dragonfire Posted January 9, 2009 I've come to a cross road in my journey. I know what the ego is and I think its afraid. Its fighting back with so many bad thoughts, its amazing? How many have gone through this phase? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
seadog Posted January 9, 2009 I've come to a cross road in my journey. I know what the ego is and I think its afraid. Its fighting back with so many bad thoughts, its amazing? How many have gone through this phase? Regardless of what we do or don't do, the sky remains blue behind the clouds. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TTT Posted January 9, 2009 So what is the ego? Is it nothingness, just plain consiousness or something else? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aetherous Posted January 9, 2009 In meditation terms, the ego is an assumption. An imagined coordinator and controller of the mind. It doesn't exist as anything real...this is what Buddhists mean when they say there's no self. In an enlightened state, your perception shifts so that you're not assuming you're a self, and there's pure experience of the present moment. People also use ego to mean someone is being very full of themselves. Like if you think you're awesome, you have a huge ego. If you act like you're the least important person in the world, you're humble and have very little ego. But someone who is humble isn't necessarily enlightened, and someone who is enlightened may not act so humble...the two meanings are very different. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dwai Posted January 10, 2009 I've come to a cross road in my journey. I know what the ego is and I think its afraid. Its fighting back with so many bad thoughts, its amazing? How many have gone through this phase? Dont let it dissuade you from your practice. It is a sly and sneaky operator..but if you stay detached and not give it importance, it will fade away into the background. When the chatter starts, you don't try to force yourself...instead simply don't latch on to the thoughts. If you wander, don't judge yourself...simply accept that you wandered and get back to doing what you were doing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Birch Posted January 10, 2009 I've come to a cross road in my journey. I know what the ego is and I think its afraid. Its fighting back with so many bad thoughts, its amazing? How many have gone through this phase? I'm in it a lot these days. It helped when I hit the neuroscience bookshelf as well as older sources which I found too 'mystical' and heavy on ambiguous and symbolic language to my ears. Agree that not taking it seriously is the way to go. Easier to say than to do! Also, my call would be to go easy on the poor thing, persist gently. It's there for a (up to now) legitimate reason and to shift to a different way of seeing it seems smoother as an exit strategy. A perspective shift is also easier to explain to it than 'death' which really made/makes it harder for me than I think it should be. My take on this difficulty is that it's cultural for me to perceive death in a negative light and to fear it. But having spoken to folks who are now most likely the other side of that hurdle, it does work out ok. I'd add for myself that those grounding exercises help a great deal. Take it easy, Kate Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
