Why is the 'ego' always brought up?

[Lazarus72]

Yeah I've read all that now. that Tolle knows his stuff, hehe.

[lemex]

Ego is merely a word of common usage. It's been with us for a long time (maybe even longer then I know it to be). Everyone knows the word and everyone knows the words usage. We cannot escape this familiarity.

The word I understand comes from the Latin meaning I. Using the word only means you are speaking of you.

Ego came to replace the word Id made famous many years ago. We have applied the word to have the same meaning, I. In terms of psychoanalysis coming to know ourselves. Ego in science and spiritual terms means a state of mind that is dominant. For instance is the Ego of a child the same as an adult. Of course they are different. Whenever we speak of the word Ego we mean the adult. We forget many things contribute to who you are. Ego has come to be seen as negative when everyone has one. This make me think of the concept of original sin (negative self image).

We have great difficulty explaining ourselves and Ego is a word everyone accepts among other words. It is again a word everyone has heard and knows how it's used or used most often. I agree self is a proper word to.

I sometimes think even God has one. But Ego, I, Id, you, self are all words that can be used. Now some people will tell you you can only use the word in one specific way or in their meaning of it. But it more important to conceptualize the content being described. The object being described not the word. Words can be barriers to.

Now we introduce teachers trying to explain that concept. Words can never be neutral but the word to me is actually meaningless unless one can drop all the attachments. Please keep mind man uses old word to explain new ideas and we cannot reinvent a new language.

I never got involved with that sort of 'aspect' of 'spirituality'. My focus has always been on the healing trauma end...never the abstract stuff...that stuff's too out there for me anyway.

Yes! :) From a New Earth he says this:

What you react to in another, you strengthen in yourself.

The moment you become aware of the ego in you, it is strictly speaking no longer the ego, but just an old, conditioned mind-pattern. Ego implies unawareness. Awareness and ego cannot coexist.

Forgiveness happens naturally when you see that [the grievance] has no purpose other than to strengthen a false sense of self; to keep the ego in place.

The particular egoic patterns that you react to most strongly in others and misperceive as their identity tend to be the same patterns that are also in you, but that you are unable or unwilling to detect within yourself.

This is what I work on every day. What is it that I dislike so strongly? Where is it within me?

Originally Posted by Medium_Laura

Yes! :) From a New Earth he says this: What you react to in another, you strengthen in yourself.

The moment you become aware of the ego in you, it is strictly speaking no longer the ego, but just an old, conditioned mind-pattern. Ego implies unawareness. Awareness and ego cannot coexist.

Forgiveness happens naturally when you see that [the grievance] has no purpose other than to strengthen a false sense of self; to keep the ego in place.

The particular egoic patterns that you react to most strongly in others and misperceive as their identity tend to be the same patterns that are also in you, but that you are unable or unwilling to detect within yourself.

This is what I work on every day. What is it that I dislike so strongly? Where is it within me?

Perhaps this explains why there is such alot of confusion surrounding the word. It seems that tolle has appropriated the word to try and get across a concept. But ofcourse when people have only come across tolle's usage of the word, then they believe that anyone using it differently must not understand it.

As someone else pointed out, ego originates from 'I'. Its Tolle that implies ego means unawareness (in this quote) but ego doesn't....it means 'I'.

No longer being attached to a personality, simply means that you have a different awareness and therefore, a different relationship with the ego. The premise that ego ceases to exist with awareness doesn't work with the use of the word 'ego'....its only possible if you completely change its meaning, as tolle seems to have done.

Im not a fan of Tolle from what Ive seen...and this particular quote shows a very poor use of language....its kind of lazy for one who's sold so many ideas. Who is the guy anyway??? wheres he come from?

p.s. I made a little assumption from your previous post, that this was a tolle quote - feel free to correct me if Im wrong.

It is Tolle and he's from another country...um Austria maybe? I'll have to look that up. I suppose not all of us will relate to every teacher, and that's why there are so many of them :) I do like Tolle and appreciate his work.

[sound]

Originally Posted by Verunia

I see it in a lot of threads- when people are speaking about anger, resentment, guilt, or anything else that's deemed negative it is attributed to the ego. I don't understand this. Any thoughts?

Hi Verunia
You ask an interesting question ... not only does ego get mentioned in many posts ... it gets its own threads, and this one makes I'm not sure how many now

[Adrienne]

Originally Posted by sound

Hi Verunia
You ask an interesting question ... not only does ego get mentioned in many posts ... it gets its own threads, and this one makes I'm not sure how many now

hmm, let me see, this makes one more than those before

Here's my take on it...

Ego is necessary for our survival and sense of self. Someone who has little ego or is supressed in some way is easily manipulated and swayed by others. You can see this with depressed people, with abused or painfully shy people, amongst others.

A healthy ego is evident when a person is strong in their opinions and sense of self but feels no need to boast or to prove themselves to others.

An inflated ego is what happens when our own self-importance takes over and we start to believe the illusion of who we are, rather than the reality. You can see this in action in media stars, some spiritual 'gurus' and the like.

I regard the inflated ego as the one to watch out for, as it will lead you down a blind alley of illusion and in-accuracy.

[Verunia]

Originally Posted by sound

and this one makes I'm not sure how many now

I didn't even notice the irony of this, haha