Spirituality

Why did you bother responding to a question you directed at me? Do you honestly assume everyone else is "enlightened" enough to have an answer for it? Or perhaps you aren't enlightened at all, just egotistical. You likely can't even see past yourself; you’re so tethered to your ego that trying to detach would probably send you into a fatal depression. So, instead, you hunt for excuses—justifying its existence, its purpose, and why it's actually a good thing to hold onto. Think about it. Is that really you speaking, or just your ego? Quiet the ego for once and listen to your own thoughts. You've likely forgotten they even exist, or how they feel. Listen to that small inner voice you stopped paying attention to long ago because your ego was always louder, shouting over everything else.

Sophia Lee80 said:Why did you bother responding to a question you directed at me? Do you honestly assume everyone else is "enlightened" enough to have an answer for it? Or perhaps you aren't enlightened at all, just egotistical. You likely can't even see past yourself; you’re so tethered to your ego that trying to detach would probably send you into a fatal depression. So, instead, you hunt for excuses—justifying its existence, its purpose, and why it's actually a good thing to hold onto. Think about it. Is that really you speaking, or just your ego? Quiet the ego for once and listen to your own thoughts. You've likely forgotten they even exist, or how they feel. Listen to that small inner voice you stopped paying attention to long ago because your ego was always louder, shouting over everything else.

Who are you even talking to here? You should quote the specific text so people know who the message is meant for... If you're asking me, then sure, call me selfish. But how am I supposed to quiet my ego when my ego *is* me? Did you miss the point of what I said earlier? Tough crowd...
😂 🤣

Joseph Ramos11 said:To see the black, you have to know white. To realize there is neither black nor white, you first have to recognize that both exist...

But what is it exactly that triggers that "eye" of yours to recognize both colors in the first place?

We’ve reached a point where people take pride in their own egos... Of course you’ll claim spirituality equals selfishness; otherwise, you couldn't possibly be "spiritual"... just as you yourselves admitted... an excuse... if spirituality is nothing more than egoism, then you all must be angels on earth.

Sophia Lee80 said:We’ve reached a point where people take pride in their own egos... Of course you’ll claim spirituality equals selfishness; otherwise, you couldn't possibly be "spiritual"... just as you yourselves admitted... an excuse... if spirituality is nothing more than egoism, then you all must be angels on earth.

Man, you're a tougher case than you looked at first...
😂 😂 😂

Do you really think I should be ashamed of my ego to try and transcend it?
Oh honey, look at you starting to act all high and mighty now.

Sophia Lee80 said:I would like to know how the drive to destroy the ego functions as an ego trip?
A better person altogether... I don't understand how someone can fail to grasp the concept of "becoming a better person" without immediately asking, "better than whom, or what?" Your response alone proves you cannot discuss spirituality while still viewing yourself as something special—an entity separate from the environment you inhabit. This debate regarding spirituality is nothing more than semantics. The girl asked a question; ask yourselves if any of you actually answered it. Look at how many concrete answers exist in this "spiritual discussion" and reconsider whether you are truly capable of helping anyone on their spiritual path. Or better yet, ask if YOU are even on a spiritual path. Have you experienced spirituality firsthand to claim it is merely "a form of ego"? If you have, that says more about your own state than about spirituality itself. restlessseal16, my advice to you is to turn off CNN; you'll find more spirituality there than you will here. If they had the answers to your questions, the first replies wouldn't be "those lost in semantics will never realize the essence" or "a form of egoism." Spirituality is a practical skill. Our words are inadequate substitutes for our thoughts, and our thoughts are emanations of our experiences. Therefore, one who uses words too easily lacks the experience required to speak of spirituality. That is all I have seen here: throwing around big words with little meaning. If any of you were brave enough to actually experience and confront this world, rather than just criticizing it through a screen or paper, then perhaps this forum could be called spiritual, or even more.

The ego is essentially an agent of self-destruction. To put it another way, you are attempting to smell your own nose. It seems impossible to me, though perhaps someone has actually managed it. 🙂

i

The ego is nothing more than an illusion. It doesn't actually exist; it’s just a fabricated image you've constructed of yourself. Once you recognize that illusion for what it is, you stop entertaining it and simply move on, knowing it has no substance. There is no point in chasing it.

Sophia Lee80 said:I would like to know how the drive to destroy the ego functions as an ego trip?
A better person altogether... I don't understand how someone can fail to grasp the concept of "becoming a better person" without immediately asking, "better than whom, or what?" Your response alone proves you cannot discuss spirituality while still viewing yourself as something special—an entity separate from the environment you inhabit. This debate regarding spirituality is nothing more than semantics. The girl asked a question; ask yourselves if any of you actually answered it. Look at how many concrete answers exist in this "spiritual discussion" and reconsider whether you are truly capable of helping anyone on their spiritual path. Or better yet, ask if YOU are even on a spiritual path. Have you experienced spirituality firsthand to claim it is merely "a form of ego"? If you have, that says more about your own state than about spirituality itself. restlessseal16, my advice to you is to turn off CNN; you'll find more spirituality there than you will here. If they had the answers to your questions, the first replies wouldn't be "those lost in semantics will never realize the essence" or "a form of egoism." Spirituality is a practical skill. Our words are inadequate substitutes for our thoughts, and our thoughts are emanations of our experiences. Therefore, one who uses words too easily lacks the experience required to speak of spirituality. That is all I have seen here: throwing around big words with little meaning. If any of you were brave enough to actually experience and confront this world, rather than just criticizing it through a screen or paper, then perhaps this forum could be called spiritual, or even more.

I could certainly offer a cliché response, but that serves neither of us. I could pretend to ignore the fact that the human mind functions through binary opposites—and that life isn't merely a game of contradictions—but I won't let you cling to the illusion that one can be "better" without being measured against something worse. That would be dishonest. Therefore, it is entirely valid to ask: "Better in relation to what?"

Sophia Lee80 said:I would like to know how the drive to destroy the ego functions as an ego trip?
A better person altogether... I don't understand how someone can fail to grasp the concept of "becoming a better person" without immediately asking, "better than whom, or what?" Your response alone proves you cannot discuss spirituality while still viewing yourself as something special—an entity separate from the environment you inhabit. This debate regarding spirituality is nothing more than semantics. The girl asked a question; ask yourselves if any of you actually answered it. Look at how many concrete answers exist in this "spiritual discussion" and reconsider whether you are truly capable of helping anyone on their spiritual path. Or better yet, ask if YOU are even on a spiritual path. Have you experienced spirituality firsthand to claim it is merely "a form of ego"? If you have, that says more about your own state than about spirituality itself. restlessseal16, my advice to you is to turn off CNN; you'll find more spirituality there than you will here. If they had the answers to your questions, the first replies wouldn't be "those lost in semantics will never realize the essence" or "a form of egoism." Spirituality is a practical skill. Our words are inadequate substitutes for our thoughts, and our thoughts are emanations of our experiences. Therefore, one who uses words too easily lacks the experience required to speak of spirituality. That is all I have seen here: throwing around big words with little meaning. If any of you were brave enough to actually experience and confront this world, rather than just criticizing it through a screen or paper, then perhaps this forum could be called spiritual, or even more.

I would call this a desperate shot in the dark, as you haven't actually reached any meaningful conclusion here. I have stated, or at least strongly implied, on several occasions that a person is not merely an ego trapped in a physical shell. A human being and their environment are fundamentally inseparable.

Sophia Lee80 said:I would like to know how the drive to destroy the ego functions as an ego trip?
A better person altogether... I don't understand how someone can fail to grasp the concept of "becoming a better person" without immediately asking, "better than whom, or what?" Your response alone proves you cannot discuss spirituality while still viewing yourself as something special—an entity separate from the environment you inhabit. This debate regarding spirituality is nothing more than semantics. The girl asked a question; ask yourselves if any of you actually answered it. Look at how many concrete answers exist in this "spiritual discussion" and reconsider whether you are truly capable of helping anyone on their spiritual path. Or better yet, ask if YOU are even on a spiritual path. Have you experienced spirituality firsthand to claim it is merely "a form of ego"? If you have, that says more about your own state than about spirituality itself. restlessseal16, my advice to you is to turn off CNN; you'll find more spirituality there than you will here. If they had the answers to your questions, the first replies wouldn't be "those lost in semantics will never realize the essence" or "a form of egoism." Spirituality is a practical skill. Our words are inadequate substitutes for our thoughts, and our thoughts are emanations of our experiences. Therefore, one who uses words too easily lacks the experience required to speak of spirituality. That is all I have seen here: throwing around big words with little meaning. If any of you were brave enough to actually experience and confront this world, rather than just criticizing it through a screen or paper, then perhaps this forum could be called spiritual, or even more.

"Helping someone on their spiritual journey" is pure New Age rhetoric. Perhaps if you play the fool long enough—as W. Blake so elegantly put it in "The fool who persists in his folly will become wise."—they might finally realize they manufactured their own crisis and that no one is coming to save them.

This forum isn't the place for such exercises, as a ban would follow almost immediately. However, I suspect there are plenty of "great teachers" out there capable of turning their students into absolute idiots, simply because some people clearly need to learn that there is nothing left to learn.

Sophia Lee80 said:I would like to know how the drive to destroy the ego functions as an ego trip?
A better person altogether... I don't understand how someone can fail to grasp the concept of "becoming a better person" without immediately asking, "better than whom, or what?" Your response alone proves you cannot discuss spirituality while still viewing yourself as something special—an entity separate from the environment you inhabit. This debate regarding spirituality is nothing more than semantics. The girl asked a question; ask yourselves if any of you actually answered it. Look at how many concrete answers exist in this "spiritual discussion" and reconsider whether you are truly capable of helping anyone on their spiritual path. Or better yet, ask if YOU are even on a spiritual path. Have you experienced spirituality firsthand to claim it is merely "a form of ego"? If you have, that says more about your own state than about spirituality itself. restlessseal16, my advice to you is to turn off CNN; you'll find more spirituality there than you will here. If they had the answers to your questions, the first replies wouldn't be "those lost in semantics will never realize the essence" or "a form of egoism." Spirituality is a practical skill. Our words are inadequate substitutes for our thoughts, and our thoughts are emanations of our experiences. Therefore, one who uses words too easily lacks the experience required to speak of spirituality. That is all I have seen here: throwing around big words with little meaning. If any of you were brave enough to actually experience and confront this world, rather than just criticizing it through a screen or paper, then perhaps this forum could be called spiritual, or even more.

Focus on your breathing. This will pass.

jademarlin26 said:The ego is essentially an agent of self-destruction. To put it another way, you are attempting to smell your own nose. It seems impossible to me, though perhaps someone has actually managed it. 🙂

i

The ego is nothing more than an illusion. It doesn't actually exist; it’s just a fabricated image you've constructed of yourself. Once you recognize that illusion for what it is, you stop entertaining it and simply move on, knowing it has no substance. There is no point in chasing it.

I could certainly offer a cliché response, but that serves neither of us. I could pretend to ignore the fact that the human mind functions through binary opposites—and that life isn't merely a game of contradictions—but I won't let you cling to the illusion that one can be "better" without being measured against something worse. That would be dishonest. Therefore, it is entirely valid to ask: "Better in relation to what?"

I would call this a desperate shot in the dark, as you haven't actually reached any meaningful conclusion here. I have stated, or at least strongly implied, on several occasions that a person is not merely an ego trapped in a physical shell. A human being and their environment are fundamentally inseparable.

"Helping someone on their spiritual journey" is pure New Age rhetoric. Perhaps if you play the fool long enough—as W. Blake so elegantly put it in "The fool who persists in his folly will become wise."—they might finally realize they manufactured their own crisis and that no one is coming to save them.

This forum isn't the place for such exercises, as a ban would follow almost immediately. However, I suspect there are plenty of "great teachers" out there capable of turning their students into absolute idiots, simply because some people clearly need to learn that there is nothing left to learn.

Focus on your breathing. This will pass.

But what about everything else? Just the ego? What about the actual world around us? What about existence itself?... does any of that even exist either?

One discusses the destruction of the ego, not this other nonsense. Everything you believe in exists... purely in your own perception, of course. 🙂

jademarlin26 said:One discusses the destruction of the ego, not this other nonsense. Everything you believe in exists... purely in your own perception, of course. 🙂

The absolute, undeniable proof of existence is actually the doubt itself! Let me break that down for you; you have to actually exist in order to even question whether you do or not! hehehe 😁

jademarlin26 said:One discusses the destruction of the ego, not this other nonsense. Everything you believe in exists... purely in your own perception, of course. 🙂

And what exactly is this "famous monstrosity" supposed to be anyway?

ambereagle642 said:And what exactly is this "famous monstrosity" supposed to be anyway?

It could be anything, really, since everyone’s perception of themselves is different. Imagine you're sitting in a lecture hall at Harvard, chatting with the person behind you, when the professor suddenly snaps, "Focus!" That sudden, sharp jolt of embarrassment you feel? That's the ego.🙂

IMHO, it's just identifying with an image or an idea of oneself as if it were separate from everything else. The ego fails to recognize the push-pull connection between an individual and their environment.

jademarlin26 said:It could be anything, really, since everyone’s perception of themselves is different. Imagine you're sitting in a lecture hall at Harvard, chatting with the person behind you, when the professor suddenly snaps, "Focus!" That sudden, sharp jolt of embarrassment you feel? That's the ego.🙂

IMHO, it's just identifying with an image or an idea of oneself as if it were separate from everything else. The ego fails to recognize the push-pull connection between an individual and their environment.

I’d probably interpret it as being synonymous with willpower, or what people call "my will"... but listen, if it's supposed to be YOUR will, or just WILL as an objective reality, then it can never truly be an act of "my own volition." Trying to destroy the ego with the ego is basically just whistling in the wind... honestly, you need some kind of concept of "grace" for everything to land exactly where it's supposed to be.
The answer sort of presents itself, but it makes you wonder how much meditation or prayer is actually necessary as a tool to get to... I don't even know what we're aiming for anymore 😁

...of course, I'd suggest that so people don't take the idea above too seriously—just look at this whole thing as one big theoretical concept...🙄 😁

Look, you all need to find some common ground. I’ve heard the argument that you can't destroy the ego because the ego *is* you—so destroying it means destroying yourself. Then there's the claim that the ego is just an illusion I've constructed about myself. Does that imply I am an illusion? jademarlin26, take a polar bear as an example. A bear might go years without seeing another one. How does it measure its hunting prowess? Or does it simply strive to be better at it? We aren't polar bears, obviously. The only difference between us is that illusion—that trait that drives us to improve at a cost, rather than just improving for the sake of being better. What about the bear? Does it even exist? Will it perish because it lacks an ego, or will it only perish once it realizes it has none? Perhaps the bear is merely an illusion created by our own egos so we have something to compare ourselves to—phrases like "strong as a bear" or "bear of a man." If you want to argue a bear has an ego, fine. I agree the ego is an illusion, but that doesn't make it any less dangerous. For God's sake, people who don't even believe in a higher power have committed atrocities. Even if the ego is an illusion, people are aware of it, and some go as far as to equate ego with the self. We all know humans are capable of terrible things when their survival is threatened. The ego requires a constant source of "food"; if that source runs dry, the ego's survival is jeopardized, and since ego equals the self... BOOM. Just look at the world today. People kill for twelve bucks. They clear-cut forests and wipe out entire species as if there won't be anything left after us. Only WE matter. Only our generation matters; everything else is irrelevant. And now you say ego is just an illusion? Maybe, but it's a lethal one. No one can claim the ego is "good." Nuclear energy can be useful, but at what cost? That’s a fitting comparison: ego equals Chernobyl. Seriously, tell me: do any of you actually practice what is said here, or is this place just a vent for "how nice it would be if things were this way"? Everything you discuss makes sense in theory. But in theory, a bullet shouldn't fly. Test your bullets in practice, because you can't trust a theory until it's been tested in reality.

What kind of practice are you referring to? The one intended to bring you exactly where you already stand? Even the theory I am discussing seems to elude you, as evidenced by this little polar bear parable. The bear simply exists, whereas we are merely what we believe ourselves to be. That "belief" encompasses various concepts forced into the grammatical structures of the language we speak and think in.

Furthermore, a bear's parents don't tell him, "You aren't Tom or Ivo, you're Peter!" And then Peter feels special simply because he isn't everything else. Some say identity is a blow from which many never truly recover.

---

... I agree that the ego is an illusion but that doesn't make it any less dangerous...

so now you're saying ego=illusion??? perhaps, but it is dangerous...

So, is it an illusion or not?

Kill your ego, or it'll kill you. Seriously.