Why are we attached to our egos to begin with?

[Vision]

Why are we attached to survival?

Why are we attached to living?

What makes us think that we are separate from what appears in our experience? 

Why are we attached to our ego? 

What made us so attached? 

[tsuki]

False beliefs we inherited from culture.

[Byun Sean]

Because if you weren't you'd be dead

[Batman]

Survival is the fundamental principle that directs the life force of an organism toward the persistence of the organism's form. The activities of life - perception, mind, biological regulation of hormones, digestion, breathing, etc. - are all there to maintain some specific form. Being attached to survival and living is the nature of the entire human interface. For this reason we are attached to ego or self - they enable us to draw lines around an identity that we need to persist or survive as.

We think we are separate because we assume that if some thing is distinct from another thing, than they are separate. But distinction is not separation once you become conscious of the nature of distinction.

The intensity of the attachment is dependent on the culture and surroundings the organism grew in. If an organism has a complex self-definition, and he is identified with his life story and body, the attachment will probably be strong. This is exaggerated especially in cultures where the social domain is highly developed  in structure and language. This development enhances the possibility for the creation of many distinction between individuals, which perpetuates the assumption (and illusion) of separation.

Of course, that social values or beliefs such as the sacredness of being alive, "you only live once", "life is the most important thing", contribute to the intensity of the connection that binds Consciousness with mind.

[Guest EmptyVase]

One drive, to stay alive

[tsuki]

Survival is not the same as persistence. Survival is persietence in a hostile environment while being ill-equipped for the task. That is a false belief, when concluded in regards to humans.

[mandyjw]

We aren't. It's just thought attachment or belief in thought and ignorance of feeling. When you have a thought that feels bad and you believe the content of the thought you think more thoughts that also feel bad to try to resolve the first. Example. "I should be doing something else right now, something that brings in income." "This business idea I'm passionate about isn't practical." "I spent the whole day working on this project I'm so inspired about, but I don't see how it will bring in income." 

Why do I want income? If I'm financially secure I believe I will have peace and happiness. But the thoughts are what is unsettling my peace and happiness. 

Instead you can listen to feeling and you don't believe the thought. Happiness is not to be found in the future. Happiness isn't caused. I cannot cause it. Nothing else can cause it or threaten it. Only thinking makes it seem that this is not the case. I can drop the thoughts that are veiling it and making it seem distant or in the future. My mind clears. Maybe I listen to music, maybe I see beauty, I tap into awareness. I think new thoughts, I receive thoughts that are new ideas, new inspirations, insight. How you feel is the measure of clarity or quality of your thoughts. If you are feeling bad those thoughts are to be dropped, not to be believed. The thought may be "true", but you are not interpreting it in any way resembling truth. If you try to resolve a thought that feels bad with more thought you dig in deeper. 

What is meant by ego is the sense (illusion) of a "you" behind the thought. In your actual senses there is no such you. The senses sense, they are not sensed themselves. Can you smell smelling? "You" is the imagined continuum, the one who has knowledge, the one who thinks, the one who knows what things are, the one who should know better, the one who could suffer in the future, the one who could prevent suffering in the future by suffering now. There is no such you, so any thoughts based off an assumption of securing the separate you feel bad. It's a thought. How can it be secured or survive when by it's very nature it is ungraspable and fleeting? That's all. Feeling lets you know it's illusory when it pops up. 

You take care of your survival without anxiety or even having any thought about it. You eat when you are hungry, you put on clothes when you're cold without much thought, none of these things are problematic. In fact they are forms of art and a way to make a living in themselves, we have fashion and we have restaurants and a multitude of choices of creatively, skillfully prepared food. Millions of people are passionate about and enjoy these things. The same with homes, and engineering heating and cooling systems, transportation, etc. It's art. It's creation. Survival is only the problem we make it to be. 

 

Edited November 13, 2021 by mandyjw

[Anahata]

It's The Prelude before the God realization/Self-realization. 

[RMQualtrough]

Evolution. Creatures without fared worse than those with.

[Breakingthewall]

there is a first duality in the mind of a newborn baby: food / hunger. mother = food = life. duality really is life / death. instinct is powerful, millions of years of evolution creating desire to live. Without that desire, you would not live. Over time, the human, who is a social being, translates the life / death duality into acceptance / rejection. the millions of subtleties of the social relationship are creating bonds, attachments, rejections. this has enormous force. if they kick you out from the tribe ... better not think about that horror, it is not a possibility. the tribe is life, it is everything, more than life. and we have already built the prison of the ego, whose foundations are fear, attachment and rejection, and its appearance, concepts and ideas made of words. 

Anyone who thinks that the ego is nonsense, misconceptions and nothing more, will find himself returning to prison over and over again in a thousand different ways, believing that he is freeing himself and being more and more imprisoned.

[RMQualtrough]

@Breakingthewall Legit. You can't grasp reality by rejecting elements of it.

[gettoefl]

 

we were taught when young that life has death as opposite, that's what they believed after all ... they were misinformed, there is only infinite eternal oneness

yet even when we realize death is fiction, this does not mean we go ahead and live cavalierly wantonly and recklessly 

this ticket that existence manufactured is good for about 3 billion heart beats so instead we should live prudently selflessly and lovingly

god is here for a good time

 

[SOUL]

Are you attached to these questions?

Are you attached to getting answers?

Are you attached to the answers you get?

Are you attached to knowing and understanding so ask the questions seeking answers?

You don't need to reply.... I'm not attached to the questions, getting the answers, the answers or knowing it.

[Nahm]

@Vision

Belief. You heard there’s an ego & believed it. You’ve never actually experienced one. 

[peanutspathtotruth]

2 hours ago, Nahm said:

@Vision

Belief. You heard there’s an ego & believed it. You’ve never actually experienced one. 

This. It's a bit like madness, imagining an enemy and constantly thinking about having to defeat it, while this itself keeps the incessant thinking going. An empty hand fighting itself. A dog without a tail chasing its tail. In my experience, only love of all that arises solves this paradox which is actually just a tricky illusion.

[Nahm]

@peanutspathtotruth

Madness indeed. 

[VeganAwake]

On 11/12/2021 at 9:51 PM, Vision said:

Why are we attached to our ego? 

There isn't a you and then a separate thing called an ego.

They are the same illusory experience of individuality.

[Vision]

Quote

False beliefs we inherited from culture.

@tsukiWhy did we inherit them? Why do we want to be accepted by the tribe? Why do we care about what other people think?
 

Quote

Because if you weren't you'd be dead

@Byun SeanDeath might not even be real for all we know. We just happen to believe it will happen to us. Why do we do so much to avoid death?

[Vision]

On 11/13/2021 at 10:02 PM, Batman said:

Survival is the fundamental principle that directs the life force of an organism toward the persistence of the organism's form. The activities of life - perception, mind, biological regulation of hormones, digestion, breathing, etc. - are all there to maintain some specific form. Being attached to survival and living is the nature of the entire human interface. For this reason we are attached to ego or self - they enable us to draw lines around an identity that we need to persist or survive as.

We think we are separate because we assume that if some thing is distinct from another thing, than they are separate. But distinction is not separation once you become conscious of the nature of distinction.

The intensity of the attachment is dependent on the culture and surroundings the organism grew in. If an organism has a complex self-definition, and he is identified with his life story and body, the attachment will probably be strong. This is exaggerated especially in cultures where the social domain is highly developed  in structure and language. This development enhances the possibility for the creation of many distinction between individuals, which perpetuates the assumption (and illusion) of separation.

Of course, that social values or beliefs such as the sacredness of being alive, "you only live once", "life is the most important thing", contribute to the intensity of the connection that binds Consciousness with mind.

@Batman I agree with this. It happens to be that this human character tends to believe the beliefs it is surrounded by. It both is and isn't out of our own will it seems.

Quote

Survival is not the same as persistence. Survival is persietence in a hostile environment while being ill-equipped for the task. That is a false belief, when concluded in regards to humans.

@tsuki Can you please elaborate?
 

Quote

Belief. You heard there’s an ego & believed it. You’ve never actually experienced one. 

@Nahm But why? Why did we believe it to begin with? Our character just didn't know any better?

[Byun Sean]

1 hour ago, Vision said:

@Byun SeanDeath might not even be real for all we know. We just happen to believe it will happen to us. Why do we do so much to avoid death?

Why do you avoid pooping on your toilet when a spider is sitting on the edge of the seat.