply be a real person