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

[Grizz Griswold]

Posted by greybeard (here)

Posted by Guish (here)

Posted by Joey (here)
I am sharing my joy of discovering and I dont wish to be (linguistically) correct.

Bliss is a trap too as it's a mental state. Accepting any state without clinging to any is what we converge towards in the long run.

I think that is true up to a point Guish.
In that looking for it to happen, then as you say attempting to cling on to it, as if you can, is not helpful as the ego gets in there as in "I am spiritually advanced, because I get these states"

True neither attraction nor aversion would apply.

Im not convinced that is a mental state as it seem to happen to those who have gone beyond mind like Ramana Maharshi.

He spent years not speaking and would have died if he had not been fed.
The bliss was so all encompassing, there was no person left to be interested in food or even staying alive.
The state was so complete nothing else was required, needed or even thought of.

Yogananda described it as "Ever new bliss"

Eckhart Tolle spent two years sitting on a park bench in a state of bliss.
Dr Hawkins spent about six years in a similar state just existing on an apple,water and some cheese.

With me it just comes and goes--im not looking for it--im not meditating at the time--it may only last a few minutes or an hour.

Any way that's my thought on it.

Much Love
Chris

A Course in Miracles describes a constant state of joy. This state being enjoyed along
with our mind being joined with the Mind of God. It also says that in reality there is only
one mind, that of God. What passes for thinking, when not thinking with the Mind of God
is actually Sleep/dreaming.

It goes on to describe the way to tell your'e not thinking with the Mind of God, There is
a loss of Peace or even the slightest irritation, are indicators one is in sleep or dreaming.

Kinda sounds like a tall order doesn't It? LOL

We've gone to great lengths to be an individual, I/Me/My independent of God.
What we perceive as being hard or almost possible to do (Think with the Mind of God)
is actually the easiest...but then We can believe whatever We want!

Enjoyed Your post Chris

With Love
barry

[joeecho]

Posted by Guish (here)

Posted by Joey (here)
I am sharing my joy of discovering and I dont wish to be (linguistically) correct.

Bliss is a trap too as it's a mental state. Accepting any state without clinging to any is what we converge towards in the long run.

I see this in regards to identity meaning no matter what we experience or how often, that is not our identity even if it became an eternal habit. Any 'habit' can potentially be a trap within the backdrop of eternity.

[Wind]

"In the earlier stage, the Ego was the agent for all his spiritual activities, whilst it provided the motives which impelled him into these activities. But the Ego can never be really sincere in desiring its own destruction, nor can it ever draw from its own resources the power to rise above itself. So it must reach this point where it ceases self-effort and surrenders itself to the higher power which may be variously named God or the Higher Self, and relies on that power for further progress…"

~ Paul Brunton

[joeecho]

Posted by Wind (here)
"In the earlier stage, the Ego was the agent for all his spiritual activities, whilst it provided the motives which impelled him into these activities. But the Ego can never be really sincere in desiring its own destruction, nor can it ever draw from its own resources the power to rise above itself. So it must reach this point where it ceases self-effort and surrenders itself to the higher power which may be variously named God or the Higher Self, and relies on that power for further progress…"

~ Paul Brunton

The ego is the ultimate trickster. It can appear to utterly destroy itself only to reappear somewhere 'else' in the same form or another completely different one.

One can only marvel at it's ingenuity. No?

[Wind]

We keep God as 'other' and like this we keep our 'I' as separate from Him.
But neither you, the Self, nor God are 'other'.
Better still, let all else be 'other' and you be nothing.
The awakened one says: I feel you in me as me whenever I, as ego, am no more.
Then ego is 'other'. In fact, it cannot even be found.

Therefore, let your prayer be,
‘Let me effortlessly forget myself personally and remember and be united in You alone, timelessly.’

~ Mooji

[Wind]

It is a great miracle that a human being,
confronted with so many challenges,
can rise like the lotus flower above the murky waters of the mind.
Though the lotus grows in muddy places,
its flower remains immaculate throughout its life.
Even in heavy rainfall when the waters rise,
the lotus will always be found above the surface.
Beloved one, in the same way, live above the worldly mind.

~ Mooji

[Guish]

The lotus has a powerful image and message. The lotus is beautiful and is undisturbed by its environment. In the same way, we have the potential to be undisturbed when the mind moves. We can't prevent the mind to move but we can stay unmoved while it moves because we are not the mind.

[Guish]

[Wind]

Why, in general, don't employers give more than 4 weeks holiday in one run? Because perhaps, after a good break, it is likely you won't want to go back to work... [laughs]

If you don't maintain your relationship with your personal identity or ego for some time, you also won't want to go back to it. You will forget about it and be free of it.

We often don't realise that it takes memory, practice and effort to continue being an ego, whereas it takes no effort to be one's true Self.

Ego is full-time high maintenance. Its wages are low and its taxes are sky high.

The true Self is natural, harmonious and effortlessly content.

True wisdom is to use one's life to discover and be This.

~ Mooji

[Wind]

So what has to happen is that we have to come back to a saying, view of our own life, which is the way we really are: an organism functioning in terms of the whole environment, with the whole environment, instead of this funny little separate personality. You can’t change human nature over night.

You’re asking us to give up the ego, and that’s the most difficult of all things to do. Actually, it isn't, because the ego doesn’t exist. But of course if you try to give up your ego with your ego, then it will take you to the end of time. Because this is the point: you can’t transform yourself. You can’t make yourself sane, you can’t make yourself loving, you can’t make yourself unselfish. And yet it’s absolutely necessary that we be that way. It’s absolutely necessary if we are going to hand over the direction of nature to nature, which is what it comes to.

It’s absolutely necessary that we let go of ourselves, and it can’t be done. Not by anything that we call doing it, acting it, willing, or even just accepting things. You can’t do it. Why? Because you don’t really exist as that separate ego or personality. It’s just an idea, based on a phony feeling."

~ Alan Watts

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Fx3ZBQDT4OA

[Guish]

Good Dharmas arise and evil karmas too,
Yet both are but illusions.
The body is like foam,
Like wind the mind;
Illusion has no base and no reality.

- Sikhin Buddha

[joeecho]

Posted by Wind (here)
Why, in general, don't employers give more than 4 weeks holiday in one run? Because perhaps, after a good break, it is likely you won't want to go back to work... [laughs]

If you don't maintain your relationship with your personal identity or ego for some time, you also won't want to go back to it. You will forget about it and be free of it.

We often don't realise that it takes memory, practice and effort to continue being an ego, whereas it takes no effort to be one's true Self.

Ego is full-time high maintenance. Its wages are low and its taxes are sky high.

The true Self is natural, harmonious and effortlessly content.

True wisdom is to use one's life to discover and be This.

~ Mooji

WOW! I can REALLY identify with this experience.....BIG TIME!





I would like to draw one of these cards from the game of life we are playing.

[Innocent Warrior]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=p8ak9ulXktk

[Guish]

Work is actually a wonderful platform for spiritual progress. It's too easy to be on a retreat and be in the moment. Being in the moment while raising kids, working and be selfless and calm at the same time really tests one's real inner kingdom.

[Wind]

The Self is not to be found as a prize at the end of a long journey.
It is not produced or created. It is, in fact, a discovery, a recognition.
There can seem to be obstacles that block you from this revelation,
but these are only what you give attention and importance to.
It is only a shadow, for these obstacles do not really exist
other than through belief.
You have all the power to discard them and keep your peace.
So to begin, start where you want to finish.
Start at the finishing line, at what is naturally present,
what is already here, at the place where you do not need
to maintain or sustain anything.
There you will discover that what you are searching for
is your own inseparable Self.

~ Mooji

[IChingUChing]

I decided to add what for me is a very good U.G. video after looking at the one in the I'm having a very difficult time after watching this video, please help!! thread.

Sometimes in U.G.'s talks he answers directly about politics, environment or whatever and it can be harder to discern what he is pointing to on a meta-level. Here I think he is very clear. Enjoy! .... if one can say such a thing with U.G.!!!!!

The talk starts at 3:09 and there's blip somewhere in the middle but that's 90's amateur video for you.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=LCfz-VbM5eI

[Wind]

All problems have to be personal. There are no impersonal problems.
Reflect. You can only suffer when you imagine yourself to be a person.
In the state of personhood, you feel you are or can become a unique entity with unique qualities:
that you can be loved or not loved, worthy or unworthy, a success or a failure.
'You are on my team,' or, 'I don't want you!'
Such words can only be uttered in duality and impact on the 'person'.
The state of ego identity is fundamentally insecure.
And it is good it is this way, because if it were not,
your chance to be free would be almost impossible.

In this life, you have the greatest opportunity to move beyond this limited identity of personhood.
Those who suffer from the ego's attacks are in some way fortunate, for they are nearer to discovering the distanceless Truth. Why?
Because at a certain point, their egos become so unbearable that they run out of moves and then everything has to collapse back into the Source.
If your ego was so wonderful and everything was going great and all your projections were fulfilled, there would be no attraction to the real Self.

The Self will not allow this.
It always gives you, the 'presence', the advantage.
Even if you were in hell, you would have the advantage,
because the seed of being in you is the eternal seed of the Real.

~ Mooji

[Innocent Warrior]

Adam Scott Miller

Excerpt from an interview with featured artist, Adam Scott Miller (solpurpose.com).

When I was fifteen years old, I suffered an impact to my head resulting in a concussion and damage to my optic nerves. Obvious to me afterwards, my memory and vision was affected. Mysteriously, I began seeing subtle forms throughout all space, within my immediate vicinity. One aspect of logical evidence, giving these ghostly forms a proof of objective reality is that they moved in spacial accordance to physical reality. Examples of this being: wispy strands that transfer between my fingers when held palm facing palm; snakelike currents of tendrils moving along floors, up walls and around corners; and perceiving things within a person’s “auric” field that move in immediate accord to that person’s movement. This experiential proof has catalyzed my gnostic faculty to recognize occult dimensions of presence that are normally hidden from view by the perceptual mechanisms, biological and psychic. This “shamanic wound” marked my life as a formative causal factor in how and what I see. It was the way in which I healed also, that opened this latent gift. There has been many documented cases of people accurately hearing the radio after a brain injury, when it is not on. This implies that everyone has the potential to hear the radio when it’s turned off since it is already there inside everyone’s brain, we just don’t access it. This is an example of extreme perception that can happen after a head injury, and the brain is rewiring itself. I had already consciously begun my spiritual search, artistic self-styling, and the occasional phenomena of recognizing etheric forms… so it seems my intention directed this rewiring.

I was then at a point of no turning back, as my determined wish was to use my gifts to create and in so doing, evolve myself and help others attain the healing understanding I’d find in medicinal visions. I chose to be an artist because I couldn’t think of a more sensible and important role to play (in consideration of my talent and philosophical bias for it). The image is the most powerful tool we have in the sense of forging and communicating new ideas.

Source.

[Zampano]

Every moment is perfect-every moment is the Absolute.
Every moment is now. Surrender.
In the moment, there is no attachement to anything.
Do not expect something to happen.
So simple. Just being

[betoobig]

I love seeing more Avalonians coming to this thread as i think everything and anything bring us here.
@ Guish ..."Being in the moment while raising kids, working and be selfless and calm at the same time really tests one's real inner kingdom." you just describe my now...and my real inner kingdom is starting to overflow outside, i can feel it, great now. Just breath. Thanks everyone.
Love...Evol