Ego Purification vs. Ego Transcendence

Category Best of Ariel Bravy, Ego, Enlightenment, Love, Religion

There’s a very important difference I’d like to talk about because without being aware of this, it may seem like two different paths and ideologies can be in conflict with each other whereas they’re simply choosing to ultimately achieve the same thing, fulfillment of the soul and a place of well-being, but via different methods and teachings.

The Saint is a man who disciplines his ego. The Sage is a man who rids himself of his ego.

-Fingers Pointing Toward the Moon by Wei Wu Wei

Historical Background

When the Buddha came to the earth and began teaching his Dharma 2500 years ago, he basically began teaching a pathway to enlightenment. His eight-fold path leads to the end of human suffering and self-awakening.

Enlightenment is essentially a complete disidentification with the ego, our idea of a separate self. As one searches for Truth and begins to look within, they will often find that there really is no separate self in the first place, only the idea of one which they can then pretend to be real and thus who I am. Enlightenment is about letting go of identification with the false self, with that which you are not.

For those of you familiar with David Hawkins’ map of consciousness, spiritual awakening corresponds with consciousness level 600, the initial level of enlightenment.

Now practically speaking, total spiritual awakening can be a pretty challenging task for people, especially for people back thousands of years ago who were far less spiritually evolved than people today. You and I have a bit of a head start compared to people in those days since many of us are open to and have been exposed to higher level teachings our whole lives.

Yes you can become enlightened this very instant, but it generally takes a lot of effort to get to that level of surrender.

When Jesus came down, 500 years after Buddha, he taught people to strive for a different goal which is easier for the masses to reach: Unconditional Love.

We can’t really say to ourselves, “Let’s be enlightened now” and have it happen just like that, but we can choose to be unconditionally loving in the moment.

Jesus taught about loving your neighbor as yourself, being a loving person, and so on. His teachings basically guide people to being the best “me” that they can be. He encourages people to become the highest and most loving and compassionate separate self possible, even though he does mention how we are all Gods and ultimately One.

For those of you familiar with Hawkins’ scale of consciousness, Unconditional Love calibrates at consciousness level 540, the highest level attainable before enlightenment at 600. Again, if you don’t know what the numbers mean, no worries. What’s important to take away is the idea that Unconditional Love is the highest state that an individual can attain.

Both paths, unconditional love and enlightenment, are absolutely amazing and deal support the fulfillment of the soul. It’s not about gaining worldly possessions and attaining worldly power and status, but about fulfillment of the soul and becoming whole and complete as a being.

If everyone in the world reached the level of Unconditional Love or Enlightenment, MAN what a place this’d be!! Both levels are utterly phenomenal.

Ego Purification

What are some common techniques of ego purification used today?

Positive thinking
Affirmations
Self-improvement
Choosing to be loving towards yourself and others
Forgiving yourself and others for mistakes and sins
Overcoming fears by choosing to believe more helpful thoughts
Replacing guilt and shame with love and acceptance

Notice that all of these have something in common: They all seek to improve the mind and better the self, to achieve states of being that lead to greater success and harmony in the world. They are all very helpful and constructive tools to assist us in reaching higher states of being.

Much of our society today is aimed at ego purification.

I want to quickly differentiate this from ego fulfillment, from buying products to make yourself feel better the way many advertisements encourage us to act, for example. That is encouraging us to move away from a feeling of lack. Here I’m talking about cultivating a sense of inner fulfillment and sharing that sense of completion and well-being with the world. It’s like having your heart overflow with unconditional love and naturally expressing that state of being with the world for the sheer joy of being in this state, not because you seek to fill an inner void.

Ego Transcendence

What does transcendence mean in the first place? We toss the word around a lot, but it’s not exactly a common word. Let’s define transcendence first of all so we’re all on the same page.

Transcendence is about going beyond one’s current level. It’s like going from first grade to second grade. You don’t destroy first grade, but you master the lessons it offers and then move up to the next grade, having understood the lessons it offered. You may then set down first grade now that it’s served its purpose, just like any other toy you’re finished playing with.

When you get your fill of playing with separation and duality consciousness, as well as the suffering that arises from this state of consciousness, you’re then ready to truly commit to rising up above the level of egoic consciousness and towards a more unified state of consciousness.

Instead of replacing one belief with another, you rise above the level of beliefs entirely into pure knowingness.

Instead of replacing one made-up story with another, we let go of the stories and search for a Truth that is prior to all stories in the first place.

What are some common techniques used to help us transcend the ego?

Self-inquiry
Not believing a single thought the mind thinks
Meditation
Surrender
Letting go via the Sedona Method
Dropping judgment and instead allowing things to be the way they are
Letting go of inner resistance
Looking without labeling

Notice that the main point here is that instead of replacing a not-so-helpful belief with a more helpful belief, we are choosing to stop making up beliefs in the first place. We just allow things to be as they are without adding an additional story to it.

The mind is less engaged as a tool to interact with reality. Yes it is used in certain techniques such as self-inquiry, but a technique such as self-inquiry is actually used to help the mind unravel itself. The person performing the self-inquiry comes to find that there is no “me” to perform the self-inquiry in the first place, a pretty striking realization.

Similarly, the Sedona Method also uses the mind to consciously ask yourself questions, but the questions lead to the loosening and ultimately the let go of the mind’s grip upon us, the self-imposed limitations we place upon ourselves, and thus lead to freedom and liberation.

While ego purification is about moving away from pain and towards pleasure, away from bad and towards good, away from fear and towards love, ego transcendence is about realizing that there is another option: rising above the level of duality entirely and experiencing that which has no opposite. Becoming that. Being that. I am that.

Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing, there is a field. I will meet you there.

-Rumi

Wrapping Up

So there’s two main avenues which both are targeted at lessening or even ending the existence of human suffering. While they aim to do so through different avenues, both methods can be supremely helpful to the person who begins taking advantage of them.

Both ego purification and ego transcendence are valuable and have their appropriate place, but here on this site, we focus on ego transcendence.

Which path is more appropriate for you is up to you to choose.

Which path do you prefer and why?

Continued Discussion | Post a Forum Comment

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20 Responses to “Ego Purification vs. Ego Transcendence”

Mike said:

I disagree with the idea that these paths are distinct from one another. I would even go as far as to say that if your LoC is below 540, the path to 540 and the path to 600 are the exact same. No matter if someone wants to climb 10 stairs or 20 stairs, the way to get there is by climbing stairs.

I also think practices like positive thinking, affirmations, self improvement are more geared to improve the ego rather than purifying it, sub-500 level work for most people, though as your LoC increases the power of these practices increases and probably could take you to 540.

I also disagree that 540 is the highest level an individual can attain. If I understand correctly, I think 499 is, because once you have the ability to truly identify with others at 500, you’re no longer just one person. Another way to look at it is, there’s no limit to what level an individual can attain, because according to various sages you always have that sense of ‘I Am’, that individuality. Even if you identify with all 6 billion people, or the entire universe, you still recognize yourself.

“While ego purification is about moving away from pain and towards pleasure, away from bad and towards good,”

I see things differently.

There seems to be a difference between true happiness, that existential joy is your nature, and ‘pleasure.’ Moving strictly away from pain and toward pleasure would lead people to hell, motivated by fear of all pain and craving for any instant gratification pleasure available. The ego gets pleasure from anger, lust, killing, darkness, etc. People say pleasure and pain are two sides of the same coin because pleasure is the ego’s exploitation of pain, it’s the joy of pain for its own sake. So I’d say ego purification is away from ‘the pleasure of un-love for its own sake’ and toward ‘the joy of love for its own sake’.

Take lust for example. Let’s say you whack off to porn. You’re asserting that the girl in the porn is only a body, separate from you, useable like a tool for your gratification. This is obviously un-loving, reducing God to a tool for your use. But it can be very pleasurable. So you enjoy it, but you suffer the karma of the un-lovingness because what you’re enjoying IS unlovingness itself.

Of course, I take this example from my own experience. :212

So yeah. I don’t think ego purification is part of the pleasure/pain duality at all.

Mikes last blog post..Alan Watts, Existence and Nonexistence
Ariel Bravy said:

Thanks for the comment, Mike. Let’s get to it.

I get what you’re saying about the road to 600 requires you pass through 540 and that levels of consciousness can’t be skipped.

I’m actually listening to an Adyashanti satsang at the moment and he describes three arbitrary stages of awakening.

He explains that it’s very very rare that someone totally and completely wakes up and stays there. It’s more of a process in a sense.

1) Waking to. You awaken to the fact that there is something Divine within you. This is when you start tapping into the nondualistic nature of that which is. It’s when you awaken to the fact that Peace and Unconditional Love are always there. It always is there and always was there, regardless of whether or not you notice it. At this point, God becomes less of a concept and more of a living reality. This relates to LoC’s 500 and 540.

2) Waking in. This is what we classically think of as enlightenment where one wakes up, corresponding to LoC 600. We wake up and realize that not only is there always something Divine that is always there, a “Source,” if you will, but that you are that. This is a radical and sudden shift of identity away from the body, mind, and personality to the formless Self. At this point, all the attention is going inwardly, as if you were focusing within.

3) Waking out. We eventually become able to see the fullness of the emptiness. Rather than seeing just the silence, the Self expands outward to encompass even the illusion of the relative world rather than just the Absolute. We no longer see form as separate from the formless.

The reason I bring this up is to differentiate between the first and second stages listed above. Tapping into Unconditional Love and being able to connect to Unconditional Love and express that outwardly through the self is different from the dissolution of the personal self entirely, the individual “me.”

Even when one awakens, the ego doesn’t immediately leave the premises.

I believe it was Krishnamurti who said that to awaken takes only an instant. To have the little ‘me’ dissolve takes time.

Also, the way I’m using the term “ego purification,” it is the same as “ego improvement.” It is about removing the negative aspects of the self and adopting the positive aspects of the self, rather than letting go of all characteristics of the self in the first place and realizing that one’s true nature IS Unconditional Love and that to abide here is effortless and natural. It doesn’t take a special practice to be that which you already are.

Also, when I say that 540 (or more accurately, 599) is the highest an individual can attain, it’s really important to explain what I mean by “individual.” Up to 499, there is a dominance of the intellect in the individual. At 500-599, there is an individual who begins tapping into the field of energy which we call Love. At 600+, there is no longer any identification with a separate self at all, despite the fact that Consciousness is expressing itself in the relative world as an individual.

Adya talks about a dissolution of all sense of identity altogether, where formlessness and form merge into one and even the thought “I Am” becomes laughable, but I gotta go on hearsay because this is beyond my own current state of being.

Your definition of ego purification is a bit better than mine. Thank you for that. As you put it,

“I’d say ego purification is away from ‘the pleasure of un-love for its own sake’ and toward ‘the joy of love for its own sake’”

At this higher level, it is a movement towards the non-dualistic nature of Love itself as you realize more and more that this is truly who you are rather than something you do (which happens at earlier stages) because it feels like the right, or moral, or correct, or spiritual thing to do.

So while the underlying reason my evolve, there is still an attempt to become more and more of who you are rather than realize that you already are what you are and thus to even try to be yourself is just silly.
Mike said:

Very interesting stuff.

I think “waking in” is more concordant with the experience of LoC 500 though, as your identity shifts from a personality and body to a spirit, an essence. Your description of ‘waking in’ is a GREAT description of my experiences of lovingness, conditional love.

I have no idea about ‘waking out,’ because I don’t know what it looks like from the experience above maybe 570.

‘Waking to’ seems to be reminiscent of the 400s or so, where you’re learning about genuine lovingness and experiencing gradations of it but you don’t yet realize it as your constant, unshakeable identity.

It’s possible that our definitions of Unconditional Love differ. In my experiences of states that match descriptions of LoC 500, the love is clearly unconditional in that it persists steadily no matter what, but it’s not unconditional in the sense that it’s for everyone and everything. The ego still made judgments, and though the context around everything was truly Love, and everything seemed beautiful and whatnot, I didn’t completely identify with all other people, which is what Unconditional Love seems to be. Genuine love is total identity with another. LoC 500 is the capacity for genuine love, and a context of lovingness around all experience. LoC 540 is genuine love for all people, therefore, total identity with all people. You see all bodies as your own and therefore have no desire for the gain of one body over another, and therefore have completely ‘pure’ motives, as the label ego purification suggests.

“Adya talks about a dissolution of all sense of identity altogether, where formlessness and form merge into one and even the thought “I Am” becomes laughable.”

I suspect that he doesn’t mean you lose all sense of individuality, rather the sense that you are one thing as opposed to another. For instance, looking at your computer screen, there’s a definite point in “space” where the light of your consciousness seems to be coming from. It’s not ten feet in front of the body, it’s not right above the computer screen, it’s probably a few feet away from the computer screen near the center of your head. There’s definitely a feeling of location. I suspect that even when you see the Self as all and lose sense of separate identity, there’s still a sense of individual location. For instance, when you identify with the body, you ARE it, you feel it, but your eyes aren’t located at the back of your knees. I suspect that at LoC 600, the universe becomes your body, but your eyes stay where they are.

“Up to 499, there is a dominance of the intellect in the individual. At 500-599, there is an individual who begins tapping into the field of energy which we call Love.”

I agree that up to 499, there is a dominance of the intellect, but disagree with the implication there’s no experience of love in the 400s. It may not be 100% pure and authentic, as you only have that capacity from 500+, but the LoC Scale itself shows gradations of God’s love. We begin tapping into love at 200, no longer completely rejecting God’s love. We learn to tap into it more and more from 200-499. At 500, we don’t just tap into Love, we BECOME Love. Also, since authentic love, the capacity for which begins at 500, IS identity with another, you no longer experience yourself as an individual.

Interested in your thoughts on this, I love this process of refining understanding.

Mikes last blog post..Alan Watts, Existence and Nonexistence

Ariel Bravy Reply:
October 21st, 2008 at 3:54 am
Yeah Mike, I agree with you in that it’s not like when you hit 500, you suddenly have the possibility to experience Love for the first time and that before this, you never ever had the experience of Love. That’s not what it’s about. Instead, rather than being something significant yet occasional, Love becomes a way of being in the world. At LoC 500, it becomes dominant. It’s similar to how you can have glimpses into your true nature before reaching 600 which is when you finally settle in and abide into your true nature. This, too, is similar to saying that just because you calibrate over 200 doesn’t mean you never feel anger. What it’s saying is that this is your predominant level of consciousness.

One key thing is that Love arises, not due to any external conditions such as kindness or a pretty face, but due to the sense of Oneness with Divinity you mentioned previously. We could say it arises due to inner being rather than outer conditions.

I disagree with the idea that you identify with everything at 540. More accurately, everything is seen to be an expression of Divinity and Love itself. If you’ve ever seen the movie The Celestine Prophecy, it’s a lot like how you can literally begin to see everything glowing with this radiant yellow energy. You see something that most people don’t, in a way others don’t. I’ve experienced this energy glowing several times, but usually it’s not as visual as this. It’s typically more intuitive, feeling-based. It’s like you recognize everything to be an expression of the Divine and have the capacity to feel at one with it, but you don’t necessarily feel that it literally IS you.

I just skimmed through TLoC and reread the chapter on Unconditional Love and didn’t see anything about identifying with everything. If you find the section where it states otherwise, let me know. Perhaps I just overlooked it, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Merging with another and seeing the Divinity within another are two different things.

Your question about the idea of a sense of localized awareness strikes me too. I’m currently working my way through “I Am That” by Nisargadatta Maharaj and someone asks him what the weather is in New York since he says he is the infinite awareness beyond space and time. (Page 38, if you’re interested.)

He explains that he abides in no particular location in time and space and while he can undergo the specific Yogic training to learn how to know the weather in other locations, he feels no need to.

I understand your concern because to the mind, it literally makes no sense. The mind I have can’t wrap itself around the concept either. How can someone claim to be the infinite awareness yet not be aware of what’s happening in every location within the infinite?

It seems that this is one of the beauties of human existence. Subjectively it feels like there literally is no here nor there, no location for me to be in or not be in, yet paradoxically, I’m not in any one location. I am everywhere. Weird, I know… The body exists within a localized place within the domain of the relative, but the Self abides in the Absolute while expressing itself in the Relative.

It seems almost like the Absolute is restricted or limited when it expresses itself in the Relative, yet its capacity for expression and creation is utterly Unlimited. What we call Love is the expression of the Absolute through the body of a living being in the Relative.

Now, even with total enlightenment, there’s still the ability to have a sense of individuality. For example, if the stomach you had started to rumble, you’d know which mouth to stick the food in. Similarly, if someone called your name, you’d still know to turn your head. So even though it’s not ultimately you, you still can play along because it serves human existence in a way. It’s almost like you pretend.

The topic of balancing out living in the world of the relative as a reality even though it’s ultimately unreal, balancing this with the reality of the Absolute, that’s a whole ‘nother topic I’d like to get into later. This is good for now.
Mike said:

I never meant to imply that one identifies with everything at 540, but with everyone–all bodies, all people, not all-that-is. That’s all I got for now man, it’s late.

“everything is seen to be an expression of Divinity and Love itself.”

Yeah. Like that. 8)

Mikes last blog post..Alan Watts, Existence and Nonexistence
Andy Nicholson said:

Just out of interest, what would chakra work come under, Purification or Transcendence?

Ariel Bravy Reply:
October 21st, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Seems like it has aspects of both, Andy, depending on how you use it.
Andy Nicholson said:

Well due to my testings lately it’s been found that doing chakra work prior to releasing is very likely to lead to a mental silence, first for a few seconds and then longer as the days go on, as well as severely amping the positive feelings coming from it, where as if no chakra work is done that state still happens with releasing, but no where near as frequently to start with. Not really sure yet but the theory I’m getting is having lower chakras open are a releasing accelerant. Any ideas if that would be correct?

Ariel Bravy Reply:
October 21st, 2008 at 5:19 pm
That makes a lot of sense, Andy. If you’re familiar with kundalini energy, it’s the life force energy that comes up from the root chakra up through the crown. The more you can open your lower chakras and remain grounded, the more energy is available for the upper chakras which leads to many of the feelings of bliss and wonder you’re experiencing.

If one was to use the chakras purely as affirmations, that would certainly help, but it’s more about improving belief systems, which can contribute additionally to everything else. What it sounds like you’re focusing on is returning to your natural state of openness and flow by opening your chakras, thereby lessening the dominance and control of the ego within.

Thanks for sharing your experience. That’s fascinating to hear.
Anthony said:

I use both methods, in conjunction with one another.

Ego trancendence makes ego purification easier. By disidentifying with ego, it gives me a space to stand back and watch it with presence. Then, i can reform my ego by having it look it itself, and it moves itself back to a state of love and abundance.

A.

Anthonys last blog post..Song – “Sapphire”

Ariel Bravy Reply:
October 25th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
That makes a lot of sense, Anthony.
Jarrod - Warrior Development said:

I’m a transcendence guy.

Because I feel it is much more direct. I see the ‘ego’ as unnecessary and I so I work to throw it away.

Ariel Bravy Reply:
October 25th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Yeah, I heard a really good statement earlier this week, Jarrod, which ties in nicely here: The ego is useful to us… until it isn’t.
Anne Partain said:

I like what you say about it’s useful to us until it isn’t. I know you are talking about the ego. I have been doing some deep questioning about myself for the last year or so and I have come to change many very basic beliefs as a result of it.
Then I seemed to have gone through a time of giving up everything. One at a time.
And now I finally have come to an understanding that I don’t need to work on this any more. I don’t need this figuring out. I think that would be the ego that I don’t find useful any more. A complete letting go, with no more need of a net. Now I can release any last bits of resistance that I may have lingering.
My favorite part of the flow, me, nonphysical now is the flowing of unconditional love.

I am so glad to find similar sounding experiences being discussed here. Thanks so much.

Anne Partains last blog post..Who Am I?

Ariel Bravy Reply:
February 10th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Beautiful.
Anne Partain said:

I have a question, for the last few weeks, I have been having a lot of pain and tension in my neck, shoulders and back. David Hawkins talks about the body discomfort that the Buddha and he felt as they moved vibrationally. I know this may be just tension, but I wonder if you have experienced this, and if you know anything about it in others. I haven’t found anything anywhere to read about this only what Hawkins says.

Anne Partains last blog post..Who Am I?

Ariel Bravy Reply:
February 10th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
heh, yeah, the Buddha described it as the feeling of all of his bones cracking. Jesus sweat blood. I think this happens as you progress through LoC 850, so it’s a pretty advanced stage in the process.

Tension in the neck, shoulders, and back… boy, that could be a whole bunch of things, y’know?

Anne Partain Reply:
February 10th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Thanks, that was kind of what I was thinking, you’ve just told me more than I have ever heard before. Sounds like you kind of think it is possible to ask a stupid question. Oh well.

Anne Partains last blog post..Who Am I?
Anthony said:

Are you still believing that LoC stuff? Man, it’s what we make of it!

Ariel Bravy Reply:
February 10th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
It’s just a convenient framework to talk about things in.