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Why I thought ego was bad

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halfphased

I think the reason people get tripped up on their ego and think that it is something that they need to rid theirselves of is because they think it is a negative thing.  I have realized that this, at least for me, was due to a poor deffinition and actually a mixing up of deffinitions.  Ego simply is.  It is who you are -- your personality and whatnot.  

I would start to get upset that I had so much ego when I found my self being mean or overly self-centered.  These are just attributes of your ego.  It is not the ego itself that is "negative"  it is rather these attributes that we are having the problem with.  

So, don't think that you have to get rid of your personality.  Ego is a necessary thing and can be negative, indifferent, or positive.  (plus a whole range of things inbetween)   It's just something we use to play in this game and it can be anything we want it to be.

Tayesin

Hi halfphased,
Great stuff !  That is one massive realization for anyone to have.

Perhaps Ego is most effective when it is balanced, rather than let loose or suppressed ?

It is a part of the human condition after all, and is certainly not bad in any way..  but very misunderstood by most.  Since it is part of us as a natural thing, it must be a Tool for us to use for getting maximum benefit in a balanced way.

:P

karnautrahl

For some reason I have this feeling that ego is the part of who you are that's always conscious. If you have a very low level of energy then ego alone can often seem to be a source of all kinds of mental misery (when I mean low energy I include low sugar and tiredness etc).
From my experience so far, raising energy levels in general from a combination of diet, exercise, meditation and plentiful energy work seems to add "more" to me.  It's like having your ego and more of you become present.
I likened to a funnel and an ocean. At my worst my ego the result of a really restricted 2 way funnel between me and the world. As I do more and handle energy better this funnel opens up. The ego is still there, but there's more of me as well.
Hmm I didn't think this would be so hard to describe in words online! :-). Ego to me is like the smallest part of me that expresses my personality and consciousness. Because of that it is good/bad/whatever I am but only in miniture and because it has limited capacity it's never complete and balanced -i.e it can be judgemental in a flash, or allow silly things to annoy it etc.  When I'm more expanded through other work then these things don't annoy or make me go into different moods the same way. As there is more of me present and aware, so more space for me to exist mentally.

Ok now I give up :-). Anyone get where I'm coming from?
May your [insert choice of deity/higher power etc here] guide you and not deceive you!

FreeChile

Webster's dictionary definition:

EGO

1 : the self especially as contrasted with another self or the world
3 : the one of the three divisions of the psyche in psychoanalytic theory that serves as the organized conscious mediator between the person and reality especially by functioning both in the perception of and adaptation to reality

SUPEREGO

: the one of the three divisions of the psyche in psychoanalytic theory that is only partly conscious, represents internalization of parental conscience and the rules of society, and functions to reward and punish through a system of moral attitudes, conscience, and a sense of guilt

ID

: the one of the three divisions of the psyche in psychoanalytic theory that is completely unconscious and is the source of psychic energy derived from instinctual needs and drives

FreeChile

THERE IS NO SELF.

Everything you've been taught (conditioning or SUPEREGO) needs to be questioned: your habits, your prejudices, your beliefs, etc.  That includes abstract concepts like the ones above fabricated by psychoanalysts or anyone interested in explaining the infinite complexities of life.  They've created these divisions for their own convenience.

Who you think you are needs to be questioned, your identity.  Eventually, we all must realize that each one of us is as good as the next person, and vice versa.  Also, that there is no difference between you and the next person.  That what you do to others you ultimately do to yourself and that what you do to yourself, you ultimately do to others.  Just like we have the power to heal others, we also have the power to harm others.

Finally, just like there is no division in you, there is no division between you and others.  Life is fluid, transparent and these are mere abstractions.

Adun

If evolving and learning means losing my personality and becoming part of an elite of souls that think exactly the same way(aka robots), then i don't want to be part of it, i don't want to be perfect!

But that's not the case, ego is not individuality, so i will continue learning while keeping my personality! If you want to get rid of yours, go ahead, i know i won't! =P

Nostic

I also don't think ego is the problem. I think that attachment to the ego is the problem. The ego can be a very useful tool, but if it becomes your entire identity, then it is inevitably going to cause conflict in your life.

I used to be scared of ascension, because I thought that once you reach a certain level you become a clone, just like everyone else who has reached that level. But the system is much more complex than we often give it credit for. People who I've read about who have reached Christ consciousness, they all still have their own distinct traits and characteristics... to take it even further, they become the ultimate individuals. It's certainly a paradox, yes, that you become one with everything, yet you become more distinct than anyone. We must keep in mind, that everyone manifests divinity in their own particular way... in fact, it can be expressed in an infinity of ways. Jesus had his way, Buddha had another, Krishna had another... and then look at the zen masters... their way is totally off-the-wall.
It seems that when you become realized, you don't lose your personality so much as your personality becomes greatly expanded.

FreeChile

Let me offer a very personal example.

As a child, my grand mother and the person who raised me and the one I've loved the most implied that I should marry white to better our race.  This was something that at that moment, with the pureness of a child, I questioned internally.  But also as a child, I was helpless to reject something coming from such an important figure in my life.

As an adult now, I've gone back to that and realized how ignorant and at the same time loving of her that was.  The ignorant part I leave to you to decide but the loving part basically expressed her desire for me to live safely and that my offspring live safely in this white dominated world.

Now you could say that that had become part of my personality. Yet, imagine the level of dissonance such an assumption would create in a human being, whether he be white or black.

If you were to look at everything around you, every concept, every abstraction, you will find elements of this in all.  It may help to question all of them--especially those that you believe to compose your "personality" or "individuality".

I always get a kick out of hearing people talk in psychological terms as if they truly described humanity.  They don't even get close.  There are about hundreds of theories on learning alone.  And probably all of them are false.

"Federick Crews and others have argued, there exists not one shred of empirical evidence for Freud's tripartite division of the mind. Worse, a great deal of recent historical research suggests that Freud falsified many of the case studies upon which his theory was based."

Freud and Nietzsche offered competing views which tried to explain human "irrationality".  These views have lasted nearly a century now and have shaped the language in our society.  They were also among the first to introduce concepts like conscious and sub-conscious to the western world.

We seem to take all this for granted and simply act like parrots instead of being critical.

halfphased

QuoteI always get a kick out of hearing people talk in psychological terms as if they truly described humanity. They don't even get close. There are about hundreds of theories on learning alone. And probably all of them are false.

I know, but it's what we do in every aspect of our lives when we attempt to describe it.  The funny thing is that they do accurately describe a person's view of the world until she expands her view of the world to account for a competing world view.  It is a process that is never ending as any view of the world is destined to be incomplete.  

Yet, as long as we are playing in this world of duality, these incomplete views are very useful to us.  We live in duality so we have to recognize distinctions on some "level".  To communicate with people we still recognize "I", "you", "him', "her"  and at the same time we can have the realization that these separations are for show only.  

There is no self, but there are views of the world that incorporate selves.  This is what I am beginning to understand.  "I" create an ego and through that ego I become me in order to interract with other me.  I forget that I am just a pretty and interractly designed covering and when I see a stain on that covering I mistakenly think that I have ruined the thing that the covering is covering.  Silly me ;)  The covering can be washed or made new.