What is ego?

[snowyowl]

16 hours ago, Raptorsin7 said:

My issue with your relaxation advice is I believe I've done all those things but I don't ever feel truly relaxed. 

Nahm gave me advice on stopping thought above: 

17 hours ago, Nahm said:

Open the front door…

And watch all the ‘thoughts in perception’ blow away with the wind (also not in perception).

It's a bit cryptic   but what I do when relaxing is to not try to relax but to let go. Like when going to sleep, the harder you try the more you stir things up and the longer it takes. Like trying to flatten the lake by ironing it, rather than waiting for the waves to die down. 

When meditating, for instance. If I have thoughts or general restlessness, I just let it run, no judgement, give it space like a wild horse but without consciously feeding it with more energy. It usually runs its course and fades away into peacefulness, which can sometimes take most of the meditation session, but that's ok. Sometimes I'm restless the whole time. Sometimes I settle down quickly. It's all ok. Let it come, let it be, let it go. 

The technique I usually practice is Diana Winston's spectrum of awareness, which is actually 3 techniques that the mind chooses from depending on how relaxed / restless you are to begin with: focused awareness, choiceless awareness and natural awareness. 

I don't know anything about psychedelics so can't comment on that.  

[Nahm]

20 minutes ago, snowyowl said:

Nahm gave me advice on stopping thought above: 

It's a bit cryptic   but what I do when relaxing is to not try to relax but to let go. Like when going to sleep, the harder you try the more you stir things up and the longer it takes. Like trying to flatten the lake by ironing it, rather than waiting for the waves to die down. 

When meditating, for instance. If I have thoughts or general restlessness, I just let it run, no judgement, give it space like a wild horse but without consciously feeding it with more energy. It usually runs its course and fades away into peacefulness, which can sometimes take most of the meditation session, but that's ok. Sometimes I'm restless the whole time. Sometimes I settle down quickly. It's all ok. Let it come, let it be, let it go. 

The technique I usually practice is Diana Winston's spectrum of awareness, which is actually 3 techniques that the mind chooses from depending on how relaxed / restless you are to begin with: focused awareness, choiceless awareness and natural awareness. 

I don't know anything about psychedelics so can't comment on that.  

That’s too cryptic. ⬆️ There are three awarenesses, and a spectrum? Very confusing. 

Maybe we don’t need to think about it at all to have this discussion. Maybe there’s some beliefs there. 

Nahm never gave you advice about ‘stopping thought’.  There was less projection at the drive in. 

@Raptorsin7

”I don’t ever feel truly relaxed.”

    ? “who?”

?

[Raptorsin7]

25 minutes ago, Nahm said:

”I don’t ever feel truly relaxed.”

    ? “who?”

?

Me

[Nahm]

@Raptorsin7

Then who are you talking about? 

[Raptorsin7]

Just now, Nahm said:

@Raptorsin7

Then who are you talking about? 

Myself. I don't ever feel relaxed. I'm referring to that which is behind this typing and experiencing reality

[Nahm]

@Raptorsin7

You’re referring to idea, and you have much honesty to go. If what you say here is true, you’d not be talking about relaxation, you’d be blissed out right now. Advising can be aversion, and almost always is. Advising is therein reduced to just another substance.  Simply inspect intention. Feel into the discord which was and is prior to the conceived intention, vs employing the intention in discord believing it will resolve, the discord. Then, it is seen relaxation was always ‘there’, the default, and it is you who is creating the tension. Not the dishonestly proclaimed you, the idea. The idea & the separate self are one in the same. 

Expression. 

 

[Raptorsin7]

7 minutes ago, Nahm said:

You’re referring to idea, and you have much honesty to go. If what you say here is true, you’d not be talking about relaxation, you’d be blissed out right now.

See from my pov I believe I am being honest about my experience. What am I not being honest about? Or how I would I even know?

I am who I am right now, and yet I'm not blissed out. 

8 minutes ago, Nahm said:

Advising can be aversion, and almost always is.  Simply inspect intention. Feel into the discord which was and is prior to the conceived intention, vs employing the intention in discord believing it will resolve, the discord. 

Can you expand this I don't quite understand?

Fundamentally there is discord, and I do feel that. Notably in my head, and stomach. 

[Nahm]

Just now, Raptorsin7 said:

See from my pov I believe I am being honest about my experience.

You’re blind though. 

Just now, Raptorsin7 said:

What am I not being honest about? Or how I would I even know?

By the tension. 

Just now, Raptorsin7 said:

I am who I am right now, and yet I'm not blissed out. 

That’s a belief. Who is just an idea of Horton’s. 

Just now, Raptorsin7 said:

Can you expand this I don't quite understand?

I wouldn’t do ya like that my good man. 

Meditation. 

Just now, Raptorsin7 said:

Fundamentally there is discord, and I do feel that. Notably in my head, and stomach. 

Discord isn’t fundamental. 

[Raptorsin7]

@Nahm Okay. Thanks

[Nahm]

@Raptorsin7

Thank you! ? 

[Zeroguy]

ego is just thoughts.

Can't type this with thoughts or "ego".

Reality=God.

[Nahm]

@Zeroguy

[Zigzag Idiot]

Lots of great replies....

Ego = "A bad case of mistaken identity" as Ken Wilber put it. 

One that obscures the realization and experience of Being.

 

Here's a quote from the glossary that I've never shared before when this topic has come up-

 

Ego Seen as the Belief in a Self

Other perspectives see ego as the belief in a self or entity. The activity of ego is taken to be the activity of a person -- an entity -- who has desires and hopes. So here ego is seen as taking oneself to be a person, separate from the rest of the universe, who was born to a set of parents, who was a child, who grew up, in time, to his present status of an adult who has his hopes, desires and goals. The belief that this separate individuality is one's identity, one's self, is seen by some teachings as the main barrier to the ultimate reality which is an impersonal and universal Being, or alternately, the Void. Enlightenment then is the insight that one is not really this separate individual, a realization which is equivalent to the state of unqualified Being, or nonconceptual Reality.

Pearl Beyond Price, pg. 21

[Zeroguy]

3 minutes ago, Nahm said:

@Zeroguy

Let me add that God is eternal so what the heck are you waiting for?!

Who gives a damn about "ego".

Create,Love etc...

[Nahm]

@Zeroguy

AIn’t no rehearsal. 

[Zeroguy]

3 minutes ago, Nahm said:

@Zeroguy

AIn’t no rehearsal. 

 

[Nahm]

@Zeroguy

Zero space between us. ??

[Raptorsin7]

1 hour ago, Zigzag Idiot said:

Lots of great replies....

Ego = "A bad case of mistaken identity" as Ken Wilber put it. 

One that obscures the realization and experience of Being.

 

Here's a quote from the glossary that I've never shared before when this topic has come up-

 

Ego Seen as the Belief in a Self

Other perspectives see ego as the belief in a self or entity. The activity of ego is taken to be the activity of a person -- an entity -- who has desires and hopes. So here ego is seen as taking oneself to be a person, separate from the rest of the universe, who was born to a set of parents, who was a child, who grew up, in time, to his present status of an adult who has his hopes, desires and goals. The belief that this separate individuality is one's identity, one's self, is seen by some teachings as the main barrier to the ultimate reality which is an impersonal and universal Being, or alternately, the Void. Enlightenment then is the insight that one is not really this separate individual, a realization which is equivalent to the state of unqualified Being, or nonconceptual Reality.

Pearl Beyond Price, pg. 21

Nice explanation, very insight-ful (:

Edited December 24, 2021 by Raptorsin7