In all the "spiritual" material I've encountered
(including this forum) I've repeatedly ran up against
the idea that eliminating the "ego" (i.e., one's individuality) is a "vital goal."
To eliminate one's own individuality - to become like
a Chinaman, then? (That is, to put the "community's interests" over one's own - this is a classic Chinese cultural value. But look at what at what sh!tholes most Asian countries are to live in - ESPECIALLY China, North Korea, and other communistic cess-pits!!! Surely THAT can't be what "transcending the ego" is supposed to mean.)
But if not to become like China-humanoids, then WHAT? To become like the "Bugs" in "Starship Troopers" then?  If there is an afterlife, is our ultimate fate to become mindless "nothings", microscopic cogs (slaves?) in gigantic "machine" serving some celestial "tycoon" (e.g. "God.")
(Maybe scientific materialism don't sound so bad, after all...)

B-man

Hi B-man

The problem of "getting rid of the ego" is central to meditation of all sorts, and is also the mechanism by which psychedelic drugs operate. (So you can get high by meditating - nothing new here. Yogis have been saying it for years.)

Getting rid of the ego means turning off attachments by which our will is compromised by unexpected trivia that prevent our full and complete focus and awareness. For example, while thinking about pissholes it is unlikely that you will relax and enjoy the thought of a beautiful countryside etc. Getting rid of bnoth thoughts alows you to simply be aware. Awareness allows choice. Choice allows life. Get rid of the ego means come to life.

d

The chinese always seem like they are okay ,i.ve watched them on the telly deanna

EGO and PRIDE
Pride is really the downfall of humanity. If one takes a look at some of the more infamous people in history you will see how pride plays its role in leading to the end of empires. The history of the Roman empire is full of countless examples from Nero blaming the great fire on Christians to Ceasar's ride across the Rubicon, The defeat of 3 Roman Legions by Spartacus's slave army.Napoleon's audacity, to Hitler and the prideful nazis killing millions of Jews. Pride is a feeling caused by the inflated human ego. Pride and Ego is the part of a persons lower nature that causes them to feel elevated above his or her brothers and sisters. Our Ego is the part of us that cares whether or not we are better than or worse than other people at something... Sports, art, music, intellegence, confidence, charisma, how nice we are, appearance, etc. attractiveness to the opposite sex.

Our Ego is also the part of us that fools us into thinking we are hurt when it gets bruised when someone else bests us at sports, art, music, intellegence, etc. Our Ego is the part of us that fools us into thinking that we are hurt when our partner leaves us for someone else. We think we are hurt because the person they left us for must have admirable qualities we are lacking we start to ponder what qualities this person has over us..perhaps they are..more attractive, younger, smarter, more wealthy, harder working, more refined,have a better personality etc.

So why do I keep going on about Ego? Because once you start to take notice of how your ego is dictating negative emotions for you to feel then you have a choice to take action to diminish your ego and hopefully one day get rid of it altogether. I once read from a wise man Vernon Howard that criticism is like an arrow, it strikes a sharp blow against a person's ego. The bigger the persons ego the bigger the target is for the arrow to hit. People with large ego's are more apted to get their ego bruised because the nature of a larger target is that there are more different ways the arrow can come at the target and still hit it mark. They also have the constant burden of defending a larger ego. A person who has a tiny ego has fewer points of pride to defend against, and hence has to spend a significantly smaller portion of his time and energy to be cautious of critics and those who may cause harm. This person is naturally a much smaller, more difficult target for the arrow to hit. If a person has gone through the inner journey of eliminating his or her ego altogether...for this special person the arrow of criticism flies right through. There is nothing to challenge the arrow, this person no longer cares about being stuck by arrow, he or she has evolved beyond this lower nature. This person is invincible!

The person who has a big ego may claim criticism effect on him or her , unfortunately this person has told himself a lie in order to deceive his own mind and the minds others purely for the reason to impress himself and to make others impressed by him. This person is living from his own delusions of self grandeur and is far from even beginning to understand what an eliminated ego is less achieving it.  Hence the larger an ego you have the more fragile it becomes. A man's ego is like a waterballoon. When filled to a minimal amount the balloon is still strong and durable, you can throw it around and it may not even spring a leak. But, when you fill up the balloon with more water than its own good, it becomes fragile and the slightest pressure may cause a pop.

Ego is a tricky thing usually when we have our egos deflated or crushed in one area we automatically compensates by inflating it in another. This is done subconciously, in most cases you will not catch this happening because you are unaware this even happens until someone mentions it to you. Now that you know you can put forth an effort to be aware the next time your ego is crushed and watch this happen,..try to catch yourself in the act! This is a good step in the process to understanding yourself. This is truely and act of self discovery.

What is Ego?.
Ego is the part of ourselves that we think we are. Most people who set out to discover themselves are really only out to define their likes and dislikes, define their ego so they have a greater sense of who they think they are. However, these definitions we carry of ourselves is far from the truth of who we really are. Stripped away of all ego, everyone is the same on the inside. Only when we are entirely stripped of ego are we entirely stripped from selfish motivation. A person with a larger ego will inherently act more selfishly than a person with a smaller ego. We as humans are motivated by selfishness proportional to the size of our ego.

Ego is the part of us that makes us jealous, makes us angry, makes us fearful, makes us unaccepting of ourselves and our shortcomings.

1)A man is angered when his ego is injured.

2)People are imprisoned by their ego without knowing it.

3)People are controlled by their ego personalities without awareness of it.

4)When you have something to prove you have ego.

5)A person who has diminished his ego has nothing left to prove.

6)A person who has eliminated ego has overcome the largest obstical in obtaining heaven on earth.

7)A person who is no longer controlled by his or her ego is no longer emotionally imprisoned by outter events.

8)We cannot control what happens in our lives, only how we react. All faith requires action, faith without action is useless nuch like a boat without a paddle getting us nowhere.

9)Man is so intertwined in ego that he does not know anything exists beyond his own ego.

10)Ego is the part of us that needs,

11)All addictions arise from our egos.

12)Not all egos are aparent, the majority of us keep it well hidden.

IDEAS WE HAVE ABOUT OURSELVES
Everyone bases their ego on something, for example In order to feel the joy of column A we will have to sometimes experience column B

A / B
"I am a successful person" / " I am a loser"

"I am better than that" / "I suck"

"I am a great ball player" / "I have no athletic
abilities whatsoever"

"I am a great artist/musician" / "I am not as good as that person"

"I am intellegent" / "I am stupid"

"I am a good student" / "I am a horrible student"

"I can do better than that/ Thats the best I can do."


OVERCOMING EGO
All insults and hateful words stem from our false egos. Enlightenment is achieved when the ego is finally released. The ego can only be released by first recognizing and acknowledging for what is does to us, and making a concious decision you are through with those games. It can only be set aside by someone who recognizes it brings nothing good to their life, and that it is ready to move on to the greater inner journey that exists beyond this first step. A person begins to master his or her life by setting aside ego like a grown child sets aside a toy. The toy served this person well as a child, he had a lot of good and bad times but after playing with this toy long enough, he has outgrown it and wants to move on. When you are ready you will put aside ego like a child that has put away the toy he has outgrown for a grander pursuit.
Flattery inflates our egos, criticism hurts our egos. A person who has no ego can neither be flattered or hurt by criticism. A person without ego no longer accepts flattery from others. Flattery and cricism go hand in hand. If you want to know how much criticism can potentially effect your piece of mind you can just observe how happy you feel when someone flatters you with compliments. The degree that you enjoy being flattered by compliments is the degree you take criticism personally.

A person who enjoys flattery will also take criticism very personally, whether or not he or she is willing to admit it. In order to begin feeling less effected by criticism, we must work on ending the happiness that we find outside of us from compliments of other people. The sole reason why flattery and criticism go hand in hand is that in both ideas of who we are come from outside of ourselves. This simply means we strongly measure who we are by the opinion of others. Sometimes listening to others has a good grounding effect, it lets us know what type of behavior and personality we are projecting out to the people around us. However there is a popular saying that says we shouldn't listen to what other people think about us and only what we think about ourselves is important. This is a very true statement, but this statement misunderstood will cause a person to lose touch with the reality and responsibility of his actions. For example...In a typical scenario
Lets say I being a person motivated by ego self weigh the opinion of others about me, the opinion of my friends, family and coworkers is what I use to base my ideas about who I am. This is because they can give me feedback about my behavior and keep me in check, for instance if I do something completely selfish, my friends would let me know, and lets say I disagree with them and feel that they have judged me incorrectly. Then I start to feel some resentment towards them for criticizing me. Then I think why should I listen to them? Who cares what they think, its only important what they think! Its only important what I think about myself.


LISTENING TO YOURSELF ABOVE ALL OTHERS A MISUNDERSTOOD MISUSED CONCEPT
Now this is an example of the popular belief: "of we shouldn't listen to what other people think about us and only what we think about ourselves is important" run amok and misunderstood. This is because when we are still acting out of our ego minds, sadly WE MUST listen to our friends and family and those around us in order to keep in touch with reality. Because perhaps I was really just being stubborn and stupid and I was being selfish but was too stubborn to admit it. And being angry at criticism I didnt want to hear, I ultimately decided I should then feel that I am somehow on a higher path and not listen to the opinion of others who are trying to help me and just listen to myself when I am criticized. When we act in this manner we have COMPLETELY MISUNDERSTOOD the meaning and the application of the concept of "we shouldn't listen to what other people think about us and only what we think is importan t." I have to stress now that the correct way to apply the above concept is to apply it first to compliments THEN, apply it to criticism. When you have reached a maturity where you no longer accept the compliments of Family Friends and associates, THEN you can also disregard all Criticism ism that comes from Family Friends and associates. This is because you have now taken full responsibility for creating your own beliefs about yourself...good and bad. And you no longer allow yourself to be effected by Compliments and Criticism. An emotionally imature person will take all the compliments he or she can from friends family and associates and then when they are criticized by the very same people, they will become defensive and tell themselves the opinion of their friends and family dont matter, only their opinion of themselves manner. This is very immature and the wrong way to do it! This shows a complete misunderstanding and misuse of the concept of "listening to yourself above all others" So once again If you accept the compliments of other people and that makes you happy, you must also accept their criticism. This is because you are still living from your false ego. However a step up in maturity even for an ego driven person is a person willing to listen and accept criticism from others. Only when you no longer accept compliments can you also disregard criticism.

This is how we evolve emotionally
1)First you are a person who.. only accept compliments from other people, when it comes to criticism you become defensive inwardly or outwardly and try to justify that other people are wrong because only you have the right to judge yourself.

2)Then you becme a person who... accepts compliments from other people, you also now begin to see that criticism can be helpful and grounding. It allows you to know what you are putting out to the world and how other people view you in regards to your actions. You see it now as helpful feedback instead of something you should defend against.

3) Finally you become a person who... no longer feels happy when someone compliments you, that is their opinion and their opinion only, their criticism is also their opinion only and has no influence on how you feel moment to moment. You truely are a person who is self motivated and draw strength from within.

TRYING TO CONTROL YOUR FEELINGS- THE DEAD END ROUTE
When we try to control our feelings, we are simply supressing tm in an ainttempt to deny that feeling exists or to show that we are better than that. No one can actually control their feelings, but we sure like to believe we can, and the best of us at it can do very well in convincing others that our feelings of fear, jealousy, anger, frustration, resentment, sadness, emptiness, lonliness, doesnt exist. Some of us like to flatter ourselves into believing we can actually control it., when it fact it controls us. Believing you are better than your feelings is you thinking you are great and inflating your ego. Supressing your feelings like author Vernon Howard says is likened to a tornado in the night. The tornado cases just as much damage in the dark than it does in the light. Face it the reason we try to control our feelings is because our egos are bruised,
example: your boyfriend or girlfriend recently broke up with you. Our ego does not like to be damaged so it convinces us we must make it better for it right away so it can feel big again. Our mind then tries to come up with a quick fix for our damaged ego which is to make ourselves think we are sooo emotionally or mentally strong that we can control our feelings and make the hurt that we feel insignificant. I know I used to do this a lot, I took it to its extreme and in the end you will hit rock bottom with this, its a dead end route.

FEELING BIG AND SMALL
Our ego or pride has a dual nature to it, a yin and yang. The seasaw effect of pride causes us to feel big at times and small at other times. An inflated ego is eventually crushed. There are no exceptions to this,. So if you reason correctly, if you don't want to ever feel small again...don't try to make yourself feel big or better than anyone else. Inflating our ego has become a second nature, we think we need it to survive emotionally in this world, but what we don't realize is that it the cause of all emotional and physical pain that we cause to ourselves and others in our world.
At the point our ego is hurt the most we like to say we've "hit rock bottom" After we "hit rock bottom" We might notice our confidence is also at its lowest point, this is no coincidence. Our idea of self "confidence" is directly related to our ego. If we have a big, unbruised ego, we will appear to others as being "confident" or cocky.Then when our big ego takes a sharp attack from a critical remark our ego gets bruised,..and our self esteem suffers. When this happens we have friends and family around who try to boost our egos again,they say things to make us feel better like "You're better than him or her" "You can get a better boyfriend or girlfriend" "He or she wasnt good for you" "You're such a great person Its his/her loss not yours" People tell us these things because they don't know any better. They want to help us feel better about ourselves again by boosting our ego. They want to help us feel more confident again by reinfocing our egos. Unfortunately, though their intentions are good, we have just missed a golden opportunity. Because now that our ego is boosted up again, this time we build stronger walls to defend ourselves, were more weary this time, our egos are rebuilt and fortified more than before. And we feel big again, and better about ourselves, and the cycle is complete and will inevitably start all over again,feeling big then getting torn, rebuilding again, feeling big, getting torn, feeling big, getting torn. It repeats over and over and over again and again, until your awareness that this is happening to you right now causes you to stop. And think. Look over your own experience and see how feeling big "confident" and feeling small insecure have always lead to one another. Do you want to continue on this cycle?? Or maybe there is a way out, and maybe now is the time to break the cycle we've all been in and we're all moving through now.

WHAT REWARDS DOES A PERSON WITH NO EGO ATTAIN?
A man or woman who breaks free of human ego will have the following characteristics.
A person with no ego has no fear. All other human beings live from and in fear., think of how many fear impulses you experience in a day the numbers are in the thousands.All fear stems from the ego mind, a person with a large ego can potentially have more fear.
Stripped away of ego everyone is the same on the inside, our authentic self is no longer selfishly motivated.
This person does is no longer effected by the most personal criticism.

This person's self esteem is no longer raised by praise and compliments.

This persons self esteem is no longer raised by their achievements.

This person's pride is no longer hurt by failure.

This person's self esteem good or bad is no longer effected by their physical appearance.
Low/no self esteem is not the same thing as no ego, it is in fact opposite. A person with no ego
ceases to esteem him or herself on ego based dilusions of self.

A person who has no ego has finally found their true selves.

A person with no ego is not longer confused by love.

Love is a confusing topic to anyone who acts from ego...love and the neediness andinsecurity of ego are misunderstood and confused to anyone who acts from ego.

This person no longer takes pride in association of any kind, race, religion, class, culture,but merely has compassion for all human beings.

This person understands fully the game of ego, pride and self esteem he or she had once been caught up and no longer wants to play.

This person no longer cares about being better than...

Shakespeare said it best
"All the worlds a stage, and all men and women merely players"
A Person with no ego is a person who has left the stage. Everyone else continues to act with no realization, they are actors on a stage,and certainly with no awareness that anything beyond the stage exists.

A Person who has finally stepped away from ego altogether can be called Aware or an awakened person.
He or she can now begin to explore the reality that exists beyond the comprehension of those actors still caught up in the drama of their own play.



A GAME OF POKER
All of lifes difficult circumstances are there to teach us to love/like/accept ourselves to an ever greater degree. When you are hurt in love you are actually hurt in ego, you yourself are a divine being who is beyond the influence of hurt. Each time you are hurt in love...it diminishes your ego if you do not try to inflate it, if you try to inflate it you will also suffera shakey period of swinging from low self esteem to buiding up a false confidence again. Remember a diminished ego is not the same as low self esteem..its more like cashing out more of your chips in the poker game of self esteem, so you have less ego at stake. Cash enough of your chips in the ego game and very little people say or do can hurt you. Cash out enough chips and you are emotionally invincible! This does not mean stoic or unfeeling or having built up a strong defence, this is the opposite of that. You will be able to experience more compassion and understanding for the pain your fellow man is going through because you realize he is still stuck in the nightmarish game. It is a poker game with no winners and no end, you can win more chips but the more chips you acquire the more fear you have of losing it, and the more cautious and weary you get of others trying to take your chips away from you. When you have cashed out of the game,you no longer have anything at stake...now you can simply enjoy the game playing with no chips if youd like or you can move on to another game. You have compassion for those still playing the game because they don't realize its their chips that they prize so much that keeps them constantly in their hellish game. Afraid to give up their chips because its all they know,..the thought of giving up their chips never crossed their mind because they are too enthralled in the game.,This poker game is the game of the ego driven life...you win some, you lose some, you keep trying to win..when you win big you fear losing all that you have won, when you lose big you feel even worse, its a sad cycle, after playing for 10,000 straight games one person might snap out come to his senses and realize this game is rigged and unbeatable! He will try to tell the rest about the futility of the game, but many will not listen and continue to play thinking they know better, others will think the person who stopped playing is insane and crucify him with their words! But still one or two who have begun to see the futility of the game and recognize all its predictable patterns will be listening,..those who have been semi awake during this automatic game will begin to see the glimmer of truth to the words and slowly drift out of their nightmarish unending game. These people will have the choice of continuing to play the game. This time with full enjoyment that they have no stakes involved and nothing to lose. And with the wisdom of knowing nothing they can gain in this game can possibly measure to the reward of their new found freedom. Eventually they will look for a newer better game to play. Still others might stay in the game in an effort to make the many left in the game aware of its predictable nature.. These are the choices open to someone who has ended the game of ego.

FEAR OF REJECTION
Most emotional fears when involving human relations are caused by fear of rejection. This is the most deeply seated of all fear as far as human interaction is concerned. As a child you cried when your parents scolded you and feared losing their love, people of a minority race often experience some type of racial prejudice rejection growing up, you faced rejection by those older than you growing up, you fear rejection from a new group of friends, from family, from not being good enough in school, from not being good enough at your job, the fear of rejection is everywhere in different forms it is the very core fear that causes us to feel "not good enough" It is the motivating fear that causes us to wonder what other people think of us, it is the fear that causes us to care about other peoples opinions of us. The vast majority of human beings are effected by this fear, those who claim to be beyond fear of rejection in almost ALL cases are lying to themselves in order to feel they evolved more than they actually are. A person who no longer fears rejection has no need to mention it to others, and has nothing to prove to himself or herself or those around. Often after a hurtful incident when our ego is bruised we will feel numb. In this situation we often have a feeling of not caring what other people think of us, we feel emotionally numb and any further that hurts us emotionally doesnt effect us any more. Often times people who are emotionally numb after they have experience hurt and rejection will say,,,they are now beyond rejection. This is completely false, and shows a lack of understanding of rejection. They are simply numb from rejection and that numbness lasts only a day or two until they build up their egos again. A person in this state may feel he or she is beyond rejection because he or she is already in great emotional pain and any further pain added to it will have little effect.. Its like someone soaking you with a garden hose, you're already wet it wouldnt matter if someone poured a little more water on you after that. That is the same thing with our emotions after rejection. The truth is everyone I know and you know CARES what other people think of us, we are not beyond it, but it is good to be honest about where we are and work on it rather than lie to ourselves that we fear no rejection. In that case you are simply digging a bigger hole for you to get out of than someone who accepts that he or she is effected by the thoughts of others.
If you are a person who is constantly seeking approval of others, you fear their rejection. The reason you fear rejection is because you have low self esteem, and a big .possibly cocky ego. Having low self confidence and a big ego come hand in hand. You can't have one without the other, its just a matter of how well you cover the other with defensive walls around your ego. In the end all human beings who have not discarded their ego seek approval of others,their friends, family, wifes, husbands, girlfriends, people they would like to date, peers, bosses, etc. It is simply more obvious is some people than others, none the less everyone seeks approval.
The only real way to overcome fear of rejection is by first accepting its there, and recognizing it each time it comes up. Making yourself aware that it is happening while it is happening and not fighting it is the first major step in its removal. Not accepting its there and pretending you are beyond it strenthens the hold of this great fear on you. In the end fear of rejection stems from our ego as well, our ego would convince us that we are beyond this fear to ensure its own survival. When you feel you are beyond being hurt from rejection, it is simply your ego trying to convince yourself of your superiority again.. there has never been a more dangerous idea to the human race than superiority,.

SUPERIORITY
inner superiority
All ideas of superiority stem from the ego self. In fact the idea of superiority is the foundation of the human ego. All thoughts of ego are rooted in self superiority or inferiority in comparison to another. Superiority exists in 2 forms. Inner superiority feeling that you are emotionally stronger than others, feeling that you are beyond rejection, feeling that can control anything that comes your way emotionally. An example of a person with a large superiority/ego complex is Donald Trump. I use him because he is a current popular example that we all know about. Having read a couple of his books about business(which teach very little about business and deal more his fabulous lifestyle)and observing him on tv, his ego is very obvious. Donald likes to talk about the amount of money he has, and has a strong distaste for criticism. For those who criticize him he would say "let them make 5 billion first then come talk to me" This is his cocky ego talking..feeling that he has made achievements far and beyond most human beings, he has the right to talk in this manner. However, here is how a truely SELF confident person would have responded. He would have let the situation rest because he would have felt no need to defend his ego. Also he likes to ask other people's opinion about his girlfriend or fiancee, whether they think she is pretty or not. As one begins to achieve true inner confidence others will notice that he or she no longer asks the opinion of others in ego related issues. I pose him as an example because on television he appears to be a very confident person, which is the type of falsely confidence that we look up to and emulate. His ego/ false confidence is protected and walled by his many outter accomplishments, associations, and wealth. Though it appears to be confidence..false confidence is always built on a foundation of outter achievements, and false confidence can be taken away, when the friendships, materials and wealth that built the foundation of the false confidence is entirely taken away. The measure of a wealthy man with true confidence is to take away all his wealth, and relationships built from wealth. If he remains a happy man, then he has placed no value of his "self definition" as being a wealthy person with a lot of friends., then you can call him confident. It may be possible to accumulate wealth while attaining true confidence, but it requires that the person be careful to never let their achievements go to their head, rather the must know what makes them great from the inside out,. Once a person realizes why he or she is worthy of respect, then they in turn will realize why ALL OTHERS are worthy of the same level of respect. A person who demands respect based on his or her achievements falls short in understanding why he or she is worthy of respect based on nothing. This type of person will demand respect without giving it first to all others,.. this is the foundation of false confidence. The foundation of TRUE confidence is first finding out why and then accepting the fact that you are respectable and deserving of love and acceptance from all human beings unconditionally. Only then will this person also give out respect and love unconditionally. This is the only type of person who has achieved confidence in life...all others still suffer from dillusions of chasing false confidence.

outter superiority
Outter superiority is much easier to detect. Outter superiority is the cause of all racial prejudice. It is superiority human beings use to judge one another and dominate each other through physical features race, gender,religion, height, strength, nationality, customs, wealth, etc. The root of all outter superiority is ego. Since ego is the cause of racism, it is the single most destructive idea that is given to humanity. The overwhelming majority of religions in the world today is based on superiority. Each religion believes their beliefs and their God is either superior or the only one in existence, this includes athiests too who believe they too are superior for not being conned into a religion or belief of a god. Each religion believes their sacred texts are the the truest most accurate words of god. ALL human tragedies, wars, and struggles have been caused by the idea of superiority over another. This is the saddest idea ever given to humanity and it is our choice to overcome it or continue the trend and keep killing ourselves. All the love, prayers, charity, kindness and unconditional acts of love are greatly outweighed by this effects and actions taken by you and me over this devestating idea of self superiority. Racial superiority is everywhere,.. being Taiwanese I know its VERY prevailant in that country as mainland chinese are looked down upon and detested as well as Thai and Philippino workers who come to the Island. America has its history of racism as everyone is aware of and we havent grown past it. Today 80,000 people have died in the Sudan from the effects of Racism. The idea of Superiority is the SINGLE BIGGEST MOTIVATION which drives humanity from our short history to this day. At this moment it would do the world the most justice to work on ourselves and overcoming all personal inner obsticals of prejudice, racism, and religious superiority and not simply hiding it. That is a bigger gift to humanity than anything money, prayer, and help put together. This is because the personal transformation of one person will cause an immediate effect on all others surround us, it spreads like wildfire eventually to change a nation and the world. I am not telling anyone to give up prayer, meditation or charity, those are very great things, but none of those can permanently change the world. They are fleeting acts of kindness to a world that needs permenant change.

Racial Superiority Caused
Hitler and Nazi Germany to kill over 20 million Russians, 6 Million Jews, 3 Million Poles, and Millions of other Gypsies, Handicapped, Homosexual, Mentally retarded, people of both German and other origin.
Slavery in the United States and Racism up til today.
Slavery and Social Ethnic groups in all nations of the world... India, Australia, South Africa, African Colonies, West Indies,
Japanese and Chinese Americans to be put into Internment Concentration Camps while German and Italian Americans were left alone.
The Murder and atrocities of Japanese on Chinese in Nanjing. The wreakless murder of Japanese on American British and Phillipino in the Eastern front
Iraqis Killing Kurds
Genocide in Rwanda
Genocide in the Sudan
The murder of nearly all Native Americans in North America.
This list is endless..
Religious Superiority has caused even more destruction.
The persecution of early christians by the Romans
The persecution of the remnants early christians by the latter Christian Church under Justinian.
The execution of countless Chinese who did not conform with the communists ideas, even today.
The Roman Catholic Church Persucting executing non conformists in the Inquisition.
The Crusades into the holy land for political and financial gain, murdering, raping, torturing countless non believers of christ.
Bosnians and Serbs.
The Constant Fighting between Israel and Palestinians.
War on Terror.
Anyways these lists are endless, these are off the top of my head feel free to add any conflict or period of persecution and you will find endless examples of Racial and Religious superiority, or just feel free to read the daily news.
Real confidence comes from nothing outside of yourself
Real confidence is not based on achievements.
False confidence based on achivements can be taken away, it is a house built on a weak foundation.
Real confidence is based on the solid foundation of accepting yourself for who you are right now at this given moment with all your faults.,
Real confidence is never something that is achieved in the future,..it can only be achieved in the present moment.
INFERIORITY
By now you will realize that everything is connected to Ego. Ideas of Superiority, and Inferority, Superiority and false confidence. Ego and Racism, Ego and Relgion superiority. Ego and fear of rejection,. Ego and the need for approval.
EGO is the root of all Desire for drama, Fear of Rejection/ need for approval, Superiority(inner and outter)/Inferiority(inner and outter), False Confidence/insecurity, misconception of love,.
REAL CONFIDENCE
You may have noticed that I put quotes around the word confidence in the previous
section FEELING BIG AND SMALL. This is because the confidence you and I
and all of us think we have is a fascade compared to real confidence. What is real
confidence? Lets start by looking at our present concept of confidence.
Throughout our lives we are trying to build this thing called "confidence",..its hardest
in our teenage years because there is so much insecurity and change. Then later
on as we do more and have more experiences and grow older and know the ropes
better we think we have grown "confident" I'm here to burst everyones bubble.,,
You haven't grown confident, not really, you've simply solidified portions of your ego
so that it has become a difficult to bruise. As we become older, and our lives get
settled, the pace slows down a bit...we have a good job that lasts more than a couple
years and perhaps even a family. Our ego has now set its roots down in this new
seeminly secure persona,.. We are john doe.. age 45 now a respected vice president
of a well respected firm. We've achieved a certain level of success that we have
strived for. We are married and have 2 kids a nice house with one mortgage, a beamer
an suv and a dog. Life has really become steady, we feel confident, confident in
many of our achievements and experiences, and even in those things were werent
able to achieve we have learned to accept them.
There are now very few assaults on our ego in the past several years,
things look secure and safe,.
Real confidence comes from stepping outside of the cycle of feeling big and
small. It comes from acting purely from No Ego. As a persons ego diminishes
his/her real confidence finally begins at last to shine through. This is a new kind of
confidence, ever lasting, not dependant on any fascade of who you are, of your
merits and achievements,of your associations to any clubs, organizations, or
brotherhoods, of your great relationships or even of your lifetime experiences.
This confidence is the real thing! It comes from an everlasting source, this
is the confidence I know exists and strive for. This is the confidence of the great
teachers, who have single handedly defied and brought down the greatest empires
of their time! THis is TRUE SELF CONFIDENCE because it comes from within
Not from outside of us, not our experiences, not our relationships, not our associations,
not our achievements in life. It comes from a greater source within, I believe it will
come to anyone who seeks it and to anyone who sees the fault of human ego and pride.
True self confidence is one of the best gifts to someone who is walking the path to
enlightenment and self awareness.
The bible phrase "Pride goes before destruction" has its greater meaning.
SELF DISCOVERY.
A Period for defining our superficial personas.
What is the process of self discovery that is the subject of so many books and the remarks made by so many
people. Many people throw the phrase around " Im trying to discover myself," while never really understanding
the ultimate meaning behind self discovery. I used to mistaken self discovery for its superficial meaning, like tv and
movies have taught me it is a discovery of my likes and dislikes, of my personality, what foods I like, what type
of girls I find attractive, what kinds of cars I like, what talents I have, what type of clothes define me as a person,
Am I an abercrombie person or do I wear Sean Jeans? Do I wear Nikes or do I wear Vans? Am I into Goth?
Punk,? Rap? Classical? or Country? The process of self discovery or character creation usually starts in
High School, and it begins with how we dress, the type of music we listen to, how intellegent we are, how
athletic we are, if we are charismatic or not,. This usually has a direct effect on the type of people we hang
out with. Then we find ourselves in one of those many catergories... Are we a nerd? or a bully?
Or the football cheerleader jock. Although these
labels are a part of growing up in today's society, they by no means have anything to do with the term
self discovery spoken by many of man kinds greatest thinkers..socrates, marcus arelius, therou,
Self discovery is a clear intention of finding the facts behind your motives and the motives of others.
Thought awareness- as the first step in self discovery.
This is the very first task at hand for a person serious about bettering themselves,. This is a difficult
task to do but we'll worth it as through it you finally get an honest glimpse of yourself you've never had
before. Your task is to monitor your thoughts, minute by minute, second by second. Make it into a game,
at first it will be extremely difficult and stainning mentally, because your mind is untrainned and has a habbit
of wandering into useless random thoughts. Its incredible the amount of random thoughts a person has
throughout the course of a day. Studies show that the average human being has at least 30,000 thoughts
a day, the vast majority of them are uncontrolled by you!! You have a virtual river of thoughts flowing through
your head that influence and control your mood, lifestyle, actions and words! I think its frightening that most
people have so little control over what goes on in their heads. There are many times throughout the day when
our mind simply drifts, this happens a lot when we are driving, our subconcious mind takes over and we go
on autopilot until something calls our concious mind to attention. If we are not in control of our mind and our
thoughts all the time then who or what is? Other people are! How many times throughout the day are you
aware of yourself, and what you're thinking? Next time you're driving, try to catch yourself thinking what your thinking.
And try to stay in that awareness, being conscious of each thought that comes to mind while you're driving.
Here is a typical example of a drive in the car many people might experience.
Acknowledging the existence our dark side.
Self discovery is achieved by self observation, the continual practice of minute to minute scrutiny
of your thoughts.
and the observation of others in their behavior and their
reaction to situations. A person on the road to self discovery is a person who has a true desire to understand
human nature, not human nature taught by Darwin or Freud or any theory, but the truest human nature
through strict observation of what is real. A person who truely understands his nature, is worth more than
a roomful of sigmund freuds. A person who understands himself to a high degree, understands other people
better than others understand themselves. This is because at some point of observation one discovers that
all people act out of the same set of motives. We are more alike then we lead each other to believe. When
shakespeare was very correct in saying "all of life is a stage" We are like actors on a stage, we enjoy fooling
others as much as we enjoy fooling ourselves over our true intentions. Everyone has a darkside to them, but
almost no one will admit it. Sometimes we mask our selfish dark motives with a good intention. A person
begins his or her journey of self discovery by first acknowledging the existence of their dark thoughts,.
Admit it, we harbor a lot of not so nice thoughts about even our closest friends and family members. A person
who is unwilling to admit and acknowledge this has not even scratched the surface of understanding self.
The truth is our dark side exists whether you acknowledge it or not. Acknowleding it doesn't place the darkness there,
It is there because you have not gotten rid of it. You have not gotten rid of it because you never paid much attention
to its existence each time it surfaces in your thoughts and deeds. A persons dark side is that part which harbors
all their unwanted emotions, Fear, Jealously, Rage, insecurity, guilt. The good news is acknowledging the
nasty feelings that are in you, weakens their hold on you. Continual monitoring of these thoughts eventually
causes them to fade away.
*****************
Well written, well thought-out.
But in the end, what real-world "good" does all
of this do for you?
Except to rationalize your "bad" feelings away -
(or TRY to, that is.)
Now for a sample of what I call "wisdom."
(What the heck IS wisdom anyhow..?)
"A fact, is a fact.
A figure's a figure.
In the end, what counts...?
except ... who's BIGGER!"
(Anonymous, read it on the wall
in a bar sh!tter someplace, don't
remember where...)

B-man

P.S. The world (human society, that is) ISN'T going to change, bluejasn. Not now, not ever. At least
not as far as values are concerned.
Mankind is, what mankind is and that's just the
way things are. It's how they've always been. So, the "cult of superiority" you
denounce, just IS... FOREVER. Sorry 'bout that...

Hi Chumley All ego is , is the same as self worth ,if you have not got self worth ,then you have no ego.Its all about what you experience through life, if you get people putting you down all the time ,there goes your ego , if someone makes you feel good about yourself as a person then you have your ego .Egos like life itself, up one minute and down the next and its like that for each and every one of us on this whole planet and always will be .

Ego is just part of what makes us human.