Do I Separate From The Ego or Something Else?

[Spideymon77]

I want to separate from my ego or become one with my ego to feel oneness. Am I thinking about this the wrong way?

I guess in a sense, I feel like I'm missing something. I don't feel complete. I'm already happy and excited to find a community that I can level with, but I still feel like there's something that I don't have. I just want to be in the moment but I can't. I want to get rid of this feeling entirely and become happy with the amazing wonders life has already given me.

[egoeimai]

Search GP Walsh on YouTube. 

[RobertZ]

The word, “Ego” has several different meanings—so it is ambiguous. Ego can mean an inflated self-worth like, “That guy has a real ego.” Ego can mean self-esteem like, “I lied to my wife, so my ego is hurting.” Ego can also mean the conscious-thinking self. Ego can mean the same as the word “I,” or self, like “I am going to the store.” Some people interpret the word, “ego” with the No-Self doctrines like, “A person already has no ego: therefore, they experience that their experience [of a self] is an illusion.”

 

Some people also describe a feeling of dying on psychedelic drugs as an “ego death.” Afterlife experiences may follow.

 

Freud said that the ego is a set of mental functions including delayed gratification, reality testing, memory, planning, and information synthesis (Snowden, Ruth (2006). Teach Yourself Freud. McGraw-Hill. pp. 105–107). He explains that the ego is the part of the psyche that can acknowledge reality while pleasing the body’s instinctual desires and needs for satisfaction. Want to run through Down Town naked—wild and free? The ego might say, “But consider reality. How about a nudist beach, instead?” So, the ego has the ability to perceive reality (both conscious and subconscious perception) and executively fulfill the body’s needs with a view to long-term benefits. In this view, conscious awareness resides inside of the ego. 

 

Ego defence mechanisms allow a person to ignore reality to some extent, to fulfill needs or desires.

 

To become united with one’s ego (in order to feel oneness) a person may do the following two-part exercise. (1) The person feels (deeply) into what he or she desires or needs. (2) The person then takes a good hard look at their reality. By doing this exercise, a person can experience their ego.

 

I’m not versed on dissociative hallucinogens like PCP and ketamine. These drugs might have a role, if your goal is experiencing oneness though an ego-separation.

[Mason Riggle]

@Spideymon77 The way I define 'ego' is- imaginary separation.   It's Oneness, pretending to be twoness. 

Ego 'exists' the same way a whirlpool 'exists' in a river.. that is to say.. it doesn't exist 'separate from' the river.  You can't take a whirlpool out of a river and show it to me.. the 'whirlpool' isn't a static thing.. it's literally 'what the river is doing sometimes'... in this same sense, your 'ego' is 'what your organism is doing when that's what it does'.  The ego can 'come and go' like whirlpools in a river.. Whirlpools can exist in such a way that they carve out the riverbed, growing bigger and deeper, or in such a way as to erode the rocks and riverbed to where it disappears itself completely.. but there is no actual 'whirlpool', which exists 'separate from' the river that 'does things'.   The same is true for ego. It doesn't 'do anything' other than 'be itself'.. existing how it does when it does.  

The way 'ego' (what an organism is doing) can 'dissolve itself' is very similar to how a whirlpool (what the river is doing) might erode the riverbed in such a way as to dissolve itself.  The shape, size, etc. of the whirlpool is entirely dictated by the river, and is never 'the cause of how it itself is shaped' other than indirectly as caused by the entire river.  The river sometimes 'whirlpools' here and there, and this 'particular shape of the river occurring' will in turn shape the river in such a way that it no longer 'whirlpools', or maybe it continues. But none of that is 'up to the whirlpool', because there is no 'whirlpool', you see? There is just the river going along how it will. 

(you can expand this analogy to 'the river' also, and get that 'the river' didn't 'cause itself to be how it is' any more than 'the whirlpool' caused itself to be how it is... 'the river' doesn't 'exist' separate from it's environment either.  You can't take a river out of the valley and show it to me. There is no 'river' other than 'what the rocks and water are doing' when they are shaped a certain way.. rivers come and go.. the river may be shaped in such a way as to carve out the Grand Canyon, or perhaps the river erodes some sandstone, changes course and completely dries up.)

The takeaway is that all of these distinctions.. 'ego', 'whirlpool', 'river' are all arbitrary separations.. there is no 'whirlpool' which exists separate from what the whole river is doing, which isn't separate from what the landscape is doing, which isn't separate from what the planet is doing, which isn't separate from what the Universe is doing.  It's all ONE system, being how it will.  It's this imaginary separation between 'ego' and 'that which is not ego', which does not exist, which creates 'ego'.   When this imaginary separation is dispelled (when the 'whirlpool' is shaped such a way that it recognized it's own illusory nature).. poof!.. the border between 'whirlpool' and 'that which is not whirlpool' goes away.  

If, for instance, instead of swirling and making a lot of bubbles and whirlpooling, rivers produced 'thoughts'.. one thought it might produce is 'I am doing this. I am causing myself to be how I am' and this would be the rivers 'ego'.. 

 

Edited September 24, 2021 by Mason Riggle