It's my 1,000th post--about Ego and Essence

[Bluestar]

Hooray, now I won't be considered a newbie, although I have been on this board for over four years I haven't posted much until lately.

I was very interested to read the synopsis of Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth, Week 2 from Oprah's website written so eloquently by Jeannette in FL. Let me preface my post by saying that I think it's wonderful that this subject is being discussed by Oprah and that it is my sincere hope and desire that many will be "awakened" by this process.

Jeannette summarizes Tolle's description of Ego as such:

This webcast dealt with the Ego. Tolle explains that the Ego is a compulsive thought processes of which 98% of is useless. Ego prevents us from living in the present. It concentrates on the past; keeping us stuck or on the future; pretending that there is where our happiness will be. Therefore keeping us trapped in endless loops. The Ego has no use for the present.

The Ego has labels for everything, our culture, our nationality, our families, our things, our opinions etc, which then in turn judges others as either someone who is either a friend or an enemy. It never is neutral or accepting.

The Ego constantly is comparing, “Am I as smart as the other person” “Is the other person smarter than me” “Am I as good looking as the other person” “Is the other person better looking than me”. On and on and on and on.

The Ego is never satisfied for long, it is always looking for more and more. He said that is one of the reasons that people are in so much debt. Once they have something, the thrill is gone quickly thereafter and then they need something else to feed the ego.

He spoke about how the ego develops in children is when we give things names. Once named, the magic is gone, as it now has a label. He said one way to prevent the Ego from overtaking children, when we of course we have to teach them names of things, is to keep the magic alive in them. For instance, when we teach them “oak tree”, we should let them feel the bark of the tree, touch the leaves, see the sun on the leaves, the water droplets.

Tolle spoke about each time we are in the present, the Ego loses more and more control over us allowing us to be awakened and free from the trap of the egoic mind.

Tolle then spoke about illness, when a woman called in about on dealing with her lupus and RA. He said that many people identify with their disease or illness, therefore giving the disease power. He said that people need to stop talking to other people about their diseases and illness, stop feeding and empowering the disease. First one should accept the disease as it is and find places in the body that are healthy and to go to those places and build upon it for healing. He also said that nature is another place to find a place to start healing one’s body. He said not to resist the physical pain because that will create psychological pain, again feeding the ego and the disease.

Here are my comments having studied and channeled this subject extensively for the past 15 years with my spirit guide: I do not believe the ego is useless. Ego is, in fact, a word that describes how we function on the earth plane. Ego-based actions are rooted in survival. Survival is a VERY GOOD THING, not useless or evil in any way. Without ego we would not survive. It is how we feed, clothe and shelter ourselves, how we make money and make our way in the earth plane.

To resist our ego is to resist our very selves and I think it is wrong of Tolle to encourage us to try and get rid of ego. We should embrace our ego-based emotions. His description of ego being useless and responsible for the evil in our lives smacks of a religion's description of sin to me. I don't believe in sin, which means I believe in the inherent goodness of all of us since we are all God's creatures and part of he god-source itself.

The awakening is about our becoming aware of our own essence self, the self that we cannot see or touch, but only sense is there. Our mission in coming to this earth is to get in touch with our essence, and then combine it with the ego self to create a new ego-essence self which can manifest in perfection on the earth plane and in the earth's energy.

The things that Tolle describes as bad in our lives, i.e. being stuck in the past, labels, judgment, comparisons, lack of satisfaction, (I would add fear, anger and all the fear-based emotions) are, in fact, issues that can be resolved. I call them filters. They are ways of behavior that each of us has learned over a multitude of lifetimes in order to survive. Because they may have helped us survive at one time, we cleverly tuck these filters into our cellular structure to be used again and again and we don't recognize that we have moved beyond their usefulness, so they repeat in our lives like a broken record.

It is these filters that we need to get rid of, not the ego-self. Merely trying to "wish away" or avoiding these filters won't do it. The more we resist them, the more they pop up in our lives. He is correct about resistance. The only way I have found to dissolve these filters is to align with them on an energetic level where they will dissolve.

Thank you all for listening to me (if you have read this far). I appreciate any comments on the information I have posted here.

Sending you all love and light,
Bluestar

[silverlib]

1. Accepting ego...

My take is that he is trying to teach us to accept our ego for what it is. I don't think he expects us to rid ourselves of ego. Ego can and will continue to work against us if we do not face the reality, and I myself have not faced the reality of ego. There is a character in "Eat, Pray, Love" - a South African retired nun, I believe, who says something like this - "Guilt is simply our ego fooling us into thinking we are making moral progress."

Does this make sense? Or do you think I'm entirely off the mark? One of the things I came to know about myself is that my best qualities are also my worst faults. I must continuously work to make sure none of my qualities show as faults, although it is inevitable that they rise to the occasion, but hopefully less than previously. Social workers use this language - "strength based" language if I recall correctly. i.e. "The client manipulates the system and those around her" vs. "The woman is creative and we need to help her focus her creativity in more positive areas." Somewhere in the beginning of the book, he states that we should not worry about envying those who have what we do not have, but to recognize when we do this and to limit its control of our lives.

[Bluestar]

2. Hmmm--I'm not sure if I understand your question, but here goes

In the first expression from the retired South African nun, I would say that "guilt" is the filter that should be cleared. When it is cleared, one would no longer be fooled and would recognize the truth about one's moral progress.

In your other example about a social worker saying someone "manipulates", I would say that manipulation would be the filter and should be cleared. Thereafter, the truth of one's creativity could shine through for its intended purpose, as one would no longer have the desire or feel the need to manipulate.

Just my take. Thanks for responding.

[Celebration]

3. Congratulations on #1000

Thanks so much for sharing. I haven't been reading the Tolle book so I probably shouldn't even answer your very thoughtful post.

Funny, I was just thinking about the ego yesterday. I was going through my mind what I would call myself if I could change my DU name to something other than what I call the "blocked third chakra" name. Most people here know the concept of the id, the ego, and the superego that were Freudian concepts. Wilhelm Reich started out in Freudian psychology and eventually rejected it for more of the "pseudo" scientific, unproven orgone. I am much more drawn to Reich, although I could never run for POTUS saying that I honored Reich because no telling what would be dredged up about Reich, even over and above his imprisonment. LOL.

The way I look at it, the ego, the superego and the id are the very "labels" that Tolle is dismissing. We can't avoid labels, and we can't avoid categorizing in the physical world. We must live with this sort of organization. Ideally, we can keep from attaching emotion to labels, but that ideal is just not met. The whole concept of neurolinguistic programming is built around this, of course.

Tolle is absolutely correct about illness. One only needs a tiny bit of experience with using a pendulum or muscle testing to figure out that people can often get dramatically well when they drop the attachment to the label. But since the ego itself is a label, let's just say that energetically I am not quite "getting" the message here.

Telling people to forego the ego is just not an effective message, if that is what he says. I've begun looking skeptically at a lot of self help books, though I realize that some do cause people to make some needed changes in their lives.

To me--there are strategies--strategies that are effective, and strategies that are not effective. I'm all for strategies that work. And, different strategies work for different people. The effective strategies that I have come across do not in any way involve the concepts of the ego, the superego, and the id. They are all about removing negative patterns in the energetic fields. And, back to Psych 101 again, Pavlov DOES have a lot to do with it. Think about it--karma, cause and effect, karma, cause and effect, karma, cause and effect. KARMA. CAUSE AND EFFECT. There is a lot more to this than a dog, a bell, and saliva--and yes, there is genetics, there are "past lives", at least in the figurative sense.

But, thankfully, I don't have POTUS as my goal. I would probably fail as a leader in the material world, though not as catastrophically as our present leader.

[Why Syzygy]

4. Tolle doesn't suggest to get rid of ego.

My ego balked at even a hint of wanting to rid myself of it. After watching the webcast for the 3rd week, I felt love for myself for like the first time ever. I told my ego that I will take very good care of her. That care preempts the ego need for acceptance. That acceptance can not be gained by anything *out there*.

[Bluestar]

7. I must confess I haven't yet finished the book

as I've had some other project priorities, but I am glad that he doesn't suggest getting rid of the ego. Again, even though he seems to understand it differently than I do, I am so very happy that his book is getting such attention.

[libodem]

5. This was just what I needed

I even fired up my ramshackle printer, which I have to feed each paper through separately and printed it. I'm working with a Psychologist because of a chronic back pain condition ( I know I'm not supposed to give it power by discussing it) and our next visit will be guided imagery to help keep me in the present. I told him I had some books and papers on the subject of being in the present. Some how I was not connecting the subject with "ego". This gives me a little leap of self growth in a short lesson.

Along the same lines of discussion I watched a little film I linked to through DU, about a Neuroscientist, who had a stroke and was able to study her own brain function during the episode. I found it fascinating. She described losing her language function and feeling huge and outside of her body. She felt at one with the world and very peaceful. I believe the stroke was on the left side of her brain and she did regain function after therapy. I've always heard that all levels of experience are available to use immediately if we choose to access them. In turning off our language and moving to the other side of our brain, I do believe we shut off our ego and experience the fullness of being.

[Bluestar]

6. Libodem, this is a beautiful passage . . .

"In turning off our language and moving to the other side of our brain, I do believe we shut off our ego and experience the fullness of being."

My spirit guide says that in a state of "repose" we can experience "the stillness of being". I think that is the value of meditation--we begin to touch and experience our essence.

[Fire Walk With Me]

8. It is misleading to tell spiritual newbies to reject their ego.

This may create self-consciousness, the end result of which can be psychosis. Self-rejection isn't useful. Self-acceptance is useful, which brings transcendance of the lower issues.

Your mileage may vary.

Edit: Happy 1000th post!

[I Have A Dream]

9. Congratulations, Bluestar!

I haven't yet read Tolle's book, but I have some thoughts -- just my opinions. I think that the important thing is that we don't allow the ego to be in control. The ego has a job; it is to keep us safe and to allow us to have healthy self-esteem. Therefore, it is an integral part of a human being. However, when we allow it to call the shots in other parts of our life rather than our higher self, we are stunted spiritually.

It's my opinion that balance and self-control are needed. We need to appreciate the ego's efforts on our behalf, but we also need to be able to say "enough" to it when it begins to hold us back. We also need to be very aware of what our ego is telling us in reference to areas that are not its true domain, and that requires being completely honest with ourselves. By being absolutely honest even when we see things that we'd rather not see about ourselves (e.g., dishonesty, envy, greed, sloth, prejudice, etc.), we can ultimately allow our higher self to be in control of those areas of our life that are not related to safety issues.

I think that the ego is like a dog that will eat and eat until it gets sick. It won't stop until we make it stop. I don't blame the ego itself but rather myself when I don't do the work required to keep it in healthy balance.