Who are you pretending to be

[weareunity]

hello TrueSight.

a couple of thoughts to share:-

thinking of the ego as a mind mechanism attempting to establish from inside a sense of being a significant "being" when for some reason ( a separate study) that mind senses that no such external acknowledgement is either freely given ( or given only with conditions which keep that person subservient ) may help. In such thinking the "ego" is not something separate that needs to be killed , but a mechanism which does not have to be used.
The acknowledgement that we seek, need, is to be valued, loved. Love is not a one way street.-- in the eyes of the lover the loved is significant, and in the eyes of the loved, the lover is significant.
Learning to love without having felt loved is a great challenge, an act of great courage I think. The shape of our personal sense of identity will help. Perhaps the identity of the separate "I" is a misconception--again part of the mind function-- setting the stage in order to facilitate the deployment of the ego mechanism if felt necessary. If there is no separate "I" , but only all--"all" as "the" inextricably connected and interdependent process we call existence--
then having such perception, adopting such perception,--even just thinking about such perception--establishes, begins to establish, a common denominator. we- and all else--are all doing it. Appreciating this commonality can give us a helpful foothold when faced with the challenge mentioned above.
In the process of existence all is significant. There is an irony in choosing to see our "selves"as separate, for by doing so we are in contradiction to the fundamental characteristic of the process of existence--and must necessarily accept and struggle with the consequences of that perception.

[Maisy]

Originally Posted by Joe Mc

We need regular steady and wholesome discipline to integrate and open to our real selves. Joe.

I just ate a whole bag of chips.

[alanantic]

Originally Posted by Maisy

I just ate a whole bag of chips.

Why THAT'S not disciplined at all! :-P

[FallingLeaves]

Originally Posted by Joe Mc

As Maisy has says, no will power ...i recognised over time
too that alot of our thinking and behaviours are linked into
our survival drive and ego. And instead of finding a cave or a castle
to become purer than white, we should try to accept and
work with these 'energies' they are part of us through
survival and through nature.

so a big part of 'survival' seems to be being afraid of what is coming, so that you will proactively try to deal with it. Instead of for example being content enough that you can be spending your time idly making trouble.

Would you go that far with your thoughts? Why or why not?

[lostsoul13]

im pretending everything is ok, that reincarnation isn't? and pain isn't? on the platform of wisdom; with there said...I forget and I transcends in to a false ego/ belief system- ego death defiantly is.. I forgot to ponder the other worlds od others; that I frighten they might experience pain differently and this is normal but that they will be getting a better deal- than the self thus loath at times- others; for the connection is not without its failure upon the self- once reason with pain I find that the self is just a false being -with a observer, just fulfilling its time in the observer point of view- waiting for its time to be up... death to occur..

this disconnection is my undoing- if I just grasp that pain is a lesson and karma then I it will be be my doing not undoing ...

[no1wakesup]

Pretending to be enlightened

Originally Posted by TrueSight

In Sweden where I live I was many years ago offered to go through a cognitive behaviour therapy and it was described as it would help identify harmful/negative behaviours and exhange them for better ones.
Is this what you meant?

Yes it is. Cognitive behaviour is how you think, horribly simply, and a good example of that is 'negative/positive karma'. 'Negative karma' simply means what people don't want to deal with and that is stuffed into Shadow Self to fester. Destructive cognitive behaviour. It's also know as 'Spiritual bypassing' because Spirituality is used to 'bypass' having to deal with the issues. Much of the Shadow Self is 'legacy' issues that may have begun as far back as childhood, yet they can still affect someone very deeply in the present.

What the cognitive behaviour therapy did for me was force a look at the process of how I created my own reality, essentially. 'Negative karma' becomes something I can gain from so I turn it into something that is constructive for me. Once I deal with something effectively there's nothing to 'store' in the Shadow Self. That changes my reality completely. Once those patterns are established though neuro-plasticity it becomes 'second nature; and the base is recreated. There are still habits but they work for me.