Understanding Ego

[Razard86]

All Egos express themselves differently but all Egos actually want the same thing. As such you can use this tool to help you understand your ego and the egos of those around you.

1. All Egos ultimately desire comfortability. When the Ego is in their comfort zone they define that as GOOD. Whatever niche, or habit the Ego has carved out it will desire to stay in there unless some condition puts pressure on it to act/move differently.

2. All Egos desire Mastery, which is rooted in their desire for control. Egos desire to have respect, importance, and control. As such they want to be great at everything they touch, as this will give them complete control/autonomy.

3. All Egos desire attention of some kind, this is rooted in the Egos desire to share their accumulated experiences with an OTHER. Egos love to feel connected.

4. All Egos desire leaving a legacy or mark of some kind. The Egos greatest fear is to die and be forgotten, this is why it moves to reproduce it self in some way whether through invention, teaching, or sexual reproduction it desires to spread its influence in some fashion to exist long after it does.

Now even though these are the Ego's desire it does not mean that the Ego will express its desire for these above mentioned categories in a functional way. If the Ego is afraid it will actually deny sometimes it has these desires which causes it to secretly try to obtain these desires through the expression of their Shadow. For instance an Ego will claim it wants to be alone and doesn't want any form of attention, yet it will unconsciously still seek it and deny that is what it is doing. 

Egos desire for comfort is why habits are so hard to break. Egos desire for mastery is why it is sensitive to criticism and it either becomes a perfectionist, or a jaded nihilist. Egos desire for attention is why it will bully, troll, or take on the role of hero  and defend against this. Every Ego wants to look powerful and this is why they keep secrets, and are only transparent when it feeds the image of them being noble and virtuous.

Every Ego believes it is the most important Ego. Egos love to say "I'm different, I'm not like everyone else" and it looks for features or characteristics that can make it stand out. Egos take pride in being different, they fear being the SAME/ONENESS and this is the cause of all conflicts ultimately. It's why even in close functional relationships the Ego will eventually say it feels like it is "Losing itself" in the relationship and will seek some form of differentiation. 

If you notice all these desires are well-meaning, which is proof the Ego isn't evil it is focused on surviving the best way it can. The issue is when said Ego is ignorant it will respond in dysfunctional ways to get its needs met. So what is Ego? The Ego is the totality of everything associated with your Avatar. The strongest aspect of that being your memory. We can divide it into two types of memories. Your psychological memory of your life story and all it entails, and your biological memory/body. 

Enlightenment does not rid you of ego, it rids the ego of controlling your actions. When you become Enlightened you will still respond to the Name of your character. When Enlightened you will still need to eat food. All these are egoic actions, all these actions still create conflict of interest. So what's the difference? An Enlightened person is not very attached to survival. So they are okay with the bare minimum needed to survive. As such they are more authentic and express themselves freely regardless of the opinions of others. Because an Enlightened person has complete Self-Acceptance...they don't care whether they live or die because they know....what you call life and death are imaginary. 

You can summarize everything I said above in one fell swoop with this one phrase. The Ego seeks to be all powerful, eternal, to explore the totality of what it is in experience, and then share all that with an other. Sound familiar? 

[Razard86]

 

[Kuba Powiertowski]

That is the way the ego evolved. I don't know why exactly it went this way.. Because it could? Maybe that is the answer. Maybe everything in existence has its degrees of freedom of choice?

Ego was always a part of smaller or larger collective and has evolved as such, with quite nasty result as we all experience today...

I believe that it is possible to reprogram it so that while maintaining meaning, a sense of individuality of ourselves, we can contribute creatively for the benefit of others. I guess that's the point of this game we all play, where the main driving force behind is love. Even if this game is only a dream. 

[Razard86]

2 hours ago, Kuba Powiertowski said:

That is the way the ego evolved. I don't know why exactly it went this way.. Because it could? Maybe that is the answer. Maybe everything in existence has its degrees of freedom of choice?

Ego was always a part of smaller or larger collective and has evolved as such, with quite nasty result as we all experience today...

I believe that it is possible to reprogram it so that while maintaining meaning, a sense of individuality of ourselves, we can contribute creatively for the benefit of others. I guess that's the point of this game we all play, where the main driving force behind is love. Even if this game is only a dream. 

The Ego didn't evolve this way, all form expresses itself in one of these characteristics, the human ego is just more complex. The human ego is a perfect reflection of God, if you truly understand what I presented above it literally answers every question on WHY humans do what they do. The ego is a finite expression of God that seeks to be God so everything it does is predicated on that. 

But since God is death, what the Ego most wants, it is afraid of. This is why the ego is insecure and dysfunctional by nature. Until the ego overcomes its fears it acts paradoxical, it goes toward what it wants and then runs away over and over and over again.

Edited November 2, 2023 by Razard86

[Kuba Powiertowski]

@Razard86 so according to You, ego can improve itself or be improved - I’m glad we agree on that. So maybe it’s not such perfect reflection of God, because it has generally much to improve what makes sense - dream is interesting therefore. Overcoming whatever including fears means evolution. There are ofcourse highly evolved beings among us that remind us that we need to be careful with any generalization - I bet You know some: some aunts, uncles, granpas and - mas etc., or You have heard about them - very loving, humble, not judging and brave. Because, for example they experienced horrors of war, got a medal of honor for their selfless bravery or they show what does it mean to be Love in normal, sometimes very challenging day to day life. Yet they talk about it only when You ask. Some of them have transcended the fear of death, belive me. They are sheer inspiration to me, making me belive that we all can do and be better

[Francis777]

5 hours ago, Razard86 said:

But since God is death, what the Ego most wants, it is afraid of. This is why the ego is insecure and dysfunctional by nature. Until the ego overcomes its fears it acts paradoxical, it goes toward what it wants and then runs away over and over and over again.

Yes, I’ve been moving away for a while now, from the idea that the absolute desire of the ego is survival. It doesn’t make sense because without a reason to survive, you simply wouldn’t. You need a WHY if you want continue surviving, survival itself is not a reason, it’s just a medium you maintain so that can go on exploring.

In my opinion @Razard86 I agree with all 4 points you made, however I don’t believe they are the defining motivation and desire of the ego. What you’ve stated actually reinforces my perspective on this, try and notice this, how everything that you wrote actually ties up with what i think it is:

I think the singular primordial desire of the ego is to know itself..

BUT! It cannot ever truly know itself until death. So it avoids it and tries to find work arounds and loopholes so that it can satiate that desire.

And what is the conclusion that it comes to? “If I can’t definitively prove and figure out who I am, then I’ll just create an identity!” This is the ultimate solution for the ego, if I can’t prove what I am (and it can’t of course until death) then I will just decide for myself what I am!

At which point it goes through all of the dysfunctional ways you described trying to figure out who it wants to be.

It then settles on something and is satisfied with it, feels comfortable and good with it, then does everything in its power to solidify and cement that so that it can keep that sensation of that primordial desire fulfilled. - Notice how it always circles back to this desire.

And what is a way that it can cement this identity outside of itself (outside of itself because just one person agreeing with this identity is too fragile and sure to be questioned, better to have thousands so it holds more weight) and keep that desire fulfilled?

This:
 

On 28/05/2023 at 1:44 PM, Razard86 said:

4. All Egos desire leaving a legacy or mark of some kind. The Egos greatest fear is to die and be forgotten, this is why it moves to reproduce it self in some way whether through invention, teaching, or sexual reproduction it desires to spread its influence in some fashion to exist long after it does.

By creating a legacy!

And how do you then make everyone go along with your legacy cementing it further, and diving ever so deeper in to the comfortability of having that desire for-filled?…(again you reinforce this:

On 28/05/2023 at 1:44 PM, Razard86 said:

1. All Egos ultimately desire comfortability.

…With power! The ultimate security of this identity is to secure it with force! Anyone that says otherwise you can just banish. This is why the ego has been infatuated with power since it’s inception!

On 28/05/2023 at 1:44 PM, Razard86 said:

2. All Egos desire Mastery, which is rooted in their desire for control. Egos desire to have respect, importance, and control. As such they want to be great at everything they touch, as this will give them complete control/autonomy.

This is why the ego strives for control, control in itself is not an incentive.
 

It’s all so the ego can scratch the itch of not knowing who it is because it’s too scared to die and discover the truth. Everything else is secondary.

 

This is my take on it at least, you can see how they match up.

[An young being]

9 hours ago, Francis777 said:

Yes, I’ve been moving away for a while now, from the idea that the absolute desire of the ego is survival. It doesn’t make sense because without a reason to survive, you simply wouldn’t. You need a WHY if you want continue surviving, survival itself is not a reason, it’s just a medium you maintain so that can go on exploring.

In my opinion @Razard86 I agree with all 4 points you made, however I don’t believe they are the defining motivation and desire of the ego. What you’ve stated actually reinforces my perspective on this, try and notice this, how everything that you wrote actually ties up with what i think it is:

I think the singular primordial desire of the ego is to know itself..

Ego needs survival to be an ego and therefore it desires it, but ultimately what it wants I believe is to experience everything till infinity, that's what God wishes too. But as an ego, it mistakes that it should all by itself experience everything, and knowing itself is the best way to put an end to the unlimited desires the ego has. Then with the newfound knowledge, the ego continues its desires to experience life, but with peace and without a need to experience everything.

[Francis777]

3 hours ago, An young being said:

Ego needs survival to be an ego and therefore it desires it, but ultimately what it wants I believe is to experience everything till infinity, that's what God wishes too. But as an ego, it mistakes that it should all by itself experience everything, and knowing itself is the best way to put an end to the unlimited desires the ego has. Then with the newfound knowledge, the ego continues its desires to experience life, but with peace and without a need to experience everything.

could be, good take. I suppose all the ego's desires are just gods desires but corrupted by limitation.

Edited November 3, 2023 by Francis777

[Razard86]

15 hours ago, Francis777 said:

Yes, I’ve been moving away for a while now, from the idea that the absolute desire of the ego is survival. It doesn’t make sense because without a reason to survive, you simply wouldn’t. You need a WHY if you want continue surviving, survival itself is not a reason, it’s just a medium you maintain so that can go on exploring.

In my opinion @Razard86 I agree with all 4 points you made, however I don’t believe they are the defining motivation and desire of the ego. What you’ve stated actually reinforces my perspective on this, try and notice this, how everything that you wrote actually ties up with what i think it is:

I think the singular primordial desire of the ego is to know itself..

BUT! It cannot ever truly know itself until death. So it avoids it and tries to find work arounds and loopholes so that it can satiate that desire.

And what is the conclusion that it comes to? “If I can’t definitively prove and figure out who I am, then I’ll just create an identity!” This is the ultimate solution for the ego, if I can’t prove what I am (and it can’t of course until death) then I will just decide for myself what I am!

At which point it goes through all of the dysfunctional ways you described trying to figure out who it wants to be.

It then settles on something and is satisfied with it, feels comfortable and good with it, then does everything in its power to solidify and cement that so that it can keep that sensation of that primordial desire fulfilled. - Notice how it always circles back to this desire.

And what is a way that it can cement this identity outside of itself (outside of itself because just one person agreeing with this identity is too fragile and sure to be questioned, better to have thousands so it holds more weight) and keep that desire fulfilled?

This:
 

By creating a legacy!

And how do you then make everyone go along with your legacy cementing it further, and diving ever so deeper in to the comfortability of having that desire for-filled?…(again you reinforce this:

…With power! The ultimate security of this identity is to secure it with force! Anyone that says otherwise you can just banish. This is why the ego has been infatuated with power since it’s inception!

This is why the ego strives for control, control in itself is not an incentive.
 

It’s all so the ego can scratch the itch of not knowing who it is because it’s too scared to die and discover the truth. Everything else is secondary.

 

This is my take on it at least, you can see how they match up.

Your mind is spinning webs to confuse yourself so you have some deeper meaning to explore. The ego's main drive is to survive, why? Because how can the ego know itself if it doesn't survive?

Let me explain. God cannot know strength without vulnerability. Vulnerability and strength are one and the same. This is why God designed it that to be strong you have to face pain. What is pain? Pain is WEAKNESS. Pain is the expression that something has been damaged or is in danger of annihilation. You get a sharp sensation that you can barely stand. It takes strength to face pain, if you get in enough pain you WILL KILL YOURSELF to escape it. This is why majority of us look for shortcuts or easier ways to do things because facing adversity takes GRIT, DETERMINATION. 

If working out was easy, we wouldn't admire people who work out hard. So through the creation of pain and suffering, and scarcity God creates VALUE, GOD creates STRENGTH, and through the fear of annihilation (DEATH) God makes Life REAL. Without any of those things, your life cannot be real. Thus you cannot TEST YOURSELF to see if you are strong. 

This is why life is LOVE. Because you will NEVER PUT UP WITH SOMETHING THAT CAUSES PAIN AND SUFFERING UNLESS YOU LOVE IT!!! As such if you see someone who is in great physical shape, they are because they love it. Maybe they love the results it gives them (looking good and feeling good) as a result their love is conditional and limited. Why? Because if you took away the benefits that it gives them, they will stop doing it. But if someone loves exercise just for the act itself, they will work out regardless if it gives them benefits or not.

God designed life to learn what its true nature is. God's true nature is UNCONDITIONAL LOVE, which is the same as saying ETERNAL UNWAVERING TRUTH. God is the most loyal because God is unconditional, God is the most powerful, because God is unconditional, God is the most pure, because God is unconditional, and God is THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH because God is unconditional.

God set life up for you to see the value of selflessness. Life is set up that you must give EVERYTHING, YOU MUST SACRIFICE to be the fullest expression of what you are. Wanna be smart? Self Sacrifice. Wanna be wise? Self Sacrifice. Wanna be rich? Self Sacrifice. Wanna be healthy? Self Sacrifice. Life is always asking....what are you willing to sacrifice to express that particular identity to its fullest? 

Survival=Sacrifice=Value=The creation of lies, and truth, hate, and love, and this is how God discovers what it is....through the life it chooses to live.

[Oppositionless]

This is one of the best videos I have ever seen:

this is the same levels of ego development Leo was talking about. In the end , it culminates in the effortless action and watching yourself. Enlightmentment. not to he confused with Awakening. very good.

I hope the creator of this video also explores Awakening, because when you combine the deconstruction of materalism with effortless action, the universe finds creative and frankly miraculous means of getting your needs met.

Edited November 3, 2023 by Oppositionless

[PurpleTree]

the ego tries to hold stuff/reality together

and makes connections and stories where there really aren’t connection nor stories

[Razard86]

14 hours ago, PurpleTree said:

the ego tries to hold stuff/reality together

and makes connections and stories where there really aren’t connection nor stories

There are connections and stories, if they weren't there it couldn't be done. What you just said...was itself a connection and story...and if what you said wasn't true...it couldn't be done.

^^^^^Its both. If it wasn't so...we couldn't see different things and argue and fight. Always understand that any dualistic position you take is NEVER ABSOLUTELY TRUE....but even that...isn't true because it can be ABSOLUTELY TRUE FOR A SINGLE MOMENT...then it can change LOL. But basically no position stays the same, things are always changing.

[rachMiel]

The ego is a tulpa that seeks to be God. Which it is. If it only knew! 

[Breakingthewall]

ego is relativity. As we are social beings that use language and mental representations, concepts, our ego is complex and has of many layers, but ultimately any being that must interact with something external to it to survive as an entity has an ego.

[rachMiel]

16 minutes ago, Breakingthewall said:

any being that must interact with something external to it to survive as an entity has an ego

Panexperientialism says all entities have some degree of subjective experience, which may imply some degree of self-awareness.