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Thread: THE EVOLUTION OF THE EGO - Eckhart Tolle

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    THE EVOLUTION OF THE EGO - Eckhart Tolle

    I found this short (5 min) video very encouraging. Hope you do too.




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    i don,t think the ego is to be overcome or gotten rid of as it is a part of us that makes us who we are.
    imagine a world full of people with no ego.where,s the fun!
    what i would say is being mindful of the ego and being able to control it.
    as soon as you become mindful of it and try to be aware of it,it will start playing games with your mind and start screaming for attention.
    it will crave for what ever it can consume and satisfy it,s need.
    i think tolle labeled this the pain body.

    does make us think where do our thoughts come from,what is mind!what would it be like to be your true self?letting go of the layers that create our identity.
    just to be!

    would sensory deprivation of all our senses give us a idea of just being.
    gotta try that flotation tank one day

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    Quote Originally posted by ronin View Post
    i don,t think the ego is to be overcome or gotten rid of as it is a part of us that makes us who we are.
    imagine a world full of people with no ego.where,s the fun!
    what i would say is being mindful of the ego and being able to control it.
    as soon as you become mindful of it and try to be aware of it,it will start playing games with your mind and start screaming
    I agree Ronin, I am fortunate in the sense that as a semi professional musician in a rock band I can allow for say two hours whilst gigging to really let rip and enjoy the positive side of having a balanced ego.
    In other words, I allow myself to become lets say a different person whilst on that stage and milk it for what its worth.
    Off stage however, I rarely tell anyone that I am a reasonably accomplished musician to avoid being labelled egotistical.
    Besides, why should I make someone else feel envious because I can perhaps do something well they cannot?
    So being humble and controlling ones ego in consideration of other's is very important.
    That way, people are always more in appreciation of hidden talent than lets say a big head spouting off of how good he or she is.
    There is much debate and taboo about ego in spiritual circles but we all love to see someone acting or performing confidently whether it being in the movies or performing arts but without a certain amount of ego, these performances would imo would be incredibly lack lustre or even boring.
    I suppose I am suggesting that if one can "govern" ones own ego so as not to be patronising or to over influence others, then it really is an important part of who we are to generate something out of the ordinary to instill confidence in others who are possibly just needing that incentive and motivation to have more fulfilling lives.
    No one likes anyone blowing their trumpet to the extreme but deep down....we all have heroes who have all needed a little ego to achieve their success.

    Russ

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    There is no problem in ego except those who make it their idol or their enemy. How many "spiritual" people do we see who are at great pains to appear to have "conquered" their ego? Oh, how enlightened they are — or want to seem! It is nothing but conceit. Anybody who had truly obliterated their ego would not be able to inform the world of that fact. How could they say "I have conquered my ego?"

    Ego is perspective. When there are no other influences on a person's attitude, that perspective, to abuse the double meaning of that word, loses all perspective. That is to say, any "ego problem" is to have "perspective without perspective". We do not respect the greater knowledge another person could have because that knowledge is "knowledge over there" as opposed to our own, which is "knowledge over here". When ego is unrestrained, we give undue respect to ideas like "this/these", "we/us/our/ours" and "here" at the cost of all the other options. This phenomenon is seen in nationalism and racism. Haven't you noticed how it's always my country that's best? Always my race which is best?

    When there is only ego, there is a problem not because ego itself is bad, but because the exclusion of all other good things is unhealthy. The word "ego", as most of you will know, is just the Latin word for "I". The words of this class tend to "disappear" in a phenomenon called "pro drop": when the "doer" is understood from context, the word is left out. This phenomenon helps to demonstrate good ego and... I don't want to say "bad ego", I want to say "put upon ego", because it is an ego that has been made to operate beyond its usefulness.

    In Latin, if you wanted to tell somebody that you loved them, you would say "te amo". Because "amo" means "I love", we do not include the word for I, and so we do not say "ego te amo". We might sometimes say it, though, if we needed to be emphatic. In response to the question "qui me amat?" ("who loves me?") we might say "ego te amo", which emphasises the "I" in the sentence: we effectively say "it is I who love you" or "I myself love you". That is, we have put emphasis on ourselves. When the question isn't about who loves, but rather on the "shape" of the relationship (love, hatred, affection, neutrality, etc.) our focus is naturally not on the I who feels these things, but on the feeling itself. Thus, we say "te amo". In such a declaration, the fact that it is we who love this person is not the point.

    To get ego out of perspective is like the novice speaker of Latin who begins every such sentence with "ego". "Pavonem edi" means "I ate peacock (I could have eaten something else, but it was peacock I ate)", whereas "ego pavonem edi" means "I ate peacock (other people may have eaten something else)". Both have their uses and which is preferable depends upon context. Neither is better or worse than the other. It's the same with ego. Ego isn't bad, it's what you choose to do with it that matters.

    Most of the time, our emphasis is going to be on what we do, feel or think and not on the fact that we are the one who does, feels or thinks this. Within each idea is the implied idea that there is an I that does, feels or thinks, but that's not our emphasis. It's not what we consider important about the information and it's not what we want people to take away from our conversation. Ego becomes a problem for some people because everything is viewed through a lens that considers "I" to be the important part. I as opposed to another love you. I discovered a cure for cancer (it was all me!). And so on. Ego is not bad. It is ego that let's you look in the eyes of a baby and tell them you love them. What else would you do? Hold them and coo "there is love for you in the world". Ego is the part that allows us to connect ourselves to the world around us. When we say "I love you", we say "there is love for you in the world and I can assure you of this because I feel it".

    Ego reminds you not to let your body wither away to nothing while you flatter yourself with ivory tower ideas like egolessness. Ego is looked down upon in many of the faddier circles of modern thought. Oh, it can be used in bad ways, so it must be bad. But guns don't kill people, people kill people, and it's not your pen's fault if your writing brims over with spelling errors. Those who think that ego is bad should make sure they're using it in a healthy way before they attribute to it all blame and march it onto the cross to die for their purity like the Jesus of New Age delirium. If people judged their digestive systems the way they judge ego, people would never eat again. If you focus on the sh!t that marches out of the "imprestigious" end and ignore the nutrients it supplies to your entire body, you might decide you were better off without your alimentary canal.

    Maybe that's why countries groaning under the weight of the obesity epidemic are seeing an increase in the number of people taking the drastic measure of a gastric bypass. It can't be that people are misusing their digestive systems and destroying their metabolisms, just cut out a large swathe of the digestive system. That'll solve it. Yeah, I'd say that's about the best analogy for these anti-ego sorts (who sit smugly in their conceit): if they don't know how to use it properly, they'll try to chop it out.

    Those who make their ego their idol or their enemy — they are no different than the obese who make food their idol or the anorexic who make it their enemy.

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    Quote Originally posted by Seikou-Kishi View Post
    There is no problem in ego except those who make it their idol or their enemy. How many "spiritual" people do we see who are at great pains to appear to have "conquered" their ego? Oh, how enlightened they are — or want to seem! It is nothing but conceit. Anybody who had truly obliterated their ego would not be able to inform the world of that fact. How could they say "I have conquered my ego?"

    Ego is perspective. When there are no other influences on a person's attitude, that perspective, to abuse the double meaning of that word, loses all perspective. That is to say, any "ego problem" is to have "perspective without perspective". We do not respect the greater knowledge another person could have because that knowledge is "knowledge over there" as opposed to our own, which is "knowledge over here". When ego is unrestrained, we give undue respect to ideas like "this/these", "we/us/our/ours" and "here" at the cost of all the other options. This phenomenon is seen in nationalism and racism. Haven't you noticed how it's always my country that's best? Always my race which is best?

    When there is only ego, there is a problem not because ego itself is bad, but because the exclusion of all other good things is unhealthy. The word "ego", as most of you will know, is just the Latin word for "I". The words of this class tend to "disappear" in a phenomenon called "pro drop": when the "doer" is understood from context, the word is left out. This phenomenon helps to demonstrate good ego and... I don't want to say "bad ego", I want to say "put upon ego", because it is an ego that has been made to operate beyond its usefulness.

    In Latin, if you wanted to tell somebody that you loved them, you would say "te amo". Because "amo" means "I love", we do not include the word for I, and so we do not say "ego te amo". We might sometimes say it, though, if we needed to be emphatic. In response to the question "qui me amat?" ("who loves me?") we might say "ego te amo", which emphasises the "I" in the sentence: we effectively say "it is I who love you" or "I myself love you". That is, we have put emphasis on ourselves. When the question isn't about who loves, but rather on the "shape" of the relationship (love, hatred, affection, neutrality, etc.) our focus is naturally not on the I who feels these things, but on the feeling itself. Thus, we say "te amo". In such a declaration, the fact that it is we who love this person is not the point.

    To get ego out of perspective is like the novice speaker of Latin who begins every such sentence with "ego". "Pavonem edi" means "I ate peacock (I could have eaten something else, but it was peacock I ate)", whereas "ego pavonem edi" means "I ate peacock (other people may have eaten something else)". Both have their uses and which is preferable depends upon context. Neither is better or worse than the other. It's the same with ego. Ego isn't bad, it's what you choose to do with it that matters.

    Most of the time, our emphasis is going to be on what we do, feel or think and not on the fact that we are the one who does, feels or thinks this. Within each idea is the implied idea that there is an I that does, feels or thinks, but that's not our emphasis. It's not what we consider important about the information and it's not what we want people to take away from our conversation. Ego becomes a problem for some people because everything is viewed through a lens that considers "I" to be the important part. I as opposed to another love you. I discovered a cure for cancer (it was all me!). And so on. Ego is not bad. It is ego that let's you look in the eyes of a baby and tell them you love them. What else would you do? Hold them and coo "there is love for you in the world". Ego is the part that allows us to connect ourselves to the world around us. When we say "I love you", we say "there is love for you in the world and I can assure you of this because I feel it".

    Ego reminds you not to let your body wither away to nothing while you flatter yourself with ivory tower ideas like egolessness. Ego is looked down upon in many of the faddier circles of modern thought. Oh, it can be used in bad ways, so it must be bad. But guns don't kill people, people kill people, and it's not your pen's fault if your writing brims over with spelling errors. Those who think that ego is bad should make sure they're using it in a healthy way before they attribute to it all blame and march it onto the cross to die for their purity like the Jesus of New Age delirium. If people judged their digestive systems the way they judge ego, people would never eat again. If you focus on the sh!t that marches out of the "imprestigious" end and ignore the nutrients it supplies to your entire body, you might decide you were better off without your alimentary canal.

    Maybe that's why countries groaning under the weight of the obesity epidemic are seeing an increase in the number of people taking the drastic measure of a gastric bypass. It can't be that people are misusing their digestive systems and destroying their metabolisms, just cut out a large swathe of the digestive system. That'll solve it. Yeah, I'd say that's about the best analogy for these anti-ego sorts (who sit smugly in their conceit): if they don't know how to use it properly, they'll try to chop it out.

    Those who make their ego their idol or their enemy — they are no different than the obese who make food their idol or the anorexic who make it their enemy.
    Great post. Concise, with no waffling or apologizing for the ego itself. Getting the emotions balanced will smooth the ego out. One need not worry about the criticism of others still trying to figure their childhoods out. To them being authentic and confident is often viewed as egotistical.
    Last edited by modwiz, 20th July 2014 at 03:02.
    "To learn who rules over you simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize" -- Voltaire

    "Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."-- Eleanor Roosevelt

    "Misery loves company. Wisdom has to look for it." -- Anonymous

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    In many ways, ego has been explained as this or this, yet one person will conceive it as one thing another as something else entirely, and later on they may just see it is another thing again. I am often told that I put other people down, yet that had nothing to do with my intent - I think what it has a lot to do with, first of all is the Astrological sign you were born with. As an example as an Aries our way of seeing thing overall is as "I am", now we are told the person who says "I am" has a huge ego, but if this is the way you approach life, through seeing realisations which are important to Soul development as "I am" then I will be forever labelled in this life as egotistical. What about the star sign that sees everything in the light of "I achieve", they too will be egotistical, the same for many other sign, it is how you came to view things as or not as in this life.

    Just because some POPe way back when, decided that we sin from the moment of birth, and gives us a long list of how we sin. Then we have to confess to having sinned, did that ever mean that we ever did sin? I believe it to be much the same sort of thing with ego - some one decided it exists and it is there if we are or exhibit signs of their list of ways to be egotistical, then are they in fact real sins for us or not. Is not that list ways we find to make our way through life?

    If like myself at an earlier stage in life, you are diagnosed as being a doormat. I have as much Pisces as Aries, and the Pisces was winning the race, so my herbalist, decided I needed herbs and Bach flowers in order to bring the Aries to the fore. This in fact gave me a means of becoming able to be me instead of a doormat. OK, I became more extroverted than the previous introvert, to some people being able to stand on my own two feet and face the world as who "I am", then to many this is seen as "putting me down" because I suddenly became better than them. Not so to me this was simply being able to face the world now, not all hunched over and trying to cover up my heart so it won't get hurt. To the person who saw me as telling them I was better than themselves, then they are going through their own pain of trying to become something different than what they were, maybe they wanted to stand as a person as well and decided I can't abide some one else who can.

    So I agree at some stages of our life development, especially when the blue dog of despondency hits you and knocks you flat, maybe a huge chunk of ego is what we need. If we become sure of ourselves in some of the things we have achieved through dammed hard work, is being sure of yourself ego? To some people it is. If we stop making judgement on what we ourselves or some one else is, and recognise their is a need for something in our lives at a certain time, and take them as they are at that time, not what they have been or might become, then we would not have to discuss ego as a sin and accept it. I've had plenty of people tell me you do this or this - that's OK, I grew up with few societal skills, because my mother was afraid of her own, and without some one telling me, you have no boundaries, or you are a doormat, then I cannot grow. We all have faults in some one else's eyes, but with the love of some person telling you in a feeling way what they see, can we in fact take a good look into how we approach others. The fault I see in knowing about ego, and looking into it, is that ego is seen as a fault and something to blame you for, not as something that may even be the means to moving onto a person no one especially yourself, can see as having few of that lists of wrongs we have been given as having an ego .

    The big thing for your own sake is to make sure you are open, not just open minded, but open to all facets of life that come your way. The next thing is to not view the taboos as taboos, they are a means to something else. Many of you will have smoked Mary Jane and tobacco when younger, yet the fabric of the world out there has gone to take great pains to tell you how wrong this is. Well was it? Did it in fact connect you to something good, did it help correct pain and allow you to go on, or did you take on the fact that it was wrong and you allowed yourself to go into a huge guilt trip? Many did get something bad out of what they were doing, and had to come to terms with all that, in fact it may have been just that that you came to learn, having learnt, you move on and hopefully help someone else. This is a long winded way of saying to each his own, we may in fact be here to learn that, so that your own realisations to your own soul become meaningful to you, not to someone else to want to put a label on it.

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    Bumpy

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    Thanks for reviving this thread, Aianawa.

    And a very belated thanks to Modwiz for quoting a post by Seikou-Kishi. I miss his wit, wisdom, and knowledge.

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    You heard of the TOTcasts Modrad did ?, would like to see them revived again with members sharing, like yourself, Chris etc, if Modster was so inclined of course.

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    I was just thinking about the TOT-casts. But Modwiz seems to want to go away.

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    Quote Originally posted by Aianawa View Post
    This is a real answer, she gives...sorta...I think a more direct truth might suggest that we can and do heal with repeated positive experiences...A backslide is like dieting. If we fail one day, truth/reality certainly doesn't demand that we consider ourselves failed but rather temporarily stayed. We have to move forward in positivity
    Last edited by Emil El Zapato, 4th November 2018 at 14:42.
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