Is Ego Transcendence Really Possible?

[Razvan]

Is selflessness / ego death / transcendence actually a thing? Something achievable by a human being? Or is our mind just tricking us?

I want to start with a random example that came to mind, to make this more palpable.

Let's imagine a little conversation

Person1 says: "I believe that we should live life more like our ancestors did, I believe that this is how life was meant to be lived."

Then Person2 says: "But, we came so far and we evolved so much as a society, we shouldn't limit ourselves to a simple lifestyle, we could do so much more, now that technology advanced to such a high level almost anything is possible!"

Then Person3 says: "Well, Person2, You'd definitely like to believe that you're somehow special and [yadda yadda], but in reality that's just your ego being materialistic, in reality you don't even have free will / control over your actions. You should live life as purely and egoless as you can, and always seek consciousness, because transcending ego is the highest most fulfilling thing a human being can do. Only this way can you achieve true liberation, detach from any need and judgement and achieve TRUE "

* I believe that Person3 here is what most spiritual teachers preach, as the core idea.

Then I say, isn't all this talk about ego just more and more ego pleasing itself? It feel kind of good and "developed" to be thinking about how the ego works, right? But isn't that just more ego, tricking itself into thinking that he somehow surpassed itself?

But wait a second, isn't this whole post about how ego tricks itself just more ego, feeling all warm and special because it thinks it actually is something greater? 

 

Can true liberation (or however you might want to call it) actually be achieved? If someone says that he or she had an enlightenment experience, tasted The Void, Infinity, is that actually true?

In my current perception, liberation and clarity, which are the ultimate purpose of this spiritual work that we're doing here, cannot be experienced by a living human.

By clarity I mean disidentification with anything, seeing EVERYTHING for what it is and not in relationship with this person here, not for what it can be for or against us.

Therefore, as this human body is the machine that processes what happens in our field of awareness, and as its one and only goal is to keep itself alive and happy, it cannot grasp true clarity.

Because clarity would mean ego death. But how can a person live without an ego? He simply wouldn't, he wouldn't do anything because there's no desire for anynthing, there's no good or bad, no motivation, nothing pressing it, nothing attracting it, nothing to make him gravitate towards anything.

Also, I feel like choosing things like UNCONDITIONAL LOVE and PEACE (all brought to life from the same idea of egolessness as an achievalbe state for a human being) is highly convenient and preached by most spiritual teachers out there. Because this Nothingness has no reason to be attached to any quality or value, be it "good" or "bad". Because WHY WOULD IT?

 

I'm not trying to say that seeking is pointless and that it won't get you anywhere, I'm only trying to point out something that doesn't feel justified but in spite of that it seems to be mistakenly promoted by the spiritual community.

I believe that seeking definitely has its benefits and I'm REALLY grateful for somehow being on this path. I'm not ranting against self-actualization and I'm not saying "Oh, this is just wishful thinking, I have no control over life so I might as well just sit here and do nothing with this life, cuz we're just trapped in this big ego illusion".

What I'm stressing here is that I believe we're looking at this journey as if it had a finish line, a certain level of development where one just becomes one with everything and detaches from selfishness and desire. Well, I'm calling bs on that, because I don't think that some construct such as ego, which (as I believe Leo would put it) is a SUBSET, can transcend to become Infinity, The SUPERSET.

What I think is the problem with this way of seeing this path is that it WILL, at some point, create unrealistic expectations / a sense of inadequacy and therefore tons of suffering. It will make you judge yourself and other people for not fitting into this set of standards.

Don't get me wrong, I believe it is good to keep raising our consciousness, learning and growing and developing and all the juicy stuff (I see the benefits of that), but I think we shouldn't have this image of the selfless all-loving monk that dedicates his entire life to enlightenment experience. Not to say there's something wrong with that, but just realize that if that's not the case for you there's no need to beat yourself up.

 

I'm curious to see what you think about this one.

[Principium Nexus]

Yes it is possible but you have to let go of all concepts. The ego tries to conceptualize and your true self feels. If you follow your hearth then everything else will eventually align and this is liberation. Someone already posted this but I found this an excellent video:

 

[Deep]

@Razvan It's not possible to understand ego death until you experience it. Whether we live with ego or not, we will always be God. God doesn't give a shit about what we do through the ego. If we want to be miserable, God says, "Okay." If we want to have sex, God says, "Okay." It's just that living through the ego brings less happiness because we are chasing things outside ourselves. I could be wrong, I don't know. 

 

[Live Life Liam]

2 hours ago, Razvan said:

Is selflessness / ego death / transcendence actually a thing? Something achievable by a human being? Or is our mind just tricking us?

I want to start with a random example that came to mind, to make this more palpable.

Let's imagine a little conversation

Person1 says: "I believe that we should live life more like our ancestors did, I believe that this is how life was meant to be lived."

Then Person2 says: "But, we came so far and we evolved so much as a society, we shouldn't limit ourselves to a simple lifestyle, we could do so much more, now that technology advanced to such a high level almost anything is possible!"

Then Person3 says: "Well, Person2, You'd definitely like to believe that you're somehow special and [yadda yadda], but in reality that's just your ego being materialistic, in reality you don't even have free will / control over your actions. You should live life as purely and egoless as you can, and always seek consciousness, because transcending ego is the highest most fulfilling thing a human being can do. Only this way can you achieve true liberation, detach from any need and judgement and achieve TRUE "

* I believe that Person3 here is what most spiritual teachers preach, as the core idea.

Then I say, isn't all this talk about ego just more and more ego pleasing itself? It feel kind of good and "developed" to be thinking about how the ego works, right? But isn't that just more ego, tricking itself into thinking that he somehow surpassed itself?

But wait a second, isn't this whole post about how ego tricks itself just more ego, feeling all warm and special because it thinks it actually is something greater? 

 

Can true liberation (or however you might want to call it) actually be achieved? If someone says that he or she had an enlightenment experience, tasted The Void, Infinity, is that actually true?

In my current perception, liberation and clarity, which are the ultimate purpose of this spiritual work that we're doing here, cannot be experienced by a living human.

By clarity I mean disidentification with anything, seeing EVERYTHING for what it is and not in relationship with this person here, not for what it can be for or against us.

Therefore, as this human body is the machine that processes what happens in our field of awareness, and as its one and only goal is to keep itself alive and happy, it cannot grasp true clarity.

Because clarity would mean ego death. But how can a person live without an ego? He simply wouldn't, he wouldn't do anything because there's no desire for anynthing, there's no good or bad, no motivation, nothing pressing it, nothing attracting it, nothing to make him gravitate towards anything.

Also, I feel like choosing things like UNCONDITIONAL LOVE and PEACE (all brought to life from the same idea of egolessness as an achievalbe state for a human being) is highly convenient and preached by most spiritual teachers out there. Because this Nothingness has no reason to be attached to any quality or value, be it "good" or "bad". Because WHY WOULD IT?

 

I'm not trying to say that seeking is pointless and that it won't get you anywhere, I'm only trying to point out something that doesn't feel justified but in spite of that it seems to be mistakenly promoted by the spiritual community.

I believe that seeking definitely has its benefits and I'm REALLY grateful for somehow being on this path. I'm not ranting against self-actualization and I'm not saying "Oh, this is just wishful thinking, I have no control over life so I might as well just sit here and do nothing with this life, cuz we're just trapped in this big ego illusion".

What I'm stressing here is that I believe we're looking at this journey as if it had a finish line, a certain level of development where one just becomes one with everything and detaches from selfishness and desire. Well, I'm calling bs on that, because I don't think that some construct such as ego, which (as I believe Leo would put it) is a SUBSET, can transcend to become Infinity, The SUPERSET.

What I think is the problem with this way of seeing this path is that it WILL, at some point, create unrealistic expectations / a sense of inadequacy and therefore tons of suffering. It will make you judge yourself and other people for not fitting into this set of standards.

Don't get me wrong, I believe it is good to keep raising our consciousness, learning and growing and developing and all the juicy stuff (I see the benefits of that), but I think we shouldn't have this image of the selfless all-loving monk that dedicates his entire life to enlightenment experience. Not to say there's something wrong with that, but just realize that if that's not the case for you there's no need to beat yourself up.

 

I'm curious to see what you think about this one.

Well ego transcendence is impossible for "you" so don't think about it too much  This is a way you deceive yourself because its your job to survive.

I am referring to the ego as you because that is exactly what you as the limited person is (an ego) so there is no you to get enlightened in the end. You have to surrender to experience and die to live once again.

This is all probably contradictory or paradoxical and frustrating to hear but that is a good thing since confusion can lead to breakthrough experiences.

Just keep doing what you are and maintain the daily practices if you can but you don't have to listen to me do whatever you want (even though you don't exist to make any choice in the first place) hahaha  

Edited February 3, 2017 by Live Life Liam

[Razvan]

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts.

I wanted to make the distinction between:

- The ego realizing that there is something more than itself, a.k.a. God / Infinity -- which I think the concept of ego transcendence actually means; and

- The ego tricking itself that it somehow became something more than it is and that it "transcended itself" -- which I often see promoted in the spiritual community and therefore was very confusing to me and seemed misleading, and I thought it might be helpful to emphasize this distinction.

This stuff came to mind after some self-inquiry work and after what I thought was an enlightenment experience, which later seemed quite foolish of me because I realized that the ego cannot get enlightened, it can only make up concepts of what enlightenment is.

 

17 hours ago, Live Life Liam said:

I am referring to the ego as you because that is exactly what you as the limited person is (an ego) so there is no you to get enlightened in the end.

Totally agree, thanks for putting it into words in a more comprehensible manner. 

17 hours ago, Live Life Liam said:

Well ego transcendence is impossible for "you" so don't think about it too much

The way you say it leaves room for interpreting that there IS something else (which is not "me") to transcend the ego, so please clarify that one. 

 

17 hours ago, Deep said:

Whether we live with ego or not, we will always be God.

I understand that we fundamentally are God, but can you explain or give me some clues of how a human being can live without ego?

 

 

20 hours ago, Principium Nexus said:

The ego tries to conceptualize and your true self feels. If you follow your hearth then everything else will eventually align and this is liberation.

But aren't feelings felt through the ego? As I see it, this true self / God has nothing to do with feelings, because feelings emerge as bodily sensations which self-inquiry proves to not be the true self. Please correct me if I'm wrong. 

[Principium Nexus]

@Razvan That's true but you are a human after all and have to live a life with an ego. The hearth is probably the best guide and closer to our being than our mind.

[Razvan]

11 minutes ago, Principium Nexus said:

That's true but you are a human after all and have to live a life with an ego.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to stress here: we should embrace the fact that life as a human being cannot be separated from ego and while learning about it, how it functions, its limitations and what is there beyond it (which is what I believe to be the main focus of spirituality), we have to be really careful to not mistakenly associate that with trying to suppress the ego, which undoubtedly creates suffering.

17 minutes ago, Principium Nexus said:

The hearth is probably the best guide and closer to our being than our mind.

I'm really trying to grasp this one, but I don't know what you're basing this statement on. To me "heart" is the same as intuition, and as much as I would like to believe that intuition is something beyond ego, I didn't manage to experience this yet and I would really appreciate some guidance on this issue of intuition.

Thank you for your time. 

[Nahm]

Yes yes yes it is not only possible but when experienced it is as real and normal feeling to say you are everything as it is for you right now to say I am this body, I am this person, I am my experiences. It is not some mind trick. The experience of the death of the ego is witnessed through all your senses. Vision is more refined and enriched, emotions are experienced deeper, music never sounded so good, all lyrics are actually about God or the Oneness even if the songwriter was writing about another person, or love, etc. When you allow a reconnection to the oneness, you will feel the clarity in your head, you will feel the chills throughout your skin, you will feel the love like you feel water in a pool. It is not a thought thing, it is a no thought thing. The more you think about it, the longer you keep it at a distance. If someone says it is a matter of tricking the brain or just assuming a perspective, this reveals they have not experienced the death of their ego and have actually been going down a very opposite path. And yet, this also reveals, they have more to gain in terms of experience than I do. 

[Nahm]

Meditate on the differnence between being against war, and being for peace. Feel the difference. Realize that anything that is, is only because someone or some people continue to focus on it. What is not focused on, does not continue. THEN - realize this is true for your own personal reality. It is impossible to experience or observe something that your are not focusing on. Not thinking, but focusing. To be against war is to focus on war. To be against frustration, is to be frustrated. To love love is to love. This is the path to ego death. 

[Razvan]

@Phil This is exactly the kind of mind trick that I'm talking about. Don't you see how ego likes to think of itself as being special?

"Enriched sensations and emotions?"     Sure! Just what the ego wants.

"Reconnection to Oneness? Damn! What an awesome and developed ego I am! I transcended all illusion, am I not the most special ego that there is? I'm soooo superior, I tasted TRUE HAPPINESS, TRUE BEING!"      Feels good and warm, doesn't it?

REAL reconnection to Oneness means dropping EVERYTHING! And what I'm claiming here is that transcendence of ego is not possible for the ego, just like having senses is an impossibility for a chair -- it simply doesn't have the necessary tools to do that, it is just a partition of something WAY bigger. Even in theory, in the exact moment when transcendence would occur the ego would cease to exist, along side with all thoughts and senses and feelings and so forth. You're saying that transcendence would bring along all those incredible enhanced feelings, but that's just not the case -- notice how good it feels to think that that's the case, that's ego right there! just as there's ego in trying to communicate this insight with you. Because oneness is impersonal, selfless, senseless, thoughtless. And as for ego death through stopping thoughts / focus, meditation shows that the stream of thoughts is a never-ending process as long as you're alive and conscious.

 

I know this got pretty ranty, but I feel like that's the best way to communicate this perspective. I'm genuinely interested in discovering the truth (or something as close to truth as possible) about this issue of transcendence and so far this perspective seems the most accurate to me.

 

 

[Deep]

2 hours ago, Razvan said:

I understand that we fundamentally are God, but can you explain or give me some clues of how a human being can live without ego?

I think the ego is just a bunch of mental constructs we have accumulated throughout our life. We behave a certain way in certain situations, we were conditioned by our parents, we have all the ideas about right or wrong, etc. It shapes our identity in a certain way. Then we believe we are such and such person. When we become fully congruent we don't have all of these mental constructs left and it makes meditation much easier. The ego can only be dissolved during meditation or samadhi after rigorous discipline. During a samadhi experience we realize we are everything and nothing at the same time. That is not to mistaken as the ego's experience because there is no ego left during that. The ego can come back and try to make sense of what happened. Our identity itself is the Spirit expressing itself, so it can't go away until death. Yes it's possible to live without the mental constructs but your identity we remain. 

[Nahm]

@Razvan There is no question that daily meditation, proper nutrition, positive mindfulness, excercise, being drug free, alcohol free, cigarette free, etc will bring you to trancendance. The only variable is wether we are being honest with ourselves in our adherence to what our within has always been telling us. 

Edited February 4, 2017 by Phil

[Nahm]

Here is a way you can see it, possibly. I did not say anything about transcendence making me "special" or "superior". My experience is nothing like that. I do realize you were making a point, but,  If you can realize that you perceived it that way, that you skipped over what was being said to you and made YOUR point. Then, you might be on your way. A good practice might be to spend a day or so without talking. You might be amazed by what you hear. 

Edited February 4, 2017 by Phil

[Live Life Liam]

8 hours ago, Razvan said:

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts.

I wanted to make the distinction between:

- The ego realizing that there is something more than itself, a.k.a. God / Infinity -- which I think the concept of ego transcendence actually means; and

- The ego tricking itself that it somehow became something more than it is and that it "transcended itself" -- which I often see promoted in the spiritual community and therefore was very confusing to me and seemed misleading, and I thought it might be helpful to emphasize this distinction.

This stuff came to mind after some self-inquiry work and after what I thought was an enlightenment experience, which later seemed quite foolish of me because I realized that the ego cannot get enlightened, it can only make up concepts of what enlightenment is.

 

Totally agree, thanks for putting it into words in a more comprehensible manner. 

The way you say it leaves room for interpreting that there IS something else (which is not "me") to transcend the ego, so please clarify that one. 

 

I understand that we fundamentally are God, but can you explain or give me some clues of how a human being can live without ego?

 

 

But aren't feelings felt through the ego? As I see it, this true self / God has nothing to do with feelings, because feelings emerge as bodily sensations which self-inquiry proves to not be the true self. Please correct me if I'm wrong. 

Because you are God/infinity/consciousness or whatever you want to call it which is essentially everything and nothing. There is no such thing except that so you can't transcend to become anything. 

All that is needed is the veil of illusion to disappear. Another way to put it is that you are like a cartoon or movie character that doesn't know he's in one and believes he is actually real. Once he awakens and sees that not only is he is part of a cartoon or film but his essential nature is the entirety of that film then he can truly enjoy life and not take it so seriously.

#belikedeadpool  (or maybe not since he might just be a comic book zen devil)

 

P.s these are only concepts and pointers to the truth since it is beyond all experience and can't even be communicated well.

Also these are insights I have had directly with enlightenment experiences although I do not claim to be living in this state all day everyday so i wouldnt consider myself fully awakened. I am on the path just like you are

Hope this helps.

Edited February 4, 2017 by Live Life Liam

[Live Life Liam]

4 hours ago, Razvan said:

 

- The ego tricking itself that it somehow became something more than it is and that it "transcended itself" -- which I often see promoted in the spiritual community and therefore was very confusing to me and seemed misleading, and I thought it might be helpful to emphasize this distinction.

Just going to add one more thing.

The difference between and wacked out mystical ego percieved state and an enlightened one is simple.

Enlightenment or enlightenment experiences are basically when the separate self (your sense of im a body, mind, identity) disappears and what is left is infinity. 

Waked out mystical ego states are possibly shit like seeing entities, demons, feeling pleasurable sensations, visions of jesus or buddha and anything that is a thing or phenomena in existence. What you are is NO THING. 

These mystical experiences can break your sense of self though for example if you start noticing time speed up or slow down or slowly dissapear then you are getting closer to a full enlightenment experience since the ego can only exist within the mental constructs of time, space, thoughts and stuff like that.

 

Edited February 4, 2017 by Live Life Liam

[cetus]

@Live Life Liam How did you get so wise at your early age? You see a lot.

[Empty]

@Razvan Yes, I think it is possible to transcend your ego.

How? 

• Visualizations/ Affirmations, when you sit down and do them, always think of your higher self. Do not let your mind ( ego ) tricks you to believe it is your ego doing the visualizations.   
•  

 

• Do self-inquiry work. Ask who am I? Where do thoughts arise from? When thoughts arise, know The content vs The meaning of a thought.   The content is the image in your head. The meaning is the way you identify with your thoughts. 
• Do self-inquiry for as long as you can. 

 

Edited February 4, 2017 by Empty

[Nahm]

@Live Life Liam Wow. If you are as young as your picture suggests I'm a little envious. I didn't even start PD until I was 20ish. I hope you don't mind some questions. What got you started? A parent? A certain book? What would you suggest is the best way to present the path to my kids, ages 5 and 6? Thank you in advance, I know I'm asking a lot. 

Also, I want to add a point worth pondering. You mentioned "feeling pleasurable sensations" as a red herring of sorts. I have experienced otherwise, and it is one of the greatest experiences of my life. Similar to how the ego exists after the death of the ego, but is not part of your perceptive experience anymore, and your focus allows it to stay  benign or regrow, the sensation of the everything within can also be allowed and experienced as physiological sensation.                       A quick background that I think is necessary- I started working full time when I was a child. My dad was always stressed about work and he took it out on the family. What a gift. At age 13 I was determined to do whatever work would free me from work. I grew an insurance agency, got licensed for stocks, mutual funds, annuities, bought rental houses, etc. I worked around the clock for years. I built an income stream that more than sustains for the duration. So for the next 20 years I had my time free. Traveling didn't entertain me for as long as I thought it would. Neither did buying stuff.   All roads quickly led to PD. I did the typical practices - meditation, excercise, healthy eating, working out, participating in charities, schools, etc, for the last 20 years, almost every single day. I have read and watched everything I can find on quantum mechanics, biology, neurology, genetics, etc. If you're still reading this, thanks.   I realize it has a color of self indulgence, but I'm taking the time to explain because I want to communicate to you that there is an ocean of "pleasurable sensations" that I don't think you have tapped into. It's real. It's within all of us. Accessing it is a matter of practices and mindfulness, like all other ventures, I would wager that if you told someone that you perceive time as nonlinear, and use the uncertainty principle as a practice, they would suspect you of inflation, but you did the time so to speak, and you know those things to be true. I'm not trying to be preachy, it's just that your persona comes through in your writing. I feel a sincerity and dedication that most PD folks 3 times your age have not obtained yet. I felt a little heartbreak in a sense when you expressed a limitation on your physical sensations in your pursuit and or experience of enlightenment and transcendence. Just one rando guy making a claim on a forum, but... it is real and it is ineffably worthwhile. 

[Live Life Liam]

14 hours ago, Phil said:

@Live Life Liam Wow. If you are as young as your picture suggests I'm a little envious. I didn't even start PD until I was 20ish. I hope you don't mind some questions. What got you started? A parent? A certain book? What would you suggest is the best way to present the path to my kids, ages 5 and 6? Thank you in advance, I know I'm asking a lot. 

Also, I want to add a point worth pondering. You mentioned "feeling pleasurable sensations" as a red herring of sorts. I have experienced otherwise, and it is one of the greatest experiences of my life. Similar to how the ego exists after the death of the ego, but is not part of your perceptive experience anymore, and your focus allows it to stay  benign or regrow, the sensation of the everything within can also be allowed and experienced as physiological sensation.                       A quick background that I think is necessary- I started working full time when I was a child. My dad was always stressed about work and he took it out on the family. What a gift. At age 13 I was determined to do whatever work would free me from work. I grew an insurance agency, got licensed for stocks, mutual funds, annuities, bought rental houses, etc. I worked around the clock for years. I built an income stream that more than sustains for the duration. So for the next 20 years I had my time free. Traveling didn't entertain me for as long as I thought it would. Neither did buying stuff.   All roads quickly led to PD. I did the typical practices - meditation, excercise, healthy eating, working out, participating in charities, schools, etc, for the last 20 years, almost every single day. I have read and watched everything I can find on quantum mechanics, biology, neurology, genetics, etc. If you're still reading this, thanks.   I realize it has a color of self indulgence, but I'm taking the time to explain because I want to communicate to you that there is an ocean of "pleasurable sensations" that I don't think you have tapped into. It's real. It's within all of us. Accessing it is a matter of practices and mindfulness, like all other ventures, I would wager that if you told someone that you perceive time as nonlinear, and use the uncertainty principle as a practice, they would suspect you of inflation, but you did the time so to speak, and you know those things to be true. I'm not trying to be preachy, it's just that your persona comes through in your writing. I feel a sincerity and dedication that most PD folks 3 times your age have not obtained yet. I felt a little heartbreak in a sense when you expressed a limitation on your physical sensations in your pursuit and or experience of enlightenment and transcendence. Just one rando guy making a claim on a forum, but... it is real and it is ineffably worthwhile. 

Thanks for the questions and response.

Well I am 17 so I don't know how young you think I look in the picture  to be fair a lot of people think I am like 14 or younger although I did start personal development at 15 but only really got serious into this non dual field when I was 16. Before that I was focused on other areas of life. 

I got started into a number of insights I learnt through my highschool years that shaped my life forever. I had an exstistencial crisis as a teenager which was strange but a sudden occurance of the impermanence of life led me to a lot of different questions I felt driven to answer.  

I think my love for cinema as a child actually helped too start this search also since I was always seeing different worlds and perceptions and characters each day which made it apparent to me a lot of things I wouldn't due to the beauty of been able to see different perspectives on the world. 

If I'm honest I'm not 100% sure what led me to go towards this path I just think I've always had an intuition that there is something more & I've just been curious about discovering why we are here. I think just the way events panned out that were out of my control led me to where I am.

I had a first long term relationship during highschool that ended which affected me a lot in those years. I started to read self help and do fitness from there and although I know it was the pretty shallow form of self help it did introduce me to a lot of different information.

I was watching actualized.org but when Leo wasn't talking about the stuff he was now. His shift happened about a similar time as mine.

As Aroung the age of 15  I became homeless due to family issues such as divorce, abuse etc. That was when an even major shift happened that I decided I really have to take ownership of my one life now and matured a lot through that difficult period.

With young kids I recommend you just keep being an example for them and spend time doing fun stuff with them that is related to personal development might help.

It's like if you were or are a Dad that loves football if you keep playing it with them and watching it around them most of the time the child will too in my experience since they really do take a lot in from there parents idea of what is a worthwhile interest.

Try meditate and do yoga around them and as they get older (if they refuse to do it now) ask them if they want to join in and teach them.

Take them to interesting retreats, events and country's to expand there minds. 

Read children books to them based around the personal development or spiritual or scentific topics you love. The famous book "the little prince" is one of them that can teach them interesting philosophy's to grow up with. Of course there are many many more though you just have to look into it deeply but I believe this is a useful way.

You can do the same with all forms of entertainment they love. Just introduce them to a variety of diffekinds even the more socially "weird" ones. Being introduced to many different perspectives on life, relationship, suffering, death, morality, religion, science etc greatly influenced me so I'm only speaking from personal experience.

I think the environment your kids live in is important too though so the school, neighbourhood, friends, teachers, media all shape the type of things they will be interested in growing up and some of them can be out of your control if you don't want to be a controlling father. 

Overall I'm not a father so I'm not the only person you should be asking so maybe someone else on this forum can help you out. I hope this has benefitted you though

 

Also by when I mean pleasurable sensations are ego percieved I don't mean they are wrong or should be denied but mean that they aren't any sort of awakening as it will pass.  If you have a genuine enlightenment experience you can feel the mostly divine bliss and peace you can ever feel but it's not dependent on the body's emotions. You become the stillness infinite timeless space that is within everything. 

I'm talking about emotions like anger, sadness, pleasure such as sexual relief or the feeling when you have a good meal since all those pass and are not a constant. These are not wrong in any way and I'm not saying don't try feel pleasure but what we are looking for is what has always been there throughout our lives at all times. Becoming fully aware of that is enlightenment although the best term would be awakening since it isn't as flashy.

Edited February 5, 2017 by Live Life Liam

[Nahm]

@Live Life Liam Thanks for sharing man. Order The lIttle Prince, Have a great one!