The DESIRE TO BE RIGHT...

Originally Posted by bbr

All very praise-worthy in Utopia, Racer. But here in our world it simply doesn't and cannot work that way. Think of the looting that always takes place in cities like New Orleans the moment after a disaster strikes. The TV networks show images of crowds of looters ransacking merchants' stores, and walking away with television sets and armfuls of shoe boxes.

Make no laws and own no interest, and the people will steal and ransack and kill. That's the simple reality. Laws are an absolute necessity in today's world. Society would crumble without them.

I've always felt that labeling a behavior "human nature" or something similar is a bit of a cop-out. You're right that people operate out of self-interest, but the real question is how we define "self-interest". Look, for example, at how we have treated our planet over the last 150 years or so. Poisoning our watersheds, depleting our soil, fouling our air, is any of this in our "best interest"? Of course not, but they are the result of actions and desires that people believe is in their best interest: having nice things, choosing convenience over harmony, hoarding against loss and to placate the belief that we must compete to survive.

The looting which occurred in the wake of Katrina didn't happen because it is "human nature" to rob, cheat, and harm, but because these people believed that the things they took would bring them happiness, happiness that they believed was normally out of their reach, but that the chaos in New Orleans placed within it, and with little chance of consequence. They looted because they thought it would make them happy. The desire for happiness (or at least the desire for the cessation of unhappiness) is the core motivation behind all human action. We just live in a society where, from a pathetically young age, we are told that the key to happiness is MORE; either to have more than you did before or to have more than the other guy.

To quote the Tao Te Ching again, "not to prize articles which are difficult to procure is the way to keep (people) from becoming thieves." Humans are not inherently thieves and ransackers and killers, we've just created a structure of ideals and an idea of happiness that makes people thieves and ransackers and killers. To say this is "human nature" is to toss the idea that we can change it out the window.

CS

CS: The looting which occurred in the wake of Katrina didn't happen because it is "human nature" to rob, cheat, and harm, but because these people believed that the things they took would bring them happiness, happiness that they believed was normally out of their reach, but that the chaos in New Orleans placed within it, and with little chance of consequence. They looted because they thought it would make them happy. The desire for happiness (or at least the desire for the cessation of unhappiness) is the core motivation behind all human action. We just live in a society where, from a pathetically young age, we are told that the key to happiness is MORE; either to have more than you did before or to have more than the other guy.

I agree with this.

E dging
G od
O ut

This is the root of all "I need to be right" instead of just Being.

Paul McCartney wrote it as "Let It Be"

When we let it be....

We begin to Realize inner freedom.

It is easy to live in inner freedom.....

It is like hell to get there!

Originally Posted by Racer X

E dging
G od
O ut

This is the root of all "I need to be right" instead of just Being.

Paul McCartney wrote it as "Let It Be"

When we let it be....

We begin to Realize inner freedom.

It is easy to live in inner freedom.....

It is like hell to get there!

It's only hell getting there because there is no "there" to get to. The start of all suffering is in the value judgement behind saying "there" is better than "here". Here and there are just labels we create. Nothing wrong with doing so, mind you, but life gets soooo much easier once we realize we create them.

CS

I like my Ego. You don't have to, but I like myself.

From 'New Age Love and Light Fallacies'

8. The slippery slope of conquering the ego turning into erasing all individuality Facing the ego and the shadow side of the human psyche/spirit is a biggie within many spiritual circles. Overcoming self importance and hypersensitivity, becoming mindful of emotional reactions, and acknowledging one’s inner predator – all aspects of the ego – is useful and in my opinion, a total must-do if one is trying to improve themselves. But in a slippery slope worst case scenario, conquering one’s strong but distorted and disconnected self identity/ego can evolve into trying to erase one’s individuality altogether, and meld into some sort of unified nothingness. Trying to “be nothing.” I don’t agree with that. Quieting the mind -that’s good. Having inner peace – that’s good. Acknowledging and understanding negative ego-based traits and their origins so one can conquer them – that’s really good. Erasing who you are and being nothing – not good. If we were meant to be nothing then we wouldn’t be here, as something. !! So needless to say, I don’t agree with this concept.



A related concept is also found within certain meditation practices, whose goal is to go beyond the idea of merely quieting the mind to what seems to be a state of actually suppressing/losing yourself, and shutting off your mental processes altogether. This seems to me to be risky territory, allowing other “stuff” to get in and gain access while you’re suppressed and vulnerable in such ways. But that’s just my opinion. I’m not going to flat out state that such meditative practices were probably introduced and encouraged by negative stuff for insidious purposes, buuuuut, let’s just say that the thought has crossed my mind…..


From 10 Reasons I'm Not a Lightworker


8. I like my ego.
Popular spirituality and common lightworker parlance takes a page from the book of Eastern philosophy (and distorts it heavily in the process) by declaring war on the ego. Ignore it, repress it, deny it, kill it, get rid of that ego!


Sorry, but I’ve never done away with part of myself, and don’t intend to start.


I have written in depth about exactly what the ego is and why it’s a valuable part of our experience, as this is an important subject. For now I will say only that my objective is not to do away with my ego — it’s to do away with all the influences my ego has absorbed that aren’t aligned with my purpose and what I want to experience. In doing so my ego has become my own creation.

[Chrysaetos]

Originally Posted by Kapitan_Prien

8. I like my ego.
Popular spirituality and common lightworker parlance takes a page from the book of Eastern philosophy (and distorts it heavily in the process) by declaring war on the ego. Ignore it, repress it, deny it, kill it, get rid of that ego!

It makes no sense because trying to get rid of ego and externalizing it from yourself, only creates more ''selves''. It may sound attractive to externalize all your vices and create your own inner demon, but all you are left with is facing it in the end. Why not completely drop the belief in ego altogether? Rather than trying to get rid of your ego, acknowledge it's a part of you (whatever it may be according to your own definition).

A professional football player can't say his weaknesses (say passing) is not a part of him. He can't start with nothing nor can he battle his weakness. The only thing he can do is acknowledge he may be lacking in something and try to improve it because it improves his performance.

Chrysaetos: Why not completely drop the belief in ego altogether?

Yep - I don't even know what the ego is really (too many different views/beliefs/opinions on it)...and don't care (because I have more important issues I'm dealing with). I just like posting that stuff from those sites because it is stuff I agree with and goes against the 'New Age Establishment'.

I'm so happy to be so far out in the outfield with all this so-called 'new agey/spiritual' stuff that I'm not even in the ballpark

[7luminaries]

Originally Posted by Kapitan_Prien

I like my Ego. You don't have to, but I like myself.

From 'New Age Love and Light Fallacies'

8. The slippery slope of conquering the ego turning into erasing all individuality Facing the ego and the shadow side of the human psyche/spirit is a biggie within many spiritual circles. Overcoming self importance and hypersensitivity, becoming mindful of emotional reactions, and acknowledging one’s inner predator – all aspects of the ego – is useful and in my opinion, a total must-do if one is trying to improve themselves. But in a slippery slope worst case scenario, conquering one’s strong but distorted and disconnected self identity/ego can evolve into trying to erase one’s individuality altogether, and meld into some sort of unified nothingness. Trying to “be nothing.” I don’t agree with that. Quieting the mind -that’s good. Having inner peace – that’s good. Acknowledging and understanding negative ego-based traits and their origins so one can conquer them – that’s really good. Erasing who you are and being nothing – not good. If we were meant to be nothing then we wouldn’t be here, as something. !! So needless to say, I don’t agree with this concept.



A related concept is also found within certain meditation practices, whose goal is to go beyond the idea of merely quieting the mind to what seems to be a state of actually suppressing/losing yourself, and shutting off your mental processes altogether. This seems to me to be risky territory, allowing other “stuff” to get in and gain access while you’re suppressed and vulnerable in such ways. But that’s just my opinion. I’m not going to flat out state that such meditative practices were probably introduced and encouraged by negative stuff for insidious purposes, buuuuut, let’s just say that the thought has crossed my mind…..


From 10 Reasons I'm Not a Lightworker


8. I like my ego.
Popular spirituality and common lightworker parlance takes a page from the book of Eastern philosophy (and distorts it heavily in the process) by declaring war on the ego. Ignore it, repress it, deny it, kill it, get rid of that ego!


Sorry, but I’ve never done away with part of myself, and don’t intend to start.


I have written in depth about exactly what the ego is and why it’s a valuable part of our experience, as this is an important subject. For now I will say only that my objective is not to do away with my ego — it’s to do away with all the influences my ego has absorbed that aren’t aligned with my purpose and what I want to experience. In doing so my ego has become my own creation.

Kapitan, I haven't read your blog on ego, but I generally agree with your points as I understand them here. And I do pranic healing (when I've got my stuff together and am focused)...

I will say I think a lot of healers think much the same as you. Healing the baggage and so forth...keeping the best and elevating that...but never by denying the individual "soul" (or whatever we want to call it) and its sacred house, the physical body. Both the physical and the metaphysical are sacred to the healers I know. It's all about balance and acceptance, as you say.

We are what we are, as far as the nature of our existence goes, and that's as it should be.

Cheers,
7L

Hey 7L - it's not my blog, but one I came across through the other site. Here's the links:

New Age Love and Light Fallacies

10 Reasons I am Not a Lightworker

There is also some other good ones in the bottom link - such as the New Age Doormat

Enjoy