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Originally Posted by HealerW
First let's talk about thoughts. For simplicity, let's define thoughts as strings of words from your native tongue spoken silently in your head.
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I'd posit that that is an
oversimplification. It could also be expressed as a flow of ideas, their logical (or intellectual) process on a canvas of time. Insights don't always involve strings of words but they may act on your ego (like in a case of solving a problem of some kind). Words are symbols for ideas/concepts.
Emotions are just as much a product of ego.
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The Ego is a specific thought: "I", "me". Whenever you use the word I, you're introducing your ego.
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Like it or not you need it to be able to negotiate your way among other people and society. Without it you'd have no meaningful identity. It develops as your experiences are assimilated and you attempt to intellectualise their relevance.
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I like pizza. The Ego likes pizza. Your Ego is separate and individual from everything else. BUT, it identifies with your body and thoughts. The Ego calls the body and thoughts "I".
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And...
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The Ego is in a war with the Self, which is the real substance of who you are.
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Not necessarily, not at all. I can be very close to my Self but that wouldn't get me through a working day. It doesn't mean my ego is at war with Self. Quite the opposite. They are in harmony. What you're saying, if you'll pardon an analogy is that a core business ethos is at war with the procedures that allow it to function....could be the case but probably isn't. Ego derives from Self via a plethora of censoring mechanisms that bring your down-to-earth situations into focus. And it's initially through the ego that you receive the stimuli that become experiences.
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The Self resides in the background of awareness. This background of awareness is seamless and continual through your life. He reason you think the Self ends when you sleep and begins when you wake up, is because you look at the world from the outside. So then of course the background of awareness seems to stop and start.
Try this: when you wake up, ask yourself who is there first. The awakened presence is the Self. But the moment thoughts start going through your head, the Ego is at his dirty business.
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But does it matter? It may do to some. It's good to ask these questions but in the final analysis you'll never get rid of ego unless you withdraw from society, like, for example, Abramelin when he did his retreat as a deliberate act to discover his Self.
Ego gets far too much bad press on this site.
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