Open-Secrets

Tag: ego

  • Ego Self

    Ego-selfWhat is the Ego Self?

    Is the ego self something we need to reject?

    The ego self is what most refer to when they say – me, I, me self, you, her, him, and etc. The ego self is the sense of self that most people have any awareness of.

    That awareness is usually very vague. Very few take the time or expend the energy to investigate what the ego self is. Exploring the ego self can be very challenging and painful – something not very appealing to people in general because it does not usually appeal to the ego self.

    Many people talk about or refer to – their true self. Most talk about a true self is really about a renovation of the ego self. Listening to talk about the true self generally consists of listening to the ego self babble on about an extreme makevoer.

    It’s easy to spot this. The give-away is that the self talking expects to still be around to enjoy the fruits of its rebirth. In fact, what really happens in transformation of the ego self is the self ceases to exist as we have historically known it. There is no self there to pat itself on the back and say – job well done, now let’s go and save mankind.

    Taking the position or viewpoint of getting rid of the ego self only results in more internal conflict and more resistance from the self. Do you really know of anyone who jumps for joy when you offer to annihilate them?

    The most productive and meaningful way to move toward what is real is with openness. Open-ended curiosity about the self, the ego self, who we take ourselves to be – is the way to align ourselves with the optimizing force of reality.

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  • Object Relations Theory

    Object-relationshipUnderstanding object relations theory gives one invaluable insight into themselves and others.

    Object Relations Theory is the idea that the ego-self exists in relation to other objects, which may be external or internal. The internal objects are internalized versions of external objects, primarily formed from early interactions with the environment (primarily parents).

    Three fundamental “affects” that can exist between the self and the other:

    • attachment
    • frustration
    • rejection

    Object relations is a way the mind organizes information. The mind is always relating and comparing what is happening to the past – looking for understanding and meaning. At a Object-relationssubconscious level, object relations is how we project the past onto the present. We rarely see others or events as they are – we see the past and interact with the past.

    Object relations are not just about people. An idea, and ideal, your car, your house, your situation – all of these are part of object relations in your subconscious mind.

    Object relations theory helps explain “our buttons” and those endless cycles we continue to go through. Digging down into the dark grey matter is not pleasant at times, but it can be freeing.

     

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  • Ego Development

    Development of the Ego – sounds like a constuction site project and in many ways it is. There are foundations, structures, images (facades) and much more that seem similar to a housing project – and why not – when all is said and done a person lives within that structure – most are shut-ins, fearing to venture outside of their ego development (ego identity).

    Although many things are known about ego development, there is still much to learn.

    Ego development, as defined by Jane Loevinger, who developed a model to illustrate human personality development, consists of the changes in mental processes put in place by the self or ego (one’s self-image or sense of being) to make coherent meaning of what is happening as it experiences day-to-day life. Therefore, one could say that the ego is a meaning making machine, engaged in constantly organizing and reorganizing everything it sees, feels, hears, touches, senses, thinks and tastes. It does this to create and recreate a human viewpoint – your viewpoint. This is the individual perspective which each human can rely on to approach the enormous job of living life. Our egos work tirelessly on our behalf making our worldview out of the barrage of conflicting information that we are immersed in everyday. – Paul Marko

    A Google search on Ego Development shows almost 500K returns. Beyond the students of psychology and researchers who would be searching?

    Knowledge of ego development is invaluable for those on the spiritual journey. Ego development results in ego identity – what many spiritual seekers refer to when they say – false self.

    The true self that is sought is the self that exists free from identification with the ego and it’s structures. The “false self” does not need to be destroyed and we don’t need to engage in some holy war with it. Simple curiosity and understanding will allow the false to disolve and what’s true to remain.

    Understanding ego development helps this process along.

     

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  • Ego Identity

    Ego_identityIdentity – Ego Identitiy – True Identity

    What’s the deal with identity anyway. I remember my parents challenging me with – who do you think you are? At the time I was just a kid – I didn’t have a clue who I was and they didn’t seem to be helping me found out much either.

    What I felt in response to that question was judged and in trouble.

    In simplest terms ego identity is defined as – the sense of oneself as a distinct continuous entity.

    For Erik Erikson, identity is what maintains in the individual inner solidarity with the ideals and aspirations of social groups. The ego has a general balancing function: It puts things in perspective and prepares them in view of possible action. The strength of the ego, as Erikson conceived it, explains the difference between the feeling of being whole and the feeling of being fragmented. In the best of cases, it enables the individual to understand that the feeling of being at one with oneself comes through growth and development.

    A psychological inquiry into identity will lead to discussions of self-representations, self-images, and ideals. These are some of the components of ego structure that help to form a sense of identity in the mind patterned on the past.

    A spiritual teacher or guide might ask – what was there before ego identity?

    Does that survive ego death?

     

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  • Ego Death

    Ego death

    What does the term *EgoDeath* exactly mean, in brief?

    Ego death, as I think it should be defined, is a set of insights about, and a powerful experience of, the impotence and logical invalidity of the accustomed apparent control-agent who seems to reside in the mind. Ego death is associated closely with the loss of control, or the loss of the sense of being a legitimate controller.

    Ego is not entirely false. To say that “ego dies” really means, more precisely, that the cognitive structure labelled ‘ego’, and the egoic mental model of the world, are systematically re-conceived, just like the components of Newtonian physics were systematically re-conceived to form the new system of Einsteinian physics. Ego death means that the mind no longer centrally identifies with the ego. The locus of control or origin of control is no longer seriously taken to be the ego. The transcendent mind knows that there is a source of control underlying the ego, and that ego’s power of control is an epiphenomenon. – Michael Hoffman

    Looking closely into one’s attitude and orientation around ego death reveals that it is usually the ego itself, that has reified this notion and is – seeking it’s own demise? This seeking is just another means the ego has of maintaining it’s structure.

    “You cannot make the egoless state into a future goal and then work toward it. All you get is more dissatisfaction, more inner conflict, because it will always seem that you have not arrived yet, have not “attained” that state yet. When freedom from ego is your goal for the future, you give yourself more time, and more time means more ego.

    “Look carefully to find out if your spiritual search is a disguised form of ego. – Eckhart Tolle

    Instead of seeking ego death or enlightenemnt, which is mostly goal oriented in time and space – and thus a creation of the ego (and therefore antithetical to ego death), endeavor to understand yourself more deeply. Accept the ego and inquire deeply into it. True understanding will reveal the truth and dissolve the false naturally without the need for us to reject anything.

    Enlightenment equals ego death. For millennia this equation has held true. While the term “ego,” meaning “I” in Latin, is obviously a relatively recent addition to the English lexicon, just about every major enlightenment teaching in the world has long held that the highest goal of spiritual and indeed human life lies in the renunciation, rejection and, ultimately, the death of the need to hold on to a separate, self-centered existence. From Shankara’s rantings against the ego as a “strong and deadly serpent” to Muhammad’s declaration of a “holy war against the nafs [ego]” to the Zen masters’ fierce determination to use any means necessary to break the ego’s grip on their students, this “ego-negative” interpretation of the spiritual path has remained enshrined in enlightenment teachings for ages, for the most part unquestioned and unchallenged. What is Enlightenment

    Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?

    Asking this a million times in a sincere, hearful way will reveal what ego death really is.

    Image by Bad Kitty

     

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  • I

    Friends
    before you is a madman
    listen, not to his words
    they are lies
    and he, a greater liehow arrogant his quest
    these many many years
    thinking to find himself
    and something greater
    far beyond
    thoughts and wild imaginings
    he thought it brave and bold
    to laugh at death
    and pain and sorrow
    the human condition
    while chasing elusiveness
    he strayed
    to far beyond

    listen, not to his words
    they are lies
    and he, a greater lie
    before you
    is a madman

    friends
    it was he who demanded
    and gave permission
    to be fooled
    he thought to find himself
    and something greater
    he said “anything – anything
    take me beyond
    all
    beyond”
    it was he who hung himself
    his madness his creation
    how was he to know
    that beyond light’s blush
    and the moaning wind
    lay the slayer of all sanity
    while chasing elusiveness
    he strayed
    too far beyond
    where stillness and silence
    steal you from yourself
    and being no where
    and no thing
    that Presence
    soft as finest down
    faint as a still breeze
    touches one
    so very very gently
    in a place
    so very very hidden
    all hope of sanity dies
    this touch remembers
    recognizes
    awakens to itself
    listen, not to his words
    they are lies
    and he, a greater lie
    before you
    is a madman

    friends
    returning to this world
    of idiots and imbeciles
    they say, “relax, you’re too intense
    surrender, God’s will be done”
    is insanity
    how, can one surrender
    when one is not
    who, can scratch an itch
    that is not
    where can one prepare for
    what is not
    can any formula mandate grace

    ego Ifriends
    I am a madman
    living in insanity
    where the only road back
    is to expose all the lies
    and I
    is the greatest lie of all

    listen, not to these words
    they
    are all
    lies.

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