My Father Once Told Me ...

[Will86]

'The strongest persons are the ones who have no ego''
He then added: ''It's your ego that causes you pain when someone hurts you, detach yourself from it.''

He hasn't taught me a lot of things during my life but what he told me that day is stuck in my mind ever since. This is probably the best and most important advice I have ever heard in my short life.

I think he is right somehow but how is it even possible to become such a person ?
Is ego a disease in itself we should fight and get rid off ?

Your thoughts ?

 

[watundah]

I am currently reading "the Untethered Soul" by Michael Singer about this very subject. It's a very easy read about energy, self awareness, letting go and so on. It seems very difficult but not unlike Buddhism, mindfulness and so on. I recommend it.

 

[Will86]

Thank you very much for sharing this !
I was thinking a couple of minutes ago, ''I wanna read a book but don't know what kind of book tho..''
I think you have just helped me to figure this out = amazon = search for your book and buy it straight away ;)

 

[watundah]

Let me know what you think. I am about half way through.

 

[Friday]

I think it probably depends on how you define the word ego.

Literally, it translates to self-esteem / sense of self. Which gives an entirely different conclusion than if you define it more colloquially as pride, or arrogance, or importance.

And if you define it as both? You've got Zen Buddhism. Where the rough point is to entirely lose your sense of self, your pride, your wants, your desires, your hopes, your fears, your love, all of it. <<< I've had that. I still have that far too regularly. It's not what I aspire to. I'm much more on a rebuilding myself tack.

Zen is only one branch, other forms of Buddhism are much less zombie-like. Pema Chödrön (Tibetan Buddhism) is a fairly brilliant writer, and takes a more balanced approach, for example. Some of her books are Living Beautifully, When Things Fall Apart, The Places That Scare You, & The Wisdom of No Escape.

 

[watundah]

I have been trying to wade thru "The Places that Scare You" and am not finding it easy although I tend to dissociate when wading into the heady stuff.

 

[Friday]

@watundah One of the tricks with Buddhism in general, even things written by western serious-practitioners (nuns, monks)... is not to treat it like western literature. It's not really meant to be assimilated en masse. Not storybook style, like the Bible/Illiad/Beowulf, where one needs the entire piece in order to really grok it. When I was a child we were taught by the priests just to take a piece. A writing, or an idea, and play with it. For as long as we liked. From anywhere. You could spend a year on a sentence, or poem, or concept. Or 5minutes and put it down to come back to in 10 years. A circular learning, instead of a linear learning. There are stories in Buddhism. But the stories outline/fill in the pieces, rather than create the whole. It's a very different way of thinking about things. The closest equivalent I can think of is that we don't read the dictionary cover to cover. Or the encyclopedia. We just don't. We look up individual words, or leopards, or whatever strikes our fancy or necessity. Very much the same with Buddhist texts and principles. Western writers tend to blend those two ways of thinking, even lean toward linear, but when in doubt? No wading necessary :D Just pick a piece & play with it to your hearts content.

 

[Will86]

@watundah, I will defo let you know ;)

@Friday , Interesting thought, thank you for sharing.
Apparently, there are actually two types of ego: one self centered (selfish ego), and another one that we call ''universal'' ego.
I was referring to the first one in this thread, the self centered one.
Maybe we have to free ourselves from our own ego to be able to develop an universal ego.
Maybe these two types of ego are actually connected with each other.
Maybe we need to first experience self ego to be able to become wise enough to develop universal ego.
An ego that can have a great and beautiful impact to those around us, including ourselves, and if we get lucky, it can even have an impact on the entire world.

These are just hypothesis and thoughts I had.
Might be totally wrong.

 

[Will86]

@Friday
@watundah

Btw, If you haven't watched it yet, watch the movie ''hacksaw ridge'', it's based on a true war story.
It's the powerful story of one wise man that I perceived as having no self ego but an ''universal'' ego.
He is a soldier who served during the pacific war without using once a rifle or kill anyone.
Great movie that will leave some questions to answer into your mind.

 

[NoWhereKnowWhere]

I always thought Alan watts writing helped me wrap my westernised brain around some Buddhist (more specifically zen) concepts. He speaks (or should that be spoke? Cause he's dead) quite a bit about ego and letting go of the ego.

I know someone who went to Peru and (when in Rome) tried ayahuasca. They are quite spiritual and said it's was an amazing experience and did feel like the ego had been purged. Quite strange to see they acted and spoke even the way they held themselves had totally changed. I would more than likely end up in the mental ward if I did ayahuasca or dmt or anything. But I'm still very interested in it all. It seems like a short cut. That's what I liked about zen is the zen moments when it's like an epiphany brought about by one story or sentence. It's the short cuts I'm are always after. :p