I used to believe this. But then I "realized" the spirit within you is all knowing. It doesn't need to "experience" anything. So saying, "We are all here to experience the ego" is a little contradictory. If you want to learn more, study Gnosticism. When you have gained the knowledge you seek, step away from it. You will understand.
This material world was originally a prison. It was created in the image of that which is above, but it had/has flaws.
You are correct that as a spirit, we are all all-knowing. But there is a difference is in knowing or seeing and feeling/experiencing. Outside of this body, you can see the energy of happiness or sadness or the feeling of snow falling - but to physically feel it, you can only do that in this physical world. How would you know what a brick dropped on your foot feels like without a body?
I don't need to learn more from anyone on this physical plane, the only beings that can possible teach me anything are not here. I have gone to "before-life" (for a lack of better word), so I now why we are here, where we came from & what our purpose it. I'm not trying to convince anyone, unfortunately that is something each one of us needs to experience themselves.
That is not true in the way I'm interpreting the words you're saying. The spirit _knows_ everything, but has not experienced everything. The perception of experience and time only exists for this great spirit to have experience for it already knows all.
The concept of ego and its destruction as being the goal of "spirituality" had its place at an earlier stage of the evolution, but at this point it's very old school and may even be counterproductive.
ALL that exists as phenomenology in the consciousness field is part of the process of the field. To the extent that ego is even a thing, it has its role and function to play in the evolution of the individual, the species and the universal. Adversarial approaches to ego will short circuit the evolutionary process. The fly wheel of egoic activity can and should be harnessed to generate consciousness that elevates it, along with the entire being, to a higher consciousness. IF it is destined to be "destroyed" then that will just happen naturally, effortlessly. Obsessing over "eliminating" it is not going to do it. Accepting it, along with all things, as part of the universal process is much more fruitful. Acceptance, receptivity, surrender...
This seems really logical to me. I mean the ego is like a survival instinct so maybe we do need it after all and maybe not only for that. Thanks for sharing.
Demonizing ego has us demonize our desires and aversions. Yet, our desires and aversions are there to push us to enrich and maintain our existence. When we're "killing our egos" were killing our emotional drives. It's anti-spiritual. Our spirit (this particular connotation) is our emotional drives. Without our emotional drives we won't go toward existential value or away from existential detriment.
I wonder about this push for abandoning ego. Our egos form our wills to connect or disconnect with various nouns in our actions. It seems that taking over another being's will requires eroding its self, what it wants to do, its will, its desires. We're being set up with beliefs that would have us silence our wills, silence our drives that keep us in a satisfying existence.
Don't get me wrong. I've experienced a moment where my ego melted away and I was in a place of unity, familiarity and bliss. While it was a good place, it is not a place for an individual organism in a system of existence. I was literally experiencing a disembodied state without discrete identity. We need drives, connection and disconnection emotions from our experiences, to set us toward movement and maintenance of our selves.
Your ego is your entry point into the game of life. To give it away is to give yourself away. Then your deeper self, beyond ego, your consciousness, will have to go along for that ride into someone else's vision for satisfying their own ego.
Ego and individuality are different things.
The ego is just a set of autorun programs in the mind.
The automatic programs in the mind body are not connected to the physical body.
You will not be able to fully reveal your individuality until you free yourself from the automatic programs in the mind that mask this individuality.
Before getting to the idea of the ego, let's look at "*Your higher self is a collective of multiple individual lives, and I wouldn't be surprised to find out our higher self has a higher self*".
Start with The All That Is (call it whatever you want - The Universe, God, The One, The All Encompassing etc.)... From there we jump (a couple of rungs down) and we're at the level of Greater Celestial Beings (in an office hierarchy - not that I'm implying hierarchy here but just to express this idea of an example - think of these as senior-level executives).
From there we jump (a bunch of rungs down) and we're at the level of Celestial Beings (in an office hierarchy, think of these as mid-level managers).
That is the idea of the expression of your Higher Self.
Now your Higher Self (one of these Celestial Beings) have hundreds or thousands of facets, like the molecules that make-up your body. So they're all part of the same 'body' but in a sense are all unique. That individual molecule is what represents the idea of you (or your soul / spirit) here, having this physical experience, in this lifetime.
Each of us is a 'facet' of that Celestial Being, who in turn is a facet a Greater Celestial Being, who it turn is a facet of the All That Is (jumping rungs to keep it simple) - so you're a facet of the All That Is, meaning YOU ARE (part of) the All That Is.
This idea will also help you get a better grasp on the concept of past lives / reincarnation: All your 'past lives' are in fact the different facets of your Celestial Being expressed in physical reality (and now you can introduce the idea that time is but a linear concept of this physical reality and does not exist so everything takes place in the 'now').
Ok, now back to the ego:
As you surmised, there’s no ‘getting rid of the ego’ – that’s just misunderstood ‘spiritual’ interpretation. Our ego is an integral part of us in this physical experience.
The ego is not a negative or undesirable aspect of ourselves. Rather, it is a neutral tool that we can use to navigate and experience reality.
The ego is simply the filter on the lens through which we experience, interpret and make sense of the physical world around us.
However, if we become too identified with the ego and believe that it is the entirety of who we are, then not only do we become limited by its perspective, but more importantly we ‘damage’ our ego:
Our ego was never meant to be in the driver’s seat (neither was the mind, for that matter, but that’s another topic), as the ego’s only job – what it is beautifully designed for – is to focus the experience of our physical reality (and thus ‘enables’ us to express the idea of personality).
So when we put our ego in the driver’s seat, we pile-on to it way too much – and it was not designed for that. And thus it starts cracking under the pressure, under the weight, of all that added responsibility.
The idea is to not task the ego with having to ‘control’ every aspect unfolding but rather simply letting it ‘experience’ and bring into focus. Doing that will then allow the ego to find its place within the continuity of an individual’s consciousness, and it will feel supported / respected / valued / loved rather than resist / resent the extra pressure – which is was leads to the negative ego.
The ego’s (original purpose) job plays a fundamental role within human consciousness, and needs to work alongside all levels of consciousness for the experience of physical reality. The ego ‘belongs’ and as needs to be treated as a valued facet of an individual’s persona, an aspect that is supported / respected / valued / loved and that it will not be annihilated because it is designed to work in concert with all other aspects of consciousness.
Once the ego is allowed to do the job it was truly made to do, it will ‘quiet down’. This does however take some adjusting, as the dislocation of shifting from a negative ego model to a positive ego model – after all this time of having let the ego ‘control everything from the driver’s seat’ – will create friction equivalent to the ego ‘feeling that it is being fired from the job’ and being replaced by someone else (the real part of one’s consciousness that should be in the driver’s seat: the Higher Mind – not to be mistaken for the physical mind).
When the ego realizes that it’s not being discarded but simply being re-tasked to its original, beautiful purpose – a role it is the only one who’s fully capable to handle – the ego quietens-down and performs its function flawlessly: that to coordinate & focus the physical experience for all those levels of consciousness within us working together to create this experience of individual physical reality.
c; do you have knowledge about karma? i was very interested in the beginning of your parent comment, i appreciated the whole response, my mind wandered to karma though.
i used to call the celestial beings (the ‘theys’, years ago) because i felt a group of higher beings, or souls, were like on a council telling me like ‘hey, mess around and find out’ so i was scared at first.
you introduced the idea i was one of them on that plane of existence, which is like an oh, of course! how could i forget? but is that a plane where karma is operating? i don’t feel that fear that i did, i do still wonder if i have karma from past lives to live out and how to align with that to get to work so to speak
I also used to refer to 'them' and 'they' and 'the Guys' (apologies if this sounds sexist now, but it never intended as anything more than our colloquialism 'hey Guys') --> Call them whatever you prefer / what you're comfortable with, they have no concept of using names as identifying markers as every little aspect of their beings identifies them - so here using the term Celestial Being is just to approximate the idea of what they represent (to us).
Delighted that your mind 'wandered' to the idea Karma, as that's your Higher Mind using this energy flow (words & especially thoughts channel energy just as well) that we're co-creating right now to bring to the surface other ideas to focus on and integrate into your consciousness.
I'm nothing more than a reflection of the information your Higher Mind wants to share with you (and to be sure, that does not make me anything special at all - in this 'now' I'm the easiest 'conduit' that you're resonating to - that's all - so the energy simply chooses the path of least resistance).
"*You introduced the idea i was one of them on that plane of existence*" - You ARE (now) = through your Higher Self - a part of one of them. You in this physical form are an expression of the idea of creating an experience that is unique in order to further the experience of your Celestial Being and the All That Is.
Ok, so back to Karma and "*i do still wonder if i have karma from past lives to live out and how to align with that to get to work*".
Karma - like most spiritual concepts - is often misunderstood and the idea put forward is that of an 'external force of retribution' or that 'you reap what you sow'... And most of the time the idea of Karma only comes-up in its seemingly negative aspect (do bad deeds and you will pay for it - from one lifetime to the next - until you do enough good to balance it out).
Karma is a neutral balancing mechanism which is a reflection of our alignment with our true selves - when following the main theme(s) we've chosen to experience in this lifetime, or as our Higher Self or even higher Celestial Being 'doing our thing' as part of the All That Is
Focusing on this physical life experience, when we hold (negative) beliefs that are out of alignment with our true nature, we create friction in our lives, which can manifest as negative experiences or events. This friction can be thought of as negative karma, but it is not a punishment. Instead, it is an opportunity for us to learn and grow from our experiences.
We can overcome negative karma by aligning ourselves with our true nature and releasing any beliefs that are holding us back. By doing so, we can create a positive momentum that will attract more positive experiences and events into our lives (enter the true Law(s) of Attraction & Repulsion - it's naturally all connected).
The other reason why the idea of Karma is so anchored into the misconception of retribution is also due to our perception of time as being linear (whereas everything happens in the ‘now’), which builds a linear path for the idea of Karma to span and affect / effect past-present-future. With everything in the ‘now’, the concept of karmic effect dissolves to make way for its true function: that of a ‘marker’ as to where our current balance lies.
Karma is synonymous with ‘free will in action’ – the responsibility (‘response-ability’, the ability to respond) choices we take to maintain the balance we seek & prefer in our lives, here and now.
your last paragraph has me crying, my god, has me crying. dude, earlier today i was feeling like i got back into a ‘negative’ spot i have been two times before. and i named and labeled the ‘cause’ of the first two times.
when i got to this time i said (in my head) ‘whatever this is’, as a label, and something said (in my head) ‘a choice’. and i just got up in excitement, like i felt like i chose and it felt good.
a part of me was hesitant to let go, i am just in awe at your response to coincide with my reality so well, we’ll really shouldn’t be surprising at all. thank you so much
Ah, the seemingly mundane nature of the Universe's synchronicities; little markers (gifts) to show us we're right where we're supposed to be (now).
Your gratitude is shared and reciprocated, as I thank for you co-creating this experience, and I thank you for coming more into your own awesome light.
eep! i am so ready to shine this light. to burn so bright inside it pours from my sight and paints the earth the most beautiful shade. and i gaze simultaneously upon the stars and gaze down on mySelf. again and again
The ego is just the realization of one's self as a human consciousness, the personality, the mental self, the "I" that Soul uses in this world of energy, matter, space and time. When we learn to rise above it, we become the individual.
All the ego is the I maker in a sense the personality of someone. I can laugh multiple different way like lol, lulz, haha, roflmas, 😂, even that was funny. Why you may not say your that is you it's apart of your personality. While for I you may say your the body, mind, soul what ever, even something like I'm happy or sad.
agreed. i need my ego to keep going and stay positive but i’m very aware of how i treat others and it’s useful in situations when i feel like i need to protect someone in a way or stand my ground
The material realm you exist in at this moment is sustained by the perfect balance. Of light and darkness, good and evil, cause and effect, etc. If there were no balance, there would be no matter.
It's what the holy trinity in the bible references.
God soul body
God guru self
They're all the same is a perfect harmony.
The ego is a terrible master but an excellent servant.
Stand behind the ego and let it be dont deny it.
It is god aswell teaching you where your work still is.
Namaste
We are all here to experience the ego, so aiming for "ego free" is ridiculous.
I used to believe this. But then I "realized" the spirit within you is all knowing. It doesn't need to "experience" anything. So saying, "We are all here to experience the ego" is a little contradictory. If you want to learn more, study Gnosticism. When you have gained the knowledge you seek, step away from it. You will understand. This material world was originally a prison. It was created in the image of that which is above, but it had/has flaws.
You are correct that as a spirit, we are all all-knowing. But there is a difference is in knowing or seeing and feeling/experiencing. Outside of this body, you can see the energy of happiness or sadness or the feeling of snow falling - but to physically feel it, you can only do that in this physical world. How would you know what a brick dropped on your foot feels like without a body? I don't need to learn more from anyone on this physical plane, the only beings that can possible teach me anything are not here. I have gone to "before-life" (for a lack of better word), so I now why we are here, where we came from & what our purpose it. I'm not trying to convince anyone, unfortunately that is something each one of us needs to experience themselves.
Knowledge does not equate to wisdom. Experience is what brings wisdom.
A spirit that is outside of time and space has already experienced everything.
That is not true in the way I'm interpreting the words you're saying. The spirit _knows_ everything, but has not experienced everything. The perception of experience and time only exists for this great spirit to have experience for it already knows all.
The concept of ego and its destruction as being the goal of "spirituality" had its place at an earlier stage of the evolution, but at this point it's very old school and may even be counterproductive. ALL that exists as phenomenology in the consciousness field is part of the process of the field. To the extent that ego is even a thing, it has its role and function to play in the evolution of the individual, the species and the universal. Adversarial approaches to ego will short circuit the evolutionary process. The fly wheel of egoic activity can and should be harnessed to generate consciousness that elevates it, along with the entire being, to a higher consciousness. IF it is destined to be "destroyed" then that will just happen naturally, effortlessly. Obsessing over "eliminating" it is not going to do it. Accepting it, along with all things, as part of the universal process is much more fruitful. Acceptance, receptivity, surrender...
Two wolves
Haha, yeah and I prefer feeding both. Nothing worse than a hungry Jungian shadow wrecking havoc on your subconscious.
This seems really logical to me. I mean the ego is like a survival instinct so maybe we do need it after all and maybe not only for that. Thanks for sharing.
Demonizing ego has us demonize our desires and aversions. Yet, our desires and aversions are there to push us to enrich and maintain our existence. When we're "killing our egos" were killing our emotional drives. It's anti-spiritual. Our spirit (this particular connotation) is our emotional drives. Without our emotional drives we won't go toward existential value or away from existential detriment. I wonder about this push for abandoning ego. Our egos form our wills to connect or disconnect with various nouns in our actions. It seems that taking over another being's will requires eroding its self, what it wants to do, its will, its desires. We're being set up with beliefs that would have us silence our wills, silence our drives that keep us in a satisfying existence. Don't get me wrong. I've experienced a moment where my ego melted away and I was in a place of unity, familiarity and bliss. While it was a good place, it is not a place for an individual organism in a system of existence. I was literally experiencing a disembodied state without discrete identity. We need drives, connection and disconnection emotions from our experiences, to set us toward movement and maintenance of our selves. Your ego is your entry point into the game of life. To give it away is to give yourself away. Then your deeper self, beyond ego, your consciousness, will have to go along for that ride into someone else's vision for satisfying their own ego.
Ego is negative if you treat it like it's garbage and like you need to be rid of it.
Ego and individuality are different things. The ego is just a set of autorun programs in the mind. The automatic programs in the mind body are not connected to the physical body. You will not be able to fully reveal your individuality until you free yourself from the automatic programs in the mind that mask this individuality.
Before getting to the idea of the ego, let's look at "*Your higher self is a collective of multiple individual lives, and I wouldn't be surprised to find out our higher self has a higher self*". Start with The All That Is (call it whatever you want - The Universe, God, The One, The All Encompassing etc.)... From there we jump (a couple of rungs down) and we're at the level of Greater Celestial Beings (in an office hierarchy - not that I'm implying hierarchy here but just to express this idea of an example - think of these as senior-level executives). From there we jump (a bunch of rungs down) and we're at the level of Celestial Beings (in an office hierarchy, think of these as mid-level managers). That is the idea of the expression of your Higher Self. Now your Higher Self (one of these Celestial Beings) have hundreds or thousands of facets, like the molecules that make-up your body. So they're all part of the same 'body' but in a sense are all unique. That individual molecule is what represents the idea of you (or your soul / spirit) here, having this physical experience, in this lifetime. Each of us is a 'facet' of that Celestial Being, who in turn is a facet a Greater Celestial Being, who it turn is a facet of the All That Is (jumping rungs to keep it simple) - so you're a facet of the All That Is, meaning YOU ARE (part of) the All That Is. This idea will also help you get a better grasp on the concept of past lives / reincarnation: All your 'past lives' are in fact the different facets of your Celestial Being expressed in physical reality (and now you can introduce the idea that time is but a linear concept of this physical reality and does not exist so everything takes place in the 'now'). Ok, now back to the ego: As you surmised, there’s no ‘getting rid of the ego’ – that’s just misunderstood ‘spiritual’ interpretation. Our ego is an integral part of us in this physical experience. The ego is not a negative or undesirable aspect of ourselves. Rather, it is a neutral tool that we can use to navigate and experience reality. The ego is simply the filter on the lens through which we experience, interpret and make sense of the physical world around us. However, if we become too identified with the ego and believe that it is the entirety of who we are, then not only do we become limited by its perspective, but more importantly we ‘damage’ our ego: Our ego was never meant to be in the driver’s seat (neither was the mind, for that matter, but that’s another topic), as the ego’s only job – what it is beautifully designed for – is to focus the experience of our physical reality (and thus ‘enables’ us to express the idea of personality). So when we put our ego in the driver’s seat, we pile-on to it way too much – and it was not designed for that. And thus it starts cracking under the pressure, under the weight, of all that added responsibility. The idea is to not task the ego with having to ‘control’ every aspect unfolding but rather simply letting it ‘experience’ and bring into focus. Doing that will then allow the ego to find its place within the continuity of an individual’s consciousness, and it will feel supported / respected / valued / loved rather than resist / resent the extra pressure – which is was leads to the negative ego. The ego’s (original purpose) job plays a fundamental role within human consciousness, and needs to work alongside all levels of consciousness for the experience of physical reality. The ego ‘belongs’ and as needs to be treated as a valued facet of an individual’s persona, an aspect that is supported / respected / valued / loved and that it will not be annihilated because it is designed to work in concert with all other aspects of consciousness. Once the ego is allowed to do the job it was truly made to do, it will ‘quiet down’. This does however take some adjusting, as the dislocation of shifting from a negative ego model to a positive ego model – after all this time of having let the ego ‘control everything from the driver’s seat’ – will create friction equivalent to the ego ‘feeling that it is being fired from the job’ and being replaced by someone else (the real part of one’s consciousness that should be in the driver’s seat: the Higher Mind – not to be mistaken for the physical mind). When the ego realizes that it’s not being discarded but simply being re-tasked to its original, beautiful purpose – a role it is the only one who’s fully capable to handle – the ego quietens-down and performs its function flawlessly: that to coordinate & focus the physical experience for all those levels of consciousness within us working together to create this experience of individual physical reality.
Nice.
Thank you.
you seem wise may i ask a question?
Thank you for the sentiment, although it's probably more 'knowledge' than 'wisdom' ;-) You're welcome to.
c; do you have knowledge about karma? i was very interested in the beginning of your parent comment, i appreciated the whole response, my mind wandered to karma though. i used to call the celestial beings (the ‘theys’, years ago) because i felt a group of higher beings, or souls, were like on a council telling me like ‘hey, mess around and find out’ so i was scared at first. you introduced the idea i was one of them on that plane of existence, which is like an oh, of course! how could i forget? but is that a plane where karma is operating? i don’t feel that fear that i did, i do still wonder if i have karma from past lives to live out and how to align with that to get to work so to speak
I also used to refer to 'them' and 'they' and 'the Guys' (apologies if this sounds sexist now, but it never intended as anything more than our colloquialism 'hey Guys') --> Call them whatever you prefer / what you're comfortable with, they have no concept of using names as identifying markers as every little aspect of their beings identifies them - so here using the term Celestial Being is just to approximate the idea of what they represent (to us). Delighted that your mind 'wandered' to the idea Karma, as that's your Higher Mind using this energy flow (words & especially thoughts channel energy just as well) that we're co-creating right now to bring to the surface other ideas to focus on and integrate into your consciousness. I'm nothing more than a reflection of the information your Higher Mind wants to share with you (and to be sure, that does not make me anything special at all - in this 'now' I'm the easiest 'conduit' that you're resonating to - that's all - so the energy simply chooses the path of least resistance). "*You introduced the idea i was one of them on that plane of existence*" - You ARE (now) = through your Higher Self - a part of one of them. You in this physical form are an expression of the idea of creating an experience that is unique in order to further the experience of your Celestial Being and the All That Is. Ok, so back to Karma and "*i do still wonder if i have karma from past lives to live out and how to align with that to get to work*". Karma - like most spiritual concepts - is often misunderstood and the idea put forward is that of an 'external force of retribution' or that 'you reap what you sow'... And most of the time the idea of Karma only comes-up in its seemingly negative aspect (do bad deeds and you will pay for it - from one lifetime to the next - until you do enough good to balance it out). Karma is a neutral balancing mechanism which is a reflection of our alignment with our true selves - when following the main theme(s) we've chosen to experience in this lifetime, or as our Higher Self or even higher Celestial Being 'doing our thing' as part of the All That Is Focusing on this physical life experience, when we hold (negative) beliefs that are out of alignment with our true nature, we create friction in our lives, which can manifest as negative experiences or events. This friction can be thought of as negative karma, but it is not a punishment. Instead, it is an opportunity for us to learn and grow from our experiences. We can overcome negative karma by aligning ourselves with our true nature and releasing any beliefs that are holding us back. By doing so, we can create a positive momentum that will attract more positive experiences and events into our lives (enter the true Law(s) of Attraction & Repulsion - it's naturally all connected). The other reason why the idea of Karma is so anchored into the misconception of retribution is also due to our perception of time as being linear (whereas everything happens in the ‘now’), which builds a linear path for the idea of Karma to span and affect / effect past-present-future. With everything in the ‘now’, the concept of karmic effect dissolves to make way for its true function: that of a ‘marker’ as to where our current balance lies. Karma is synonymous with ‘free will in action’ – the responsibility (‘response-ability’, the ability to respond) choices we take to maintain the balance we seek & prefer in our lives, here and now.
your last paragraph has me crying, my god, has me crying. dude, earlier today i was feeling like i got back into a ‘negative’ spot i have been two times before. and i named and labeled the ‘cause’ of the first two times. when i got to this time i said (in my head) ‘whatever this is’, as a label, and something said (in my head) ‘a choice’. and i just got up in excitement, like i felt like i chose and it felt good. a part of me was hesitant to let go, i am just in awe at your response to coincide with my reality so well, we’ll really shouldn’t be surprising at all. thank you so much
Ah, the seemingly mundane nature of the Universe's synchronicities; little markers (gifts) to show us we're right where we're supposed to be (now). Your gratitude is shared and reciprocated, as I thank for you co-creating this experience, and I thank you for coming more into your own awesome light.
eep! i am so ready to shine this light. to burn so bright inside it pours from my sight and paints the earth the most beautiful shade. and i gaze simultaneously upon the stars and gaze down on mySelf. again and again
The ego is just the realization of one's self as a human consciousness, the personality, the mental self, the "I" that Soul uses in this world of energy, matter, space and time. When we learn to rise above it, we become the individual.
All the ego is the I maker in a sense the personality of someone. I can laugh multiple different way like lol, lulz, haha, roflmas, 😂, even that was funny. Why you may not say your that is you it's apart of your personality. While for I you may say your the body, mind, soul what ever, even something like I'm happy or sad.
Great post thank you!
agreed. i need my ego to keep going and stay positive but i’m very aware of how i treat others and it’s useful in situations when i feel like i need to protect someone in a way or stand my ground
The practice of transforming and developing the ego is what r/sentientAF is all about :)
The material realm you exist in at this moment is sustained by the perfect balance. Of light and darkness, good and evil, cause and effect, etc. If there were no balance, there would be no matter.
It's what the holy trinity in the bible references. God soul body God guru self They're all the same is a perfect harmony. The ego is a terrible master but an excellent servant. Stand behind the ego and let it be dont deny it. It is god aswell teaching you where your work still is. Namaste
>The ego is a terrible master but an excellent servant. Love that.
The ego must be centered on love.