The Trap of Spiritual Ego

[Razard86]

The Ego Relies on Logic, Logic is the Path of Separation. The reason why those of Western Culture struggle in Spirituality is a result of being raised in a culture of separation. They are so use to competition, hierarchy, labels definitions, and concepts of values with pros and cons. Spirituality is the path of Union which is alien to Separation. The more logical you are, the harder it will be for you to walk the Spiritual Path. The two highest components of the Spiritual Path is understanding you know nothing, and being willing to surrender. The Spiritual Path is dangerous because it is synonymous with stepping into the unknown. To claim to know nothing is to relinquish your map of learning. To surrender is to give up control. 

The Spiritual Path reveals you never knew anything, and you were never in control. Once you truly realize this, this is when you have truly awoken. As long as you believe you have something figured out, you have just erected a boundary. To figure something out means you have a grasp, how can you grasp that which has no boundary? To understand something is to believe that you have constructed a map that can lead you to where you desire. How you can be lead to Infinity? Infinity has no end, so there is no destination.

One is finite. One has a boundary. So how can Infinity be one if one is a boundary? We also say infinity is undefined. Undefined is itself a boundary, because that is a limitation. If everything is undefined then we cannot label something. So the only thing we can say....is Infinity and Oneness cannot explain the foundation of everything. The Highest Truth is the TRUTH CANNOT BE SPOKEN. If it cannot be spoken it cannot be conceptualized.

So how do you learn anything then? You connect with infinity and it reveals to you through direct experience. Infinity has an infinite number of ways to teach you. But many of you on this forums think you already know...so it cannot teach you. The EGO always thinks it KNOWS or it GOT IT FIGURED OUT. 

The irony? Infinity does not think it knows....that is why we are here in the first place. Infinity is interested in exploring all aspects of itself that it can create. So you have human egos believing they know something that Infinity itself seeks to know....YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS UP!!!!

I cannot stop smiling every time I see someone on this forum trying to TELL ME I'M WRONG. They don't listen, they don't keep an open mind, they come in and look at a link or a post and make a snap judgment. It is hilarious. I'm laughing because its soo damn funny. The irony is too much to contain. You actually think you have grasped infinity? 

 

[Mason Riggle]

I AM! <-- this much is absolute and undeniable. 

I am [insert relative qualifier/imaginary limit] <-- this is how I pretend to be separate from myself (delude myself via the mechanism of relativity [duality]) to describe myself to myself, so that I might 'know myself' (have the imaginary experience of 'being something'). 

Edited July 8, 2022 by Mason Riggle

[SourceCodo]

Sorry, that wasn’t very nice. I edited it.

Edited July 8, 2022 by SourceCodo

[gettoefl]

spiritual ego is claiming stuff

if i ask you then cool

[SourceCodo]

3 minutes ago, gettoefl said:

spiritual ego is claiming stuff

if i ask you then cool

Is this a claim? 

[Realms of Wonder]

Obviously, I am right and know everything!   Lol, thank you for articulating this.

[gettoefl]

1 hour ago, SourceCodo said:

Is this a claim? 

well you are asking so cool, yea

[SourceCodo]

31 minutes ago, gettoefl said:

well you are asking so cool, yea

Alright spiritual ego, will you ask me something so I can say you’re cool too?

Edited July 8, 2022 by SourceCodo

[gettoefl]

11 minutes ago, SourceCodo said:

Alright spiritual ego, will you ask me something so I can say you’re cool too?

i think we all have a spiritual ego to a degree, it is saying i know and i want to explain what i know to you

a useful question to ask oneself is, how large is my spiritual ego on a 1-10 scale

mine is probably like a 3 since i sometimes explain to people what i know even unbidden, this can be useful since putting words to what we know helps to solidify what we know and that's why a forum like this is useful ... i would say we need to limit ourselves in this

how do you rate your spiritual ego?

[SourceCodo]

7 minutes ago, gettoefl said:

i think we all have a spiritual ego to a degree, it is saying i know and i want to explain what i know to you

a useful question to ask oneself is, how large is my spiritual ego on a 1-10 scale

mine is probably like a 3 since i sometimes explain to people what i know even unbidden, this can be useful since putting words to what we know helps to solidify what we know and that's why a forum like this is useful ... i would say we need to limit ourselves in this

how do you rate your spiritual ego?

I’d say mine is either a 0 or a 10. 
 

Because I believe there is very little out there that needs finding. The ecstasy and euphoria from realizing union with with/as God is just another experience. Spontaneous  awakenings are just more of the same. The body reacting with external and internal stimuli. All folly when grasped too tightly.  
 

There is nothing that Leo has brought up or anyone on this forum that hasn’t already been explained or pointed toward by someone through time. At least not that I’ve found yet. And It all translates back to the mundane for me.
 

A real drug for the spiritual addict.

 

What do you say? 0 or 10? Or somewhere in between?

Edited July 8, 2022 by SourceCodo

[Realms of Wonder]

7 minutes ago, gettoefl said:

i think we all have a spiritual ego to a degree, it is saying i know and i want to explain what i know to you

a useful question to ask oneself is, how large is my spiritual ego on a 1-10 scale

mine is probably like a 3 since i sometimes explain to people what i know even unbidden, this can be useful since putting words to what we know helps to solidify what we know and that's why a forum like this is useful ... i would say we need to limit ourselves in this

how do you rate your spiritual ego?

LOL, rating spiritual ego. Who is doing the rating?

 

I am the most egoic person I know  

 

 

Edited July 8, 2022 by Realms of Wonder

[Mason Riggle]

@SourceCodo

7 minutes ago, gettoefl said:

how do you rate your spiritual ego?

My ego rates itself a solid 10.   Pretending to know things is the name of the game. 

[SourceCodo]

7 minutes ago, Mason Riggle said:

@SourceCodo

My ego rates itself a solid 10.   Pretending to know things is the name of the game. 

The Great Pretender I have found you at last.

Edited July 8, 2022 by SourceCodo

[gettoefl]

8 minutes ago, Mason Riggle said:

@SourceCodo

My ego rates itself a solid 10.   Pretending to know things is the name of the game. 

question was addressed to you not the ego, hopefully one day we will get beyond thinking it is us

[Mason Riggle]

@gettoefl there is no 'me'.. 

There's Me (everything) and there's Ego (pretending to be not that). 

There is what I am, God, and what I appear to be (seem to be, pretend to be, imagine myself to be, manifest as, etc), Not God
 

Edited July 8, 2022 by Mason Riggle

[SourceCodo]

18 minutes ago, Mason Riggle said:

@SourceCodo

My ego rates itself a solid 10.   Pretending to know things is the name of the game. 

I don’t think you would really appreciate not being you. I’d quit playing with that fire before you actually lose your identity. What that actually means… Who knows.
 

“me” is and always has been a concept for... The amalgamation of everything that is the one speaking or reading it. Don’t let semantics mix you up and get you trapped in fruitless identity arguments. I mean unless you find it fun or something. Cheers.

Edited July 8, 2022 by SourceCodo

[Mason Riggle]

@SourceCodo it's impossible for 'me' to lose 'my identity' (I would have to become something other than myself, which is a contradiction in terms).. and if I did, who would be left to know it? Not me. 

Edited July 8, 2022 by Mason Riggle

[gettoefl]

10 minutes ago, Mason Riggle said:

@gettoefl there is no 'me'.. 

There's Me (everything) and there's Ego (pretending to be not that). 

There is what I am, God, and what I appear to be (seem to be, pretend to be, imagine myself to be, manifest as, etc), Not God
 

am confused since you answered with my ego rates itself a 10 so it seemed like you think yourself an ego and now you are saying the opposite

[Mason Riggle]

@gettoefl both are true at the same time.

Consider it this way.. If one of my fingers suddenly decided it was 'separate' from 'my hand'.. it would still be 'my hand'.. but it would be this 'imaginary separation' that is 'ego'.. 

this 'ego' is required for '1 finger' to have an identity (be separate from the rest of the hand).. so if you ask my finger if it thinks it's a finger or a hand, the finger will reply 'I'm a finger, separate from the rest of the fingers'.. but if my finger suddenly realizes it's actually only 'pretending to be separate' to recognize itself, it might recognize itself as the whole hand, and of course, at this point.. it's no longer 'the finger' that's doing the recognizing (now the perspective becomes that of the whole hand).. it's just the hand... it never was a 'separate finger' to begin with. 

Edited July 8, 2022 by Mason Riggle

[RendHeaven]

Well said. One of the big traps I see in my spiritual friends is when they make maps about the depth of their not-knowing.

This is obviously a fabrication, because they're still dealing with maps. But to them it feels like they're engaging in not-knowing, because that's what their map says. A map about not-knowing which claims to not be a map. What a perfect tool for a spiritual ego!

I've tried encouraging them to burn the map, but they can't see how that's different than what they currently have - "map, no map, same thing! it's all one!" - they say as they continue to feel as though they've understood.

My strong opinion is that, when you ACTUALLY understand. You humble yourself, and you're truly left with nothing. This manifests in your behavior as silence and acceptance. Because you understand, viscerally, personally, and immediately the profundity and ineffability of Infinity drowning out everything else you've ever known. There isn't even room to "communicate" "with other people," this all falls apart into true union.

People who happily mix and match nonduality with their relative experience OBVIOUSLY don't "get it." You can just sense it in their haphazard delivery. They have no respect for the raging storm of true not-knowing. They would shit their pants if they actually (in direct experience) left the shelter of their maps.

This is a large part of why I personally don't engage in nondual/spiritual rhetoric. I've been to those peaks of consciousness, so to speak, and it shut me the hell up. In the NOW I am not aligned with those peaks, so it's totally out of integrity for me to even pretend to know anything about them. When I return to those peaks, I will once again be stunned into silence. Basically, no matter where I find myself, there is no room for me to communicate any kind of map on The Truth while maintaining inner balance, because either I do not know, OR, I do know, but my life has vanished.

This is not to say that spiritual rhetoric should never occur. There is definitely value in propagating the possibility of enlightenment as a beacon of Hope. However, if you are in the position of spreading enlightenment, you have to be REAL fucking careful about how you use your words, because 99.9% of even the most spiritually advanced people usurp words to primarily feel good about their current existential condition moreso than to be truly benevolent.

Edited July 8, 2022 by RendHeaven