Posts Tagged ‘Ego’
Our minds are built in such a way that if our beliefs have valid supporting evidence, they must certainly be true. After all, we have proof! All other beliefs must therefore be wrong. Sounds pretty straightforward, right?
Let’s look at something as simple as the belief that 1+1=2.
It’s not absolutely true. It’s just an agreed upon concept.
What if we decided that 1+1=1? For example, you take one piece of clay, smush it together with another piece of clay, and you end up with just one piece of clay.
Or what if we decided that 1+1=11? Just stick the two numbers next to each other and call it a day. The Romans did something similar with their numerals.
In binary, the language used by computers, 1+1=10.
1 man + 1 woman = 2, 3, 4, 5, or even more people.
1 man + 1 woman = 1 person… if the relationship is really bad and one kills the other or jumps off a bridge. 
Or what if 1 + 1 = Window? Visualize it. The 1′s form the sides, the + is the crossbar in the middle, and the = forms the top and the bottom.
Silly examples, certainly, but they show the point:
Our beliefs are not absolutely true. They are only true because we agree that they’re true.
Let’s take this a step further. Here’s how to really demonstrate this for yourself. Read More …
We all have thoughts, beliefs, opinions, and ideas about “the way things are” and all these beliefs are very real to us.
The thing is though, NONE of those mental concepts have any basis in actual reality! That is, we literally made them all up… and then forgot that we did so! In some cases, we may have heard something from another, felt that they had credibility, bought into their belief system, and thus incorporated their beliefs into our own belief system.
People tend to believe thoughts, especially the ones they feel are “mine.”
Nevertheless, we can reveal to ourselves that using thought is actually NOT a way to understand absolute truth.
The “How Do You Know” Method
Take a thought, belief, opinion, or idea that you hold to be true.
Now ask yourself, “How do I know absolutely for sure that this is true?”
Whatever answer the mind gives you, to it ask, “How do I know absolutely for sure that this is true?”
The mind will keep giving you back answers and every time it does, again ask yourself, “How do I know absolutely for sure that this is true?”
You must be willing to question every answer the mind gives you for this method to work.
If you keep asking this question, you’ll find that you eventually wind up at, “I don’t know absolutely for sure that this is true.”
It turns out each belief is supported by another belief which is supported by another belief which is ultimately supported by “I don’t know.”
Your beliefs are built upon nothing. They have no foundation at all!
Do this with a few hundred of your thoughts, beliefs, opinions, or ideas, and you’ll come to realize for yourself that thought is not a method for realizing absolute Truth whatsoever.
Eckhart Tolle, the spiritual teacher who emphasizes practices such as being Present in the Now moment teaches about an energetic ‘parasite’ within us called the painbody.
The painbody is essentially a very active ego running in full force, seemingly overtaking us with emotion, pain, and resistance. The painbody basically feeds off of ego juice like misery, sadness, anger, superiority, inferiority, and so on.
Typically the active painbody needs to run its course and play itself out before it goes back into dormant mode.
One of the wonderful things about painbody attacks is that they bring right to the surface many of the issues we’ve been repressing, giving us the opportunity to deal with them on the spot.
It’s certainly easier to talk about dealing with them when we’re calm and relaxed than it is in the “heat of the moment” but it’s really when all hell is breaking loose within us that the wisdom to know how to handle the emotional storms are of the most value.
Let’s take a look at some effective techniques for handling painbody attacks.
Awareness
First and foremost, it’s critical to understand that the painbody IS NOT YOU. It is simply an energetic flow, an uprising of conditioned beliefs, patterned behaviors, and particular expectations that are coming to the surface.
Instead of getting caught up in the storm and thinking that you ARE the storm, simply sit back in a state of conscious awareness and watch the storm do its thing. The mere withdrawal of identification with it will lessen its ability to affect you, right away.
Presence
Be totally and completely focused on the Now moment.
Instead of getting the mind all twisted up in thoughts, bring your awareness to this moment. Feel your body. Notice your breathing. Be aware of what’s being perceived by your five senses instead of the thoughts and memories flooding the mind.
See if you can abide on the razor’s edge of Now.
The degree of peace you feel is directly related to your level of presence.
The degree of turbulence you feel is directly related to your identification with the painbody.
Allow It
The painbody is strengthened through resistance, by you pushing against it and trying to “fix” it, lessen it, or get rid of it in any way.
There’s a time and a place for logical discussions and decision-making, but the middle of an emotional storm is not it.
From your place of present awareness, sit back and watch the painbody attack. Notice the feelings in your body and allow them to be, to fully express themselves and be released.
Allow them to be fully.
Love It
This may sound crazy at first, but allow yourself to Love the painbody attacks. They are the energetic and emotional manifestation of fear. It is energetic darkness. Darkness is not defeated by more darkness, but by bringing in the light. Bring in the light of your Presence, of your Love.
Love the painbody and recognize that it’s providing you with an opportunity for tremendous personal growth. By looking directly at the painbody and loving it all the same, you’re both accepting the painbody as well as accepting YOURSELF for being human and having emotions.
It’s COMPLETELY okay to be human, to have emotions, and to express yourself as such. Love the painbody, Love the storm, and Love yourself.
Let It Out
When the emotions are feeling turbulent, feel free to allow them to flow through you and out.
If you need to scream your lungs out into a pillow, do so. If you need to wail on a punching bag, go ahead. If you need to go for a run, grab your running shoes. If you need to cry, allow yourself to blow snot all over the room.
Whatever it is, give yourself permission to open up and allow the emotions to flow through without resistance. The more you can let them be just as they are and exhaust themselves on their own, the quicker you will experience a release from the grip of the painbody.
Release All Resistances
The more you release resistances to what you’re experiencing in the Now moment, the more you’ll experience periods of peace and stillness, both in frequency and duration.
Painbody attacks will become less and less frequent, lasting for progressively shorter periods of time.
Nevertheless, they will still happen, until they do not. In the end they’re actually a wonderful gift because they’re providing you with yet another opportunity to become aware of any insecurities and choose to transcend them altogether.
For more in depth information about the painbody and the power of presence, pick up a copy of both The Power of Now and A New Earth.
As the popular saying goes, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
Are you familiar with it? It’s even one of the main lines in a current hit song by Madonna and Justin Timberlake.
What does that statement actually mean?
Does it have any validity?
Is it just something people say when they try do something nice, but it ends up backfiring on them?
Let’s take a deeper look at this statement and see if there are some spiritual truths we can uncover in this long-standing statement.
First of all, let’s define “hell” and “good” so that we know what we’re talking about.
“Hell” is basically suffering. It can exist in this very moment while you’re still alive. You can experience “hell on earth” or “a living hell.” It is not limited to something you experience after death.
“Good” is basically the opposite of what we call bad or evil. Thus it’s based in duality and sponsored by the ego.
A good deed is something that makes us feel good. Who is it that “juices” the good feelings out of external situations in order to obtain good feelings? Why, the ego of course!
Who is it that continually needs to do more of what they believe to be good in order to “cause” more good feelings, much like an addiction? If you guessed the ego, you’re right on!
See, people clearly see that acting “bad” leads to “bad” feelings so they attempt to remedy this by acting in the opposite manner and acting good. This works, but only up to a certain level.
This level eventually must be transcended. These are the “good intentions” that lead to hell. Read More …
I’m gonna let you guys in on a big secret here. It’s the secret to happiness.
You ready for this?
…
Nothing out there makes you happy.
There is nothing outside of yourself that ever will make you happy.
These are pretty radical statements. Nothing makes you happy!? Really? 
That’s right!
Now, this is not to say that it is impossible to experience the state of happiness. Clearly this is not the case, as you all have experienced throughout our lives. It IS of course possible to experience happiness.
To get a deeper understanding of what these two statements mean, let’s dig a little bit further. Read More …
I’m not big into going clubbing, but I am finding that it provides a tremendous opportunity, not only for spiritual growth, but as an excellent mirror for yourself to see how you respond to human egos.
We could say the human ego is akin to your carnal mind, your animalistic urges, your most primal desires. There’s certainly nothing wrong with these energies. Spiritual growth is not about repressing or denying these energies, but rather choosing to raise your energy up to higher levels so that you are fully experiencing life from all seven chakras. You raise your kundalini up to your crown while still remaining rooted. You don’t disconnect from your lower chakras, nor do you place more value on “higher” energies.
That said, it seems the club scene is primarily geared towards the lower three chakras of money, sex, and power. It’s essentially a big mating game.
Women get their sense of worthiness on external validation, on how many guys buy them drinks or try to pick them up. Men are judged according to how well they can seduce women and how many phone numbers they can accumulate or the number of women they sleep with.
It’s essentially a big ego game and I’m finding that I now see straight through the egoic masks people wear and what I see is amazing. Read More …
Question:
The “problem” with spirituality as I see it is that it is not enough to know what to do, it is all experiential. We have to see for ourselves and learn the lessons ourselves to really understand. And this is one big difference between religion and spirituality in my opinion.
Most religious people I have met only do what they do because they have been told by someone else that it is the right thing to do. They are blindly following guidelines because “God” says it’s right. Their ego’s are so tightly glued to their beliefs that any reasoning with them they take as an attack on themselves and they get angry.
Of course they do. It’s their whole story, it is who they think they are. Who would they be if all of a sudden everything they thought they are would dissolve? You see, the ego provides a very useful function in our lives on this planet.
How else would we know to protect ourselves? How else would we know to feed ourselves? How else would we know to not put our hands in the fire, stay away from things that makes us ill, gather food for the winter, dress ourselves warmly, spread our genes to ensure that the species lives on and fight when we have to?
Ask yourself this question: Where would you be without your ego? Probably dead. Long time ago. Spend some time thinking about that one if you haven’t before.
So one of the functions of the ego is to ensure the survival of this body that we are in. It does so that we think that we are our thoughts, our minds, our body, emotions, the stuff we do, the things we have and everything else. Without the sense of self, there would be nothing to protect. If there was no other, there would be nothing to fear and we’d have become extinct long time ago.
My response:
First off, props to you for realizing that you do indeed have to EXPERIENCE Truth in order to know it. Simply intellectualizing or believing, buying into any structured external belief system of any sort will necessarily hold you apart from the highest Truth.
Truth can not be verbalized, only known. Whenever you put it into words, you are filtering down the infinite vastness of all that is into a few letters and sounds. The word “apple” is not the same thing as eating an actual apple.
Interestingly, you brought up this point and then went straight back into imagining (read, going to the mind for answers) as to what life without the ego would be like. You’re directly going against exactly the issue you just brought up.
Intellectually wondering what life would be like without an ego, while STILL coming from a place of ego will not work. You can’t transcend duality through duality. You have to reach Oneness by going to Oneness, not by going through the world of illusion.
Living in this world is like dreaming while you’re asleep. When you’re asleep, everything feels real and you know it to be so. You can’t say this is just a dream because you have nothing to compare it to.
It is only when you wake up that you can look back at the dream and accurately determine that it was all a dream, all a made up illusion in your mind.
This life we live in is the SAME thing. In order to experience it as a dream, to see the world of illusion as illusion, you have to first WAKE UP and then once you have awakened, look back at the dream and identify it as such. Read More …
The ego survives by “juicing” suffering out of thoughts and experiences. It is nourished by energies that are detrimental to life and well-being. It is almost as if the ego once got lost in the desert without food or water and eventually adapted by learning to live off of sand and dirt. 
The “food” has no nutritional value, but it was all that was available at the time and the ego got used to it.
Let’s look at some examples to see how the ego survives by eating “crap” in day-to-day life.
Let’s say something goes “wrong” in your life. Let’s say you just found out that your wife cheated on you. 
Instead of taking an honest look at what role you played in creating this reality and noticing what warning signs you ignored, the ego will automatically create a victim/perpetrator consciousness where it assigns itself the role of innocent victim and makes the other the big bad evil doer. All of the blame and responsibility falls on the wife for it was she who decided to be unfaithful and cheat.
So the ego will seek to justify and make wrong the other person at the cost of Peace, Joy, and Love. Those three states, among others, are fatal to the ego and always compromised as the ego further solidifies its stance. So, by creating the right/wrong, good/bad duality, the ego pushes others away and gets satisfaction from being right, playing the innocent victim, and being the superior ego in the battle.
From the standpoint of the ego, “resolving” this situation requires the strengthening of its own position and attack upon the other ego’s position. It’s black and white. I’m right. You’re wrong. Period. Only when you realize this will we have peace. Read More …
