My Ego and Everybody thinks they are "the one"

I like and respect you but my ego thinks you're a jerk. That can't be a bad thing, can it? Actually you have a pretty good idea of the nature of "your" ego, or anyone's. Yes our egos can send us to hell but they also are the source of our power. It's all in "how ya use it"

ya, im not good at being a jerk, i got other ways of being, i guess mean would be the appropriate term. not my style.

anyways.

ya i know how it works, its still surprises me now and again though. which is a good thing i suppose.....no disregard that, it doesnt surprise me, it does trick me.

interesting book by the way.

peace and carrots

[Deusdrum]

Originally Posted by GentleStrength

The question I would pose to you is this...

If you could help someone heal themself or provide an insight that would change someone's life in a positive way would you do it even if someone else would get all the recognition and credit for it?

If yes, then your positive intention to help others is more important to you than your ego's desire for adoration/recognition.

If not then your ego will actually restrict how much you can give of yourself depending on the credit you must receive as your "due".

The real tricky part is what happens when you offer advice/ideas to help someone but they see it in a negative way or attack you in response. Can you still at that point feel good about your attempt to help another without needing to try and convince them or force them to accept what you tell them as valid? Accept that their reality is absolutely valid for them and not "wrong" because you believe differently?

Those who don't care about recognition, I believe, have the highest ability to heal/teach/support everyone and raise the vibrational frequency of the world.

My 2 cents

Love and Light

I really like this GentleStrength. Very good points.

Let me play devil's advocate somewhat here (though i really am on the same wavelength with where you have taken your post) and ask you, is it wrong to appreciate positive recognition?

Another question i would like to pose to you, or anyone else, can we ever really know for sure whether our advice will have a positive or negative effect?

Can well intentioned, from the heart, selfless advice that is misplaced or poorly communicated or construed go amiss? Can the perfect piece of advice fail to have any effect at all, if it is not delivered from a genuine place?

This goes for both negative and positive responses or reactions. Maybe a person praises you endlessly for the great advice that has helped them so much, but in reality has had an adverse effect that this person in question has failed to recognize.

Can we be too focused on 'helping'? Some of the best words of advice i have given, i sometimes do not even know what it was that i said. I find sometimes that in the past, when i have tried so hard to help, it has gone astray, and i think that helping someone to make feel like such a good guy for being so helpful can backfire, and it is also somewhat dishonest. Whereas when i 'help' someone because it what i want to do regardless and there is an empathy with them or the situation, that this is more real to me.

ZeroPointField - I haven't kept up with this thread, but i LOVE! the original post. Pretty much took something i too ponder and at times struggle with straight from my brain.

I will say this, the fact that you recognize the game that we can play on ourselves in this respect, i think says a lot about your own character in that you are able to have that degree of self honesty.

And also, i don't think we should beat ourselves up over it too much on one hand, because a lot of people have this tendency. I sometimes see myself as this super important powerful guy that the world depends upon for its sustenance,(ok i am exagerating here a bit) and without downplaying my role or the influence that i do have, over the years, i have come to recognize *the brilliance of other people!*

I mean it, in class for example, when i stop trying to get my words of earth shattering mind-blowing unquestionable wisdom in there, and listen to some of the things that my co-students have to say, i realize just how amazing, intelligent, everyone else is. And also, even more than that, how much i agree with them (or if not, often how i can honestly see where they are coming from) or resonate with what they are saying.

I really am in awe of the beauty of people sometimes. Often, actually. For me, the trick is to get over myself, to stop thinking i am the center of attention, and start *paying attention to the center* where we are *all the one*.

Beautiful thread. I shall re-read and explore it's unfolding further here.

OneLove ~ *

[BlueSky]

Originally Posted by unus supra

Alright buddy, the thing about the ego, is like the body, as long as you are here in this form so to will the ego be here with you.

These thoughts are perfectly natural. in fact some may find that the more spiritually adept they become, the more pronounced (or the more aware of it) they become.

You will not subdue it or iradicate it any more than you would the body. the key is in knowing, like the rest of the body, it is a functional mechanism.

The heart pumps blood, the stomach digests food, and the ego produces thought in the form of symbolism.

It is not you.

That little bit of detachment is all you need. Take your awareness and put it on the point of your finger. notice how it comes alive? put that awareness on any point of your body and it comes alive.

The prime misidentification comes about when we mistake our thoughts for being ourselves, in which case we encase them with the majority of our awareness. Thus as we grow older, individuals tend to spend more and more time in their heads than experiencing the incredible sensory stimuli that is constantly flooding us. That is where delusion, anxiety come in. That is when people identify with a belief, because it is a construct of the mind and they believe the mind is them, so strongly that they will kill each other.

So know the mind for what it is. In knowing what it is in its most primitive form you can then step back and see it from another vantage point.

you cant study the car if your busy driving it.

Does that make sense? Yes, if i thought i was my ego,

i would be in jail in a straight jacket on death row for God only knows how many things.

But im not. And neither are you.

What we wish to do then, is having that vantage point, and having familiarized ourselves with the way in which the mind functions, we train it to behave in accordance with not belief, but what we know through direct, mutually observable, direct experience to be absolutley true. Not your "own truth" but rather A few fundamental laws of creation that can be observed in all phenomenon by all people. Things so simple as to be literally hidden in plain sight. The mind is a conditioned mechanism. Wipe out the old ruts in the road, and with understanding, realign it.

In doing so, it becomes more quite by default. It is a science, but one that can be learned. Thats why they say meditation is not enough if it is not unified with insight. That is the process by which through meditation we observe and reafirm to the mind in clear focus what has been learned in terms of a few simple fundamental laws. Impermanence, conditioned existence and things of that nature. Think of these fundamental laws as the key hole, realization as the door, and the ego as the key itself. We shave the key in so that it may fit the keyhole so we may open the door to broader understanding and ultimately....well that highest place we all seek.

We know it, we train it, and the rest takes care of itself.

By the way, i absolutely ROCK.

and so do you partner

thats the ego, thats what it does, dont sweat it. your perfectly healthy and normal.
you absolutely ARE the one. And so am i. the ego only makes the mistake of thinking
it is alone in this perfection as opposed to someone else.

i hoped i didnt go too far off on a tangent. oops

just want to say......Nice post......some really good points made IMO. Very Balanced.
James

IMO

the ego is what we like to perceive as our greatest enemy, but the truth is the ego was and appears to be just a thought system. the ego believes in duality, seperation, and fear. all of these things exist only in our mind and have no reality at all. they are like security blankets our higher self uses to shield us from the truth. everyone thinks and identifies with the ego, or we wouldnt still be here on this Earth.

Bless you, you are so honest and sincere. I just wanted to let you know, if you haven't already come across, there is a book called "the power of now" by Eckart Tolle which is worth reading. I can totally relate to what you are saying but after reading that book, something changed within me and helped me see things the way they are without attaching judgment and emotions:-)
Peace,
:-)