Befriending the ego

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Iamit

Far from being a barrier to our connection to Oneness,
it is already Oneness manifesting as that protection.

Um, that was brilliant.

[Iamit]

Originally Posted by ketzer

Poor Ego

It gets blamed for so much. It is always fun to hear how proud some people are when they declare they have gotten rid of, or are now in complete control of their ego. I expect it is quite a boost to the ego.
I don't know why or when the ego got pegged as such a focus of evil in the modern spiritual world. It seems like the mind hears about how regressive the ego is and decides it should try to get rid of it.... which is another way of saying it needs to make some improvements... to its conception of self... which is the ego. If it can convince itself it has succeeded it feels much better about itself... which is quite an ego boost.
My ego, like my body, bears a lot of scars from the many wounds I have suffered in life (as we all have). And like my body, it often acts up and gives me aches and pains from those old wounds. But those aches, pains, and scars tell a story, they remind me of the accumulation of a lifetime of experiences. Anyway, my ego, like my body, was not there before I was born, and won’t be there after I die, in the meantime, I figure I need both to experience life in the manner I had intended. So when the aches and pains flair up, I try to accept them for what they are (to varying degrees of success) and move on. Dwelling on the aches and pains and wishing they were not there just seems to intensify them. If I focus on getting on with life, before long, they subside into the background and don’t bother me so much.

Why the ego has been selected for termination is a good question. We could hazard a guess and suggest it may be because mind has glimpsed and is in pursuit of the ultimate defense to rejection, that there is no separate person here anymore to reject.

[Iamit]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Um, that was brilliant.

One could see why meditation would be a way to eliminate the separate person, so hateful some have come to believe it to be.

[Iamit]

[quote=ocean breeze]From destroying an imaginary enemy to befriending an imaginary friend. Different forms of attachment.

Who seeks to annihilate or befriend?[/QUOTE

If mind is seen as the defender of the organism, and as the creator of the ego as part of that defense, then the answer is obvious.

[CrystalSong]

EGO - Earth Guidance Only.
After reading Ekharte Toll, who may have been the one who popularized ego as a definition, and experience awakening, I too tried to 'get rid of ego'. It was unslayable, though it did get so minimized due to prolonged periods of bliss that it would ask it if could think now. LOL
That lasted no longer than a few months though.
Bottom line, we can't get work done, pay bills, drive a car or even properly take care of our bodies without it, nor have friendships and relationships or basically anything else 'human'.
It's a valuable part of a 3 part team composed also of the Body and the Spirit.

At this point in development and understanding balance between the three aspects with Spirit (Higher Self/Eternal Aspect) being for the first time a full contributing and heard member of the triad.
Mind/Ego/Personality has reached a point now where it no longer fears being usurped by Spirit and is happy to not have to go it alone but has unerring advice from an 'all seeing eye'. :)

All members of the team (mind/Body/Spirit) are respected and held in appreciation for their roles in this experience in the 3D realms, and ego clearly states when it's offering an opinion and that higher self might have a very different take on the subject.
Meaning there's not really a separation any more, or very little at least. What sense of separation there is, is appreciated for it is the human part getting to play human which is appropriate for the 3D earth playground.

Complete merging (as a full visceral experience) into Oneness is visit-able now and soon enough when mind and body wear out will become inevitable once again. No need to flee from being human also - nothings broken in it, nothings wrong in it. Spirit came here to have this experience and there always exists now the all inclusive knowledge that we are all One - that everything is part of a larger Oneness and no separation can ever be true, we can only pretend to be in a state of separation.

So ends this ego's explanation of it's forays into Greater Understanding and meeting and teaming up with Spirit.

[ocean breeze]

[quote=Iamit]

Originally Posted by ocean breeze

From destroying an imaginary enemy to befriending an imaginary friend. Different forms of attachment.

Who seeks to annihilate or befriend?[/QUOTE

If mind is seen as the defender of the organism, and as the creator of the ego as part of that defense, then the answer is obvious.

Obvious if wish not to proceed further.

[Iamit]

[quote=ocean breeze]

Originally Posted by Iamit

Obvious if wish not to proceed further.

The end to feeling disconnected from Oneness does not have to mean modifying or eliminating the ego because the ego must already be Oneness appearing as that ego.

[ocean breeze]

[quote=Iamit]

Originally Posted by ocean breeze

The end to feeling disconnected from Oneness does not have to mean modifying or eliminating the ego because the ego must already be Oneness appearing as that ego.

I have no opinion on that. I was speaking of the mind seen as defender or creator. You can always take it further. What gives it energy? How did it come to exist? Is it real or imaginary? Though i'm sure many have ready made answers for these questions without seriously inquiring the truth. For those seriously inquiring, the answer won't be so obvious.

[Jyotir]

Hi FrogWarrior,


The difficulty of your scenario is that it is redundant, circuitous, and therefore incessantly repetitive.
That's why the world is as it is. It is the trap of 'maya' and 'samsara'.

Our 'individuality' is a given.

The soul, which is the fully gnostic aspect of individuation, by assenting to incarnate, e.g. plunging itself into a pervasive ignorance of True Self, has already 'befriended' the ego, which is that ignorant separative consciousness of the individually differentiated being in the physical.

That is both the problem, and the opportunity.

But no one can avail themselves of that opportunity by further enhancing and perpetuating the problem. That is the dilemma of the physical.

Identify with ego (separative consciousness) = problem.
Identify with soul (gnostic consciousness) = solution.

Annihilate the separative consciousness (ego).
Identify (by whatever means, and there are a few) with the gnostic consciousness of the soul.
- - - -

And btw, the ego (so-called) - contrary to pop-culture spiritual misconceptions - is not simply a 'defensive' mechanism.

It is first and foremost a false, ignorant construct - a fundamentally separative cognition of reality.

As such, many subsidiary phenomena arise from it, all based first in separativity. A partial list: Jealousy, aggression, material ambition, insecurity, inertia, self-indulgence, etc..

So it's not just defensive after the fact of incarnation and encountering social interaction, etc., although that is one aspect or possibility that results from separative cognition. It is also self-promoting. Note what is common to all of those limited and limiting intentions and actions: 'self' with a small 's'.

Meanwhile, it's all part and parcel of Oneness, One Self, One Being.
But that One Being has conditionally restricted it's own self-awareness in and through an exclusive consciousness, so that individuals may realize True Self...unless they continue to 'befriend the ego'.


~ J

[Iamit]

[quote=ocean breeze]

Originally Posted by Iamit

I have no opinion on that. I was speaking of the mind seen as defender or creator. You can always take it further. What gives it energy? How did it come to exist? Is it real or imaginary? Though i'm sure many have ready made answers for these questions without seriously inquiring the truth. For those seriously inquiring, the answer won't be so obvious.

What else is there other than the dream of separation? Wherever one goes to end that dream, will be more of that dream. But the feeling of disconnection may end if the whole of the content of the dream itself is included as Oneness manifest, including the whole of oneself, ego and all.

That ending will of course still be dreaming just as the concept of Oneness is within the dream, but there will no longer be the suffering of feeling disconnected while suffering. Including the suffering of having to figure out whether one is dreaming or not!

No escape from the dream ends the search for connection,

:)