Enlightenment: The Ego, what is it? How to transcend it.

[Innocent Warrior]

"You have already understood the basic mechanics of the unconscious state: identification with the mind, which creates a false self, the ego, as a substitute for your true self rooted in Being. You become as a "branch cut off from the vine," as Jesus puts it.

The egos's needs are endless. It feels vulnerable and threatened and so lives in a state of fear and want. Once you know how the basic dysfunction operates, there is no need to explore all its countless manifestations, no need to make it into a complex personal problem. The ego, of course, loves that. It is always seeking for something to attach itself to in order to uphold and strengthen its illusory sense of self, and it will readily attach itself to your problems. Once this has happened, the last thing they want is to become free of them; that would mean loss of self. There can be a great deal of unconscious ego investment in pain and suffering.

So once you recognize the root of unconsciousness as identification with the mind, which of course includes the emotions, you step out of it. You become present. When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is without getting entangled in it. The mind in itself is not dysfunctional. It is a wonderful tool. Dysfunction sets in when you seek yourself in it and mistake it for who you are. It then becomes the egoic mind and takes over your whole life."

- Eckhart Tolle, "The Power Of Now: A guide to spiritual enlightenment", p47-48.

[Wind]

"The Long Path idea of reincarnation is illusory. The Short Path idea of it is that it is an undulatory wave, a ripple, a movement upward onward and downward. Since there is no ego in reality, there can be no rebirth of it. But we do have the appearance of a rebirth. Note that this applies to both the mind and body part of ego: they are like a bubble floating on a stream and then vanishing or like a knot which is untied and then vanishes too. We have to accept the presence of this pseudo-entity, the ego--this mental thing born of many many earth-lives--so long as we have to dwell in that other mental thing, the body. But we do not have to accept its dominance; we do not have to perpetuate its rule, for all is in the Mind. Where then are the reincarnatory experiences? Appearances which were like cinema shows. They happened in a time and space which were in the mind. The individual who emerged lost the individuality and merged in the timelessness of eternity. This is the unchanging indestructible Consciousness, the Overself."

~ Paul Brunton

[Grizz Griswold]

Paul Hedderman talks about thoughts as being a failed system.
"You can't think outside the box".... it's like stale popcorn.
Thoughts are the glue that sticks it all together...The idea of
being an I/Me/My ....EGO LAND
Paul invites us to entertain that we are not that!

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=e89mAmlJW5I

b

[Guish]

The paradox of enlightenment is that it's a state of nothingness. It's even more funny when you conclude that the Emptiness is indeed completeness.

[blotter]

Posted by Guish (here)
The paradox of enlightenment is that it's a state of nothingness. It's even more funny when you conclude that the Emptiness is indeed completeness.

I 'popped' a few weeks ago and couldn't stop smiling at this. I was with my good friend who's definitely got some siddhi and was back to digging after some time the next morning. Soon enough though, I'm not beating myself up. The story isn't supposed to go that way until the winter solstice or so, right?

[Wind]

If few attain the wonder of Overself consciousness, it is because few can lift their minds to the level of impersonality and anonymity. But what all cannot do with their minds, they can do much more easily with their hearts. Let them approach enveloped in love, and the grace will come forward to meet them. By its power, the ego which they could not bring themselves to renounce will be forgotten.

Deep down within the heart there is a stillness which is healing, a trust in the universal laws which is unwavering, and a strength which is rock-like. But because it is so deep we need both patience and perseverance when digging for it.

~ Paul Brunton

[AnamCara]

With respect, I must say I have never heard of a 'spiritual ego' nor the ego as either an adjunct, adversary or definition of God or 'not God'. Ego, as I understand it, is the 'created self' that has been forming both consciously and subconsciously from our own needs, beliefs, traumas, emotions, associations, experiences, etc. since birth. This is an intellectualized response to our human journey that arises from our perceptions, and this 'ego' takes on the pretense of protection. Beyond this ego or 'created self' is the true self or direct experience which needs no protection.

[Wind]

Love must marry knowledge

"Buddha did not go into deeper problems before he had gone into practical ethics. He taught people to be good and do good before he taught them to venture into the marshy logic of the metaphysical maze. And even when they had emerged safely from a territory where so many lose themselves utterly, he brought them back to ethical values albeit now of a much higher kind because based on utter unselfishness. For love must marry knowledge, pity must shed its warm rays upon the cold intellect. Enlightenment of others must be the price of one's own enlightenment.

These things are not easily felt by the mystic, who is often too absorbed in his own ecstasies to notice the miseries of others, or by the metaphysician, who is often too tied by his own verbosity to his hard and rigorous logic to realize that mankind is not merely an abstract noun but is made up of flesh-and-blood individuals. The philosopher however finds these benign altruistic needs to be an essential part of truth. Consequently the salvation which he seeks--from ignorance and the attendant miseries that dog its steps--is not for himself but for the whole world."

~ Paul Brunton

[bodhii71]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=nMa-ri-2XWg

Probably one of the most impactful transmissions or talks I have ever encounter. I'm still vibrating from it, after purging pent up emotions.
With love,
Bodhi

[Wind]

’I am’ before the concept that I need to remember myself or that I could forget myself was believed.
The most effort in spirituality is to shift the consciousness from the person back into Presence.
You still feel the sense ’I am’ but it is not mixed with intention and identity. It becomes the pure witness.
The person is only a role played in Consciousness by Consciousness.

~ Mooji

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=6mUy51ms98U

[Guish]

Posted by blotter (here)

Posted by Guish (here)
The paradox of enlightenment is that it's a state of nothingness. It's even more funny when you conclude that the Emptiness is indeed completeness.

I 'popped' a few weeks ago and couldn't stop smiling at this. I was with my good friend who's definitely got some siddhi and was back to digging after some time the next morning. Soon enough though, I'm not beating myself up. The story isn't supposed to go that way until the winter solstice or so, right?

After some years of spiritual practice, I understood why it was said that you should leave your rational mind out of the spiritual quest. Spirituality is intuitive and just based on experience. Describing a meditative state is very tough. It should be experienced only. Great to make you smile, B! Cheers.

[greybeard]

Bart Marshall ‘Only This Emptiness’ - Interview by Iain McNay
In the Vietnam War a mortar landed nearby that blew Bart into a clear and brilliant blackness that, “Felt like home. I would have gladly stayed in that blackness, but instead I was brought back into a world I could no longer view in the same way.”
When he returned in 1968 he experimented with LSD, read everything he could find that might offer clues to what had happened to him, studied meditation and attended workshops. After 20 years he hit a wall as a seeker and then met the teacher Richard Rose whom he studied with for 5 years. It was after a weekend with Douglas Harding that a breakthrough finally happened… “Being the source of everything that is nothing - everything and nothing, only this emptiness.”

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=RCirEL0bchw

[Delight]

This is really worthwhile IMO. I felt he depicts my experience including seeing blue flashes so this supported me...thanks...Maggie

Posted by bodhii71 (here)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=nMa-ri-2XWg

Probably one of the most impactful transmissions or talks I have ever encounter. I'm still vibrating from it, after purging pent up emotions.
With love,
Bodhi

[Grizz Griswold]

“Blessed is the servant who esteems himself no better when he is praised and exalted by people than when he is considered worthless, simple, and despicable; for what a man is before God, that he is and nothing more.”
― Francis of Assisi

"What your'e looking for is what is looking"
― Francis of Assisi

“Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that have received--only what you have given.”
― Francis of Assisi

b

[Wind]

Your attention has to shift from the position of the personal 'I'
to that of the unmixed witness, the one who observes
the play of the manifest world spontaneously.
When you come to the place of the unmixed witness,
already you are in the fragrance of beauty, light and joy.
But ultimately even this beingness state
will be recognised to be itself phenomenal.
It is perceivable by and inside the Unmoving.
But the Unmoving is not a thing, not an object.
Either it is not a thing or it is the only thing—whichever way you want.
And what are we speaking about?
You, us, I, That, God, Self, Supreme Being, Absolute;
in effect, You without 'you', the historical and hysterical 'person'.

~ Mooji

[Guish]

Posted by Wind (here)
Your attention has to shift from the position of the personal 'I'
to that of the unmixed witness, the one who observes
~ Mooji

This is interesting. Sufficient meditation enables one to be detached from the body. I've used my words correctly because we are not the body. In this state, we can observe all our reactions but they no longer bother us as we know that these feelings/thoughts are not important. Hence, a spiritual person lives in society but is detached from the latter. Detachment is so important for one to have a clear view on things.

[greybeard]

Bart Marshall - Buddha at the Gas Pump Interview

This is a gold mine, packed with relevant information for those committed to awakening.
Not a short interview, but worth downloading to listen to repeatedly, a section at a time.
C


Bart Marshall describes his spiritual path as “self-guided eclectic.” It began with a death experience in Vietnam in 1968 and ended in 2004 on an airplane at 30,000 feet over the Atlantic as he returned from a workshop with Douglas Harding. In those intervening years he “turned over every rock” in his quest for a final answer, but counts three teachers as the most influential: Richard Rose, Nisargadatta Maharaj, and Douglas Harding.

He founded Self Inquiry Group (SIG) in Raleigh, North Carolina (www.selfinquiry.org), and for many years held weekly meetings before stepping back in 2013. Sometimes called “the reluctant guru” by those who know him, Bart nevertheless travels widely to speak when asked, and teaches retreats and intensives with Deborah Westmoreland (Conscious TV interview) events that have proven to be highly transformative for participants.

Bart is the author of The Perennial Way: New English Versions of Yoga Sutras, Dhammapada, Heart Sutra, Ashtavakra Gita, Faith Mind Sutra, and Tao Te Ching, and an upcoming book, Christ Sutras (Fall 2014), which contains the complete sayings of Jesus from all sources arranged as topical sermons. He is currently completing a book of essays on spiritual matters, Becoming Vulnerable to Grace.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=aKM4aVJXxo4

[Grizz Griswold]

Hi Chris, Bart has a saying " Awakening is usually an accident, but there are things You can do to make yourself more accident prone"

Love

b

[Grizz Griswold]

Posted by greybeard (here)
Bart Marshall - Buddha at the Gas Pump Interview

This is a gold mine, packed with relevant information for those committed to awakening.
Not a short interview, but worth downloading to listen to repeatedly, a section at a time.
C


Bart Marshall describes his spiritual path as “self-guided eclectic.” It began with a death experience in Vietnam in 1968 and ended in 2004 on an airplane at 30,000 feet over the Atlantic as he returned from a workshop with Douglas Harding. In those intervening years he “turned over every rock” in his quest for a final answer, but counts three teachers as the most influential: Richard Rose, Nisargadatta Maharaj, and Douglas Harding.

He founded Self Inquiry Group (SIG) in Raleigh, North Carolina (www.selfinquiry.org), and for many years held weekly meetings before stepping back in 2013. Sometimes called “the reluctant guru” by those who know him, Bart nevertheless travels widely to speak when asked, and teaches retreats and intensives with Deborah Westmoreland (Conscious TV interview) events that have proven to be highly transformative for participants.

Bart is the author of The Perennial Way: New English Versions of Yoga Sutras, Dhammapada, Heart Sutra, Ashtavakra Gita, Faith Mind Sutra, and Tao Te Ching, and an upcoming book, Christ Sutras (Fall 2014), which contains the complete sayings of Jesus from all sources arranged as topical sermons. He is currently completing a book of essays on spiritual matters, Becoming Vulnerable to Grace.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=aKM4aVJXxo4

Hi Chris, just finished watching the video. Bart has a way of explaining so that one has no doubt about what was said.
As Douglas Harding told Him, "Simplify" Bart has done just that.
Thanks for the video, very enjoyable.

Love

b

[Wind]

You say you really want to go to this space without desires,
but there is nobody to go there.
The apparent one who is trying to go there is perceived from there.
There is a space completely untouched by all efforts
including the one who is making them.
Recognise and be one with It.

~ Mooji

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=5-Bmowpdqds