Ego and enlightenment

[Baile]

Originally Posted by alcyone

OK for me ego is the lower emotions or self on a person. Guilt, apathy, grief, fear, desire, and anger. Not sure if pride is one that word is flexible.

I would like to practice being higher for some time in my life.

That's great. One step is understanding and identifying the difference between a lower-self response versus the higher response. The higher response to anger is composure. The higher response to jealousy, is acceptance and allowing the other their freedom. The higher response to desire is identifying instead what it is one requires, and that is accomplished via interaction with the higher-self: identifying higher-self ideals and even karmic needs and responsibilities.

Guilt... not so much a lower-self response, unless it's only about self-pity. On the contrary, to feel guilty and remorseful when one has wronged another, is a higher-self response. Grief isn't a lower-self expression at all. It is a soul response of the highest order.

[shivatar]

Originally Posted by alcyone

How do I bridge the gap? Thank you. Would appreciate detailed responses because I'm eager right now to learn. I need to. Ty.

First read and learn as much as you can. Fill your head with knowledge until it's bursting at the seams and you have a core set of questions. These questions will be the motivating force in your seeking quest so do your best in the knowledge phase to dig deeply into them, make sure they are impossible to find in books and only available in human experience. First person self-revelations and questions that build that desire.

Start to practice in a dedicated and diligent way. Committ to a long term goal, make a plan to get to that goal. Keep progress as you go if it helps, a journal perhaps.

When knowledge and practice don't help anymore seek a teacher.

When you can't learn anymore from a teacher, seek inner solitude and guidance. The final path is about inner guidance.

[God-Like]

Originally Posted by alcyone

How do I bridge the gap? Thank you. Would appreciate detailed responses because I'm eager right now to learn. I need to. Ty.

Forget about enlightenment .


x daz x

Originally Posted by Baile

I would like to know why the "Forgive me..." sig. That would be a place to start exploring ego.

Ego work doesn't involve looking at what's wrong with you; isn't focused on eradicating your lower self thoughts and behaviors and so forth. It is not a deconstruction or breaking down activity. Rather, it is a constructive and raising-up activity. It is all about evolving conscious understanding; understanding of a higher order. It is knowing you are a perfect soul, which then allows you to joyfully embrace all aspects your humanness, even the not-so-evolved stuff. It is soul transformation via love and acceptance. There is nothing that requires forgiveness once one comes to that place of loving self-acceptance.

An exercise to evolve higher love and acceptance is to sit quietly in nature and just observe. Observe that nature is pure love and acceptance. The sun loving shares its light. The rain lovingly shares its dampness. Trees and flowers and birds lovingly share their beauty and being-ness. And nature does what it does, without apology. It asks nothing, expects nothing, and judges nothing.

I completely agree with being in the now. But while at work or around other people i found myself pointing out their flaws in my mind. By giving this attention i found what inside caused me to not view others or myself as perfect. and when i find my own flaws and old patterns of thinking i can then correct them or let them go and refocus on the miracle of the present. thus reducing or bypassing the ego.

Doesn't matter if you climbed the summit as i did. Only matters that you got here to enjoy the view with me.

[alcyone]

Anyone else have any ideas?

[dryad]

I have a completely different concept of enlightenment so I don't know if this will suit you or not.....

I don't agree with the idea that the lower self has only negative emotions and the higher self has only positive emotions. That seems like one self divided in two. And since most people never get in touch with their higher self that doesn't make sense to me cos then they would never have any positive emotions. I don't think getting in touch with your higher self is as simple as just experiencing more positive emotions. There is something to that idea but I think its more along the lines of changing your perspective so the way you view and interpret the world is aligned to the higher emotions. Kind of like seeing the world through rose coloured glasses so no matter what you experience you are more accepting of it and compassionate towards others even if they are not accepting of you. But I think of that as shifting the ego to a higher state of consciousness but its still the ego. Just a better version of the ego. Enlightenment is something else.

The way i look at it is the ego self is your complete personality with both positive and negative emotions and traits which is created for the physical body to interact with the physical world. Depending on the person it may also have awareness of higher realms (psychic senses).

The soul self is the larger complete self including all past lives and experience outside of physical incarnation. The ego personality is an imprint of the soul personality at birth. The same but separate with certain things blocked off (like past life memories) and then influenced by family and culture and experience to create two separate selves. The soul self and the ego self. As a diagram its a small ego circle within a larger soul circle.

Enlightenment is the process of shifting your sense of self from the small ego self to the larger soul self.

Originally Posted by alcyone

Anyone else have any ideas?

Yeah, forget the whole thing. The achievement of enlightenment is very subjective, how does anyone really know if they are enlightened? As far as I'm aware there is no objective measure and ironically enough it's the ego that wants to be enlightened. Although there are numerous definitions Jung says the ego is a sense of self; redefining self doesn't make the ego disappear and redefining ego as the root of all evil isn't very enlightened.

And ultimately there is no self to be enlightened or egotistical, which enlightened people will tell you.

[CrystalSong]

It is ego that writes this.
EGO - E.G.O. Earth Guidance Only
Spirit/Higher Self can't type. Higher Self uses energy to communicate.

In my experience so far, and subject to change, we are composite beings;
Composed of Mind, Body and Spirit
Mind/Ego being only 1/3 of us. This is a very rough and basic way to describe it from a human perspective - Higher Self might describe it differently.

I don't know what enlightenment is, but great internal peace can be found when each part has an equal vote at the Table of Existence.

Misery and doubt is to be found when only mind is trying to control everything.
So there is this sharing that's useful to happen, a vote from each aspect. Use mind to discover the other aspects vote - feel into the body, what is its response to different types of thoughts? Listen in the silence for Spirits vote and comments on subjects. Train ego to 'share the sandbox' before it makes decisions - especially about itself.
A humble ego, willing to listen to itself and other aspects is a much easier ego to live with.

[youngnostic]

I believe having an 'ego' results in a separate self.
In reality a tree is not a tree, a star is not a star, a man is not a man, a woman is not a woman... we are all one... we are all consciousness.
Those aspects you mentioned that you desire to cultivate from a higher-self perspective all come when your identity merges with the All... with the Infinite All-Embracing Self... the problem lays in our dividing ourselves from the All... what's within us is of an Infinite Substance, the problem is, however, that we separate ourselves from the rest of Infinity making ourselves finite but clinging to a sense of self that creates an 'ego' - that 'ego' I see as a film or I call it 'flim' (yes like the Apex Twin song) because it's not real, it's an illusion that we created and gave objective existence to based on our subjective perception as co-creators of the world of form, as co-creators and gods that we all are. Sadly, some of us 'fell from grace' or created a separate sense of self that we desired to experiment with and were given that chance, but ironically the more awakened of us choose to leave the limitations of that self and merge back with the all... however, the catch is that we now have a separate sense of identity that we all cling to that limits us from intaking that abundant life energy or Consciousness that is within and without our "self" because we are not our bodies, which are separate forms or subjects vs other forms (objects) but we are Infinity itself... we are all that Infinite Void/Nothingness and when we merge with that we acquire its freedom and virtue... now, the practical aspect of your question; as to 'how' to go about and merge with that All-ness so as to experience oneself as a drop merging with the ocean and experiencing itself as the Ocean, I, sadly, do not know. hehehe... I just know the theoretical aspects of it because I view myself as a separate Consciousness within the Void or Field of Consciousness... but I do see a film around my "self" that creates that limited self, apart from the rest of the Infinite Ocean of consciousness which I then presume is the cause for my maladies and low emotional states of consciousness but how to breakthrough, I sadly, do not know. :))

[Taking a Break]

Hi, I believe statistically far too less people are enlightened, so I'm waiting/looking/searching for a revolutionized enlightenment or kundalini awakening program/course, anybody know something?