Feeding your demons

[skydog]

in fact ignore me and buy the books lol

[suninmyeyes]

thanks for the link,

 

maybe its just me, but imo as long as one is alive one will need an "ego" to function

 

im yet to meet a person with no ego and i dont think it will ever happen

 

just my opinion though

i dont believe in 100% egoless human either and hardly ever use the word myself .

However I find Machig Labrdon really inspiring , and wonder if the word ego is often a too rigid translation for many teachings .

[Nungali]

only uploaded for a little bit of extra information

 

just think of a demon as an unconscious thought form.

 

but not ... just ...

 

" The standard response to all this is to argue either that it is all in us, in the form of persistent patterns of hallucination or madness; or the projection of archetypal patterns onto reality. Alternatively, the phenomena are taken seriously as being evidence of something really out there in the physical world, as aliens visiting the Earth, or prehistoric creatures living in deep cold lakes etc. Harpur pursues a different, and more challenging line. What is at stake, he suggests, is the nature of reality itself.

'With Jung, Harpur argues that these are phenomena of the psyche, but that psyche is of the world, not just of us as individuals. Indeed, our much cherished individual selves and psyches may be no more than embodiments of that world-soul (rediscovered in our age as the goddess Gaia). The phenomena in which the book rejoices may be appearances to us of its ancient inhabitants. They appear in different forms to match changing cultural expectations and concerns. An appearance of the Goddess becomes an appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary, becomes a woman with golden hair emerging from her spacecraft. The mistake, he suggests, is to deny and repress these manifestations, since the repressed returns, pathologically and dangerously, if separated from a context of meaning and belief. Harpur suggests that a function of these daimonic forces may now be to undermine a deadening and narrow scientific orthodoxy and world-view - the 'single vision' which Blake so deplored. This sounds very radical but Harpur is the first to point out that it is not very new. By drawing on a philosophical tradition that flows down the centuries from the Neoplatonists, through the Romantics, and crucially in Bake, Yeats and Jung, he shows that there is an ancient history of understanding of this daimonic, Otherworld reality. Indeed, he goes back further still by embracing the folklore and tales of the Otherworld from across the Western tradition, and acknowledges that every culture, except perhaps our own, has seen its world as interpenetrated with another, shadowy, yet powerful reality, full of wonder, beauty and terror. The key to being alert to it lies in what Blake called the Imagination, and in not allowing the rational mind to shut out what it cannot readily comprehend or control."

 

http://www.harpur.org/PJCHdaimonicreality.htm

[Nungali]

i dont believe in 100% egoless human either and hardly ever use the word myself .

However I find Machig Labrdon really inspiring , and wonder if the word ego is often a too rigid translation for many teachings .

 

Right on!

 

" The reality principle that operates the ego is a regulating mechanism that enables the individual to delay gratifying immediate needs and function effectively in the real world. "

 

" Originally, Freud used the word ego to mean a sense of self, but later revised it to mean a set of psychic functions such as judgment, tolerance, reality testing, control, planning, defense, synthesis of information, intellectual functioning, and memory."

 

Also this; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_(religion)

 

" Human existence includes an element distinct from animate life, the ego. This awakens to self-awareness through its experience of the physical body; Steiner points to the lack of a true biography, more particularly of autobiography in animal existence as an indication that the ego is particular to humans and each human has its own distinct 'concept'. The capacity for self-direction and full responsibility are connected to the ego, which anthroposophical researchers describe as only becoming independent around twenty-one years after conception." - Anthroposophy.

 

" You have an “ego” – the limited extent to which your individuality has crystalized into conscious awareness. Your ego undergoes a constant process of growth, decay, death, and regeneration. The aim of Hermetic Shamanism is to transmute and spiritualize the ego and not, like in some eastern traditions, to transcend it. The ego, according to the hermetic tradition, is a divine gift unique to humanity. It is our task to use our free will to spiritualize our ego. The art and science of Alchemy teaches us how how to do this. When we do this, our ego becomes an earthly manifestation of our Higher Self; a unique crystallization of our true Spirit." - Hermetic Shamanism

 

" Oooh dude ! You are sooo coming from your ego. " - non rent paying hippy when asked to pay up.

[Rara]

 

Right on!

 

" The reality principle that operates the ego is a regulating mechanism that enables the individual to delay gratifying immediate needs and function effectively in the real world. "

 

" Originally, Freud used the word ego to mean a sense of self, but later revised it to mean a set of psychic functions such as judgment, tolerance, reality testing, control, planning, defense, synthesis of information, intellectual functioning, and memory."

 

Also this; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_(religion)

 

" Human existence includes an element distinct from animate life, the ego. This awakens to self-awareness through its experience of the physical body; Steiner points to the lack of a true biography, more particularly of autobiography in animal existence as an indication that the ego is particular to humans and each human has its own distinct 'concept'. The capacity for self-direction and full responsibility are connected to the ego, which anthroposophical researchers describe as only becoming independent around twenty-one years after conception." - Anthroposophy.

 

" You have an ego the limited extent to which your individuality has crystalized into conscious awareness. Your ego undergoes a constant process of growth, decay, death, and regeneration. The aim of Hermetic Shamanism is to transmute and spiritualize the ego and not, like in some eastern traditions, to transcend it. The ego, according to the hermetic tradition, is a divine gift unique to humanity. It is our task to use our free will to spiritualize our ego. The art and science of Alchemy teaches us how how to do this. When we do this, our ego becomes an earthly manifestation of our Higher Self; a unique crystallization of our true Spirit." - Hermetic Shamanism

 

" Oooh dude ! You are sooo coming from your ego. " - non rent paying hippy when asked to pay up.

Very cool. That's given me a perspecive that I was seeking months ago. Thanks!

[Rara]

Well personally i dont go around chasing demons to kill or anything, in fact it is very rare like 2 times im not sure if there was some entity near me, but its just a generally good method for negative thought form..

 

i think of it more like in ones heart orr in the nergy field, i never worry about it, just stay reasonably positive and decent energy which comes naturally

 

im not an expert "demon hunter" or anything, but i do know some people choose to work with demons in this way rather than killing but killing can be good i guess..generally id stay away from the subject of removing entities or have to issue a notice to contact someone else.

 

but in the case of lack of money or some degree of energy and intuition, why not do it for free.

For the record, I didn't go out demon hunting. I was being relentlessly attacked and in a small percentage of situations, I chose to fight back. Self defense bro

[C T]

Machig Labdron was pointing to egocentricity as the root cause of 'demonic' interferences, and not the neutral, usually healthy function of intelligent reasoning and logical thinking (which some confuse to be 'ego'). When buddhist teachers mention ego such a usage generally refers to one who has been snowed under by self-gratifying habits, which, according to karmic functioning, will lead to unsatisfactory outcomes.

 

Shantideva said, "The total amount of happiness that exists in the world has come about from the actions of making others happy. The total amount of misery that exists in the world has come about from the desire of wanting only to make oneself happy."

 

The most trusted antidote to pacifying negative entities is to develop, maintain and share bodhicitta.

 

Shantideva encouraged in this way:

 

Those who wish to crush the many sorrows of existence,
Who wish to quell the pain of living beings,
Who wish to have experience of a myriad joys
Should never turn away from bodhichitta.

 

Should bodhichitta come to birth
In those who suffer, chained in prisons of samsara,
In that instant they are called the children of the Blissful One,
Revered by all the world, by gods and humankind.

For like the supreme substance of the alchemists,
It takes our impure flesh and makes of it
The body of a Buddha, jewel beyond all price.
Such is bodhicitta. Let us grasp it firmly!

[C T]

As a follow-up to Mr. Nungali's post about Eastern paths' focus on transcending the ego: This is a perception lacking in depth.

 

The Eastern concept of ego has to do with habits. Habits are by nature essenceless, they are not our birthright. Habits are accruements, like material stuff that people collect and treasure. Nothing wrong with having material stuff. What is to be avoided is the tendency that drives people to exaggerate the value of possessions, material or otherwise. Hence, the spiritual attitude of the East is one where the encouragement is given to see things exactly for their value, and if this is applied, there is no need to transcend anything. However, as most of us tend to move either in the direction of over- or under-valuing something, such a trait often needs to be refined if one wishes to move towards awakening.

 

Perhaps its the astute adjustments which are needed to be made towards awakening (and this applies to all spiritual work, East or West) that some like to label 'transcendence'. This is similar to your usage of the phrase, "The ego becomes an earthly manifestation of the Higher Self; a unique crystallization of True Spirit." The only difference i see is that this phrase appears to have been peppered with more sex appeal, thats all.

 

Higher Self and True Spirit are terms generally avoided in Buddhist speak due to dualistic implications.

[3bob]

humans under demonic influence may be reached by human/spiritual means, but demons themselves are not human and are not to be imagined to have human like qualities or conscience... and to do so is dangerous foolishness. What they do respond to (as in backing off) is the force of will under the power and light of truth which they can not face, corrupt or feed off of.

Edited March 16, 2014 by 3bob

[SonOfTheGods]

humans under demonic influence may be reached by human/spiritual means, but demons themselves are not human and are not to be imagined to have human like qualities or conscience... and to do so is dangerous foolishness. What they do respond to (as in backing off) is the force of will under the power and light of truth which they can not face, corrupt or feed off of.

I can tell you never did magick

[skydog]

..

Edited March 17, 2014 by skydog

[idiot_stimpy]

Be kind to the demons in your life.

 

They're suffering too.

[silent thunder]

cherished and straw dogs

all will return to the source

the action of tao

[Nungali]

As a follow-up to Mr. Nungali's post about Eastern paths' focus on transcending the ego: This is a perception lacking in depth.

 

Eh ? I was quoting 'Hermetic Shamanism' ... whatever that is ... also my post wasnt about 'what the Hippy said', nor do I agree with the Steiner ites . My post was about how there are different ideas out there about what ego is and how some define it, it wasn't "about Eastern paths' focus on transcending the ego" .

 

It was offered like my other suggestions to seek a wide and eclectic view on what Demon ... or even soul means, in a process of formulating your own beliefs. Now you have contributed as well with a deeper understanding ( from a tradition instead of an 'Hermetic Shaman' commenting on anothers path. So I see it all as valid to add to the pool to accept into one's 'map' or reject what one sees as BS.

 

Even a hard line fundamentalist in an organised religion gives their dogma specific application and understanding in relation to their own self.

 

So, yes, some of those ideas about 'non-eastern' things are lacking in depth also. I am more attracted to Harpur's outlook ... but I dont see that as lacking in depth at all.