Leo, what is ego?

[Guest Edvardas]

We are all waiting for the video, but to satisfy our hunger for now, could you share some of your most advanced insights on what ego is?  

[Vynce]

Your ego is your sense of self.

Your life history.

Your memories.

Your name.

Your profile picture. 

Your personality.

Your trauma.

The stories you tell yourself and others what you are.

And of course your Ego is also what you are not.

You are not the people you hate.

You are not into that music or that kind of food.

The ego is separateness. 

All this is happening with the process of thinking.

When you are completely still and aware of the actual world in and outside of you, there is no life history, no memories, no name, no thought. 

Thats why the ego is illusory. 

Edited November 30, 2022 by Vynce

[TreyMoney]

Recommended asking yourself what ego is.

[Sincerity]

Such a deep topic. I'm waiting for the video too. Hoping Leo can surprise me with some juicy insight 

Ego is falsehood. It's literally nothing. It's asleepness. It's immaturity.

Ego is fear. It's resistance to Truth.

Edited November 30, 2022 by Sincerity

[Gesundheit2]

I was going to answer, but then realized the question is pointed at Leo specifically.

[roopepa]

[Breakingthewall]

We call ego to the energy that desires and fears, and that by doing that, separates between me/not me.

[StarStruck]

Ego = echo

[Leo Gura]

The notion that you are a human self who was born and will die.

Edited November 30, 2022 by Leo Gura

[Osaid]

4 hours ago, Gesundheit2 said:

I was going to answer, but then realized the question is pointed at Leo specifically.

Smart

[bensenbiz]

Ego goes deeper then most of us think. It‘a not just thoughts it is literally reality. 

[Moksha]

I see ego as the conditioned mind, which can't help but be egoic. You can still be awake to your ultimate nature as Consciousness, but until the attachments of the mind are entirely dissolved, there will still be some ego. Few have moved beyond the ego entirely, which is the definition of enlightenment. The collapse of the ego is the dissolution of the self. From the ultimate perspective, there never is an individual I to be enlightened in the first place. It is all part of the dream journey of Consciousness, appearing to be separate, back to the Self.

[Razard86]

Ego is just the player character and all the information, habits, sensations associated with it. Enlightenment is just the realization that its your creation along with everything else. Reality= Infinite Ego/Self. The Ego is a Dream. When there is no dream, there is no ego. 

[YogiCosmos]

Ego can be split into 3 aspects:

1. We are separate. Stories revolve around why and how we are separate.

2. Emotional attachments to the stories of us and others

3. What Adyshanti refers to as the root identity. This is unconscious and primal. Legit fear of death and obliteration. 
 

In the awakened, many have not yet overcome the primary root identity under #3. When that finally falls away, all that is left is no-thing. True non-duality can then unfold.

Until then, it’s all just concepts and mind games. #3 needs to truly happen to live and embody non-duality 24/7.

Edited December 1, 2022 by YogiCosmos

[B222]

I think Ego is all thought, which creates duality and sense of separation. A tiger doesn’t think about what he is, he just is and acts (I guess) mostly from instinct, as one with the universe. Being.

Ego is formed because we can think about and label everything that we sense and are, especially ourselves and others. “I am this, she is that” all just concepts that take away the true nature of what actually is. 

‘The power of now’ by Eckhart Tolle and most of his content goes much deeper into it. Worth looking into along with meditation/observation/contemplation too 

[Zedman]

On 30/11/2022 at 9:47 PM, Leo Gura said:

The notion that you are a human self who was born and will die.

Lol why do I keep forgetting that? Every time I rmemeber this I try to integrate it then get questions along the way, get lost in answers and here I am asking the same question again what is ego. Its as if knowing this alone is not enough and is actually counterproductive. What would be the next thing to remember? And then the third? If I truly and deeply become conscious of this alone would I even ask what to do next? But If i dont follow up I keep disintegrating back. There is a deeper question hiding behind ''what is ego''.  Why do I want to know this in the first place? I want to exploit the knowledge of it and gain benefit ofcourse. Which is very ego thing to do. But what if my benefit is my life purpose?

There is so much missing to this description. I am more confused and exhausted having read this haha

[Guest Edvardas]

Thank you for the comments, guys. I found truth in them, which helped me to pinpoint ego within myself.  It is liberating to seperate yourself from the ego clearly, even though he is still active. 

Ego is a voice inside us that degrades others, that resists truth, that believes in seperation, that is immature and judgemental.

Ego is automatic, we do not initiate him, but we can get caught within his thought system by giving him attention and believing in his lies.

Ego is evil itself.

In time, even before a thought fully develops, one can sense the intention behind the thought, realize that it is ego and dissolve it before it manifests fully. I'm not always successful in that, though.

I noticed that when I began to dissolve ego, at times, he even becomes more hateful.

Also, I believe that asking the Lord to put down the ego is beneficial. You can try asking your most beloved Guru as well.

Let us head towards the light, leaving the ego behind forever, brothers and sisters. 

[Vincent S]

Ask the question of: How did my ego even begin to exist? How and where did it come from?

Was it just an identity that I constructed? Alongside the rest of the story of life on the planet earth?

Did I construct everything? All the stories, meaning and distinctions that I assigned? Just so I could uphold one perspective?

[waheed]

1. Ego is an activity that mind does in most of waking hours, it's the activity of viewing, interpreting reality from the perspective of a separate person.

2. "Separate person" is a mental construct that gets created and modified as mind operates described in point 1.

3. So ego is nothing but an activity, it can be noticed in operation at any moment, if focus is put on "Me". "Me" can be felt in the body in form of sensations and also in thoughts in the form "beliefs" i.e. thoughts about "Me".

4. In that sense Ego is the past, trying to live "now" through the past. That's why Ego likes security, it's very fragile and needs constant activity to survive from one thought to another and one belief and feeling to another.

5. All our daily activity is to ensure the survival of this Ghost in the body.

6. It's important to understand that Ego is not an entity but an activity, for it's vanishing nothing is needed to be done.

Edited December 11, 2022 by waheed

[Razard86]

On 12/8/2022 at 11:42 AM, Edvardas said:

Thank you for the comments, guys. I found truth in them, which helped me to pinpoint ego within myself.  It is liberating to seperate yourself from the ego clearly, even though he is still active. 

Ego is a voice inside us that degrades others, that resists truth, that believes in seperation, that is immature and judgemental.

Ego is automatic, we do not initiate him, but we can get caught within his thought system by giving him attention and believing in his lies.

Ego is evil itself.

In time, even before a thought fully develops, one can sense the intention behind the thought, realize that it is ego and dissolve it before it manifests fully. I'm not always successful in that, though.

I noticed that when I began to dissolve ego, at times, he even becomes more hateful.

Also, I believe that asking the Lord to put down the ego is beneficial. You can try asking your most beloved Guru as well.

Let us head towards the light, leaving the ego behind forever, brothers and sisters. 

1. You will always have the ego if you are living in the dream. The ego is not just the identity, its also its expression as well. Your speech is ego, the way you walk, dress, your habits, memories, etc. 

2. The point is to not fall for being stuck in identification with the ego. Also the ego isn't the devil. The last barrier of the path is self-righteousness. If you believe the ego to be a devil or evil, you will always be at conflict and war with reality. True acceptance of reality is acceptance of everything, the whole entire design process, and where you currently are in life right now.

Spirituality is often used as an escape mechanism from facing reality, no different than drugs, sex and alcohol. But the whole point of Spirituality is the opposite. You have to face and look at everything about yourself both from the infinite, and the finite as well. Nothing less than total self-acceptance. You must face your own judgment, and eventually find yourself innocent along with the rest of reality. Until then, you will still be in the prison you erected. Liberation = Freedom from all judgment!!

Good luck!!