Good question, and one i can't answer fully yet.   But, i would like to point out that everything, both "physical" and nonphysical, operates independent of us, our immediate wants or beliefs, to the energy law of like attracts and begets like, or what some call the resonation of energy. 

   To put it very simply, to be like and merge with Source in consciousness, you have to become fully like Source.  No negativity within self whatsoever.  Only Light, only positivity.

  Maybe one of the reasons of why it seems to be rather difficult while focusing our consciousness here in physical, is because the physical is a result of collective and concentrated spiritual error or rather unReality?   Maybe we took real and eternal nonphysical patterns that the P.I. created, and through trying to manipulate those patterns in a self serving and separative way, we densified and slowed down these originally very fast vibratory energies, and collectively but temporarily manifested what we know as the physical?  Nothing but a reflection, and projection of the real?

  If the above is the case, then no wonder why it is so hard to raise/speed up these very slow vibratory patterns back to the more pure Light states again.   Because the physical would then represent our most collective, concentrated unregenerated aspects of self, our shadow energies projected.    Yet, spiritual sources are also involved, and have been trying to speed up and unstick the physical and us, from our stuckness since this all began.   

  A very instructive account about this, is found in the Cayce readings, and talks about early Atlantian period when it became really destructive here, experience was going more from pure Light to denser and denser thoughtforms, and so many were losing the way.   His source said that the Jesus Soul or Disc, came up with a plan to rescue his fellow siblings, and became directly involved in physical and in trying to counteract all this un-Source like use of freewill. 

  Anyways, no one can do the work for us, we have too, and it's just innately more difficult here, but don't keep telling yourself that because it can influence one in a negative way.   Hold fast to more constructive spiritual teachings and especially those direct examples, live that, and you WILL transcend.  We all will transcend, but you have to want it deeply, and you have to focus on that which IS reality. 

  It is basically the same as principles behind Hypnosis and the programming of the subconscious mind.   You have to positively feed the subconscious to get results, the emphasis has to be totally on the "I can, I will, and above all the I am." in a positive way.  Present tense is always best. 

Something that has helped, and is helping me, is The Opening The Heart series put out by The Monroe Institute.   It's emphasis is on reality, and it's all present tense phrased.    But only by living, acting, feeling, and thinking every moment the reality, will we transcend unreality.  And while here, it also takes strengthening and balancing the body physical, with the mental and spiritual aspects of self.   There must be a holistic balance and merging while incarnate here, if one wants to align to the most Light one can.     And take haste patiently.   As Cayce's source oft said, "in patience, and the practice of same ye find your soul."   Most of my Gemini friends tend a bit towards impatience, and patience is perhaps one of things that a Gemini born person should foster more specifically beyond PUL.   Either way, also remember "love is patient..."  (the first adjective used in that teaching and for good reason).

I have heard it said, Bets, that all of us as "adults" are also "children" and so, no matter how much we try, the child will pop out in our interactions with each other.

I think that when we are frightened, feel threatened, are overly tired, etc. etc., our greatest weaknesses easily surface, no matter how "mind-blowing" a wonderful meditation we may have just had, no matter what kind of resolve we have made to remain "unattached to outcome" so that we have a "smoother" experience in life. We are fueled by adrenaline, and become angry. Or, we cannot imagine a safe and happy future, and so we are frightened. Or, we simply do not have enough information yet to make decisions which we might later feel are more appropriate.

We can try and try, but there are times when our physical bodies will prod our minds in directions which we prefer to avoid, or we will follow patterns taught in childhood.  It's just life, and, I suppose, keeps us a little humbler sometimes, when we recognize that we are still learning.

love, blink

Also, Bets, from the Buddhist point of view, we are all cycling through the 10 worlds at all times (hell, hunger, animality, anger, rapture, tranquility, learning, realization, boddhisattva, buddhahood). It is said that in each of the ten worlds lies the potential for all of the other worlds.

In buddhism, some of the "worlds" can be value creating, even if they appear to be negative. For example, anger can be used as an energy for many purposes, if it is recognized, faced, and diverted. After a period of time in hell, we can sometimes help to show another the way out of their hell....Life is not static, so a person is constantly creating effects from current causes at all times.

Therefore, we cannot say, now I can rest on my laurels because I did this or that yesterday, or, I will always remain at this or that level. It is always self-directed. It's not as if some "wind" is blowing you out of buddhahood...we are always creating new causes. At least, that is how it has just been explained to me.

In buddhism, hell itself is a state of incredible suffering, which one projects into the external environment. I have no reason to doubt this.

love, blink

Many thanks, YouAll DearSouls!

You're beautiful!
And complex.
I came with an image of ego as an outgrown but stuck shell. Now I find it is connected to the child within, patience, an internal essence, even a time of raping and pillaging.  So instead of spending my time in morose grumbling about its trials, it seems I have alot of work to do!

Thanks for setting me straight 

Love, Bets

I agree with Ian here, its about as comprehensive a statement about ego as we're going to get on a board. I wish we could all be together physically, we could view each other's body language, facial expression, tone of voice, we could learn from each other that much more quickly to exchange thoughts.

however I'm still glad for the board, a springboard to meditation perhaps and useful.
Ian, Bernadette Roberts is one of my favorite reads of all time!

I read that book twice. I heard she became a bag lady, but I don't think such a life style is negative in the least. as a matter of fact I can see myself living in a tent and being quite happy within a natural environment. it has something to do with Dave's comment about sweetness coming at one from every direction, and that being here now is perhaps all there is, as might our life be snatched from us suddenly, especially if we have no appreciation for the gifts in the moment?
I seem to realize life is very short indeed, perhaps it is because I mature now.
this is not to say there is a thing wrong with living affluently, its just that every soul has it's own intentions and experiences it wishes to have when incarnating. in most cases the rich will want to be poor, just to see how to deal with those circumstances for soul balance.

the ego..we seem to spend all our lives building one, and then later tearing it down in search of spirituality perhaps. if ego declares we are separate from others and from god also, then Ian's discourse is correct, the ego is a sense of separation.

then our purpose is also to be an individual, not a sheep who is blind and follows the herd. so there u have a bit of irony to think on, how to be at one with all life and allow that sweetness to reflect outwards, and yet discover you are an individual also in this oneness platform.
Insofar as ego, I like Bruce's teaching that the ego does an interpretation process, it wants to be helpful to supply an answer to our persistent questions, so it searchs the data banks and produces an interpretation and presents it.
all in all, it is just an interpretation and if different from another's pov.

what he said in his books and tapes is to nudge the voice of the ego over a bit and ask for another interpretation if the first does not seem quite right.
generally, he will expound on this principle regarding conflicting belief systems within one's own psyche.
you may engage your belief systems in conversation as if they sat in the same room with you. which if you think about, the sit in your house of consciousness and are giving you disquiet.
as you engage them, you ask the one, what purpose are you existing for? it will say, I am serving you.
In order to resolve conflict, then he will teach to say to a belief system, I wish for you to quit serving me. and quietly thank the BS (lol, BS, get it?)  for having served you so well and so long.
Then the more positive belief system will begin to operate.

its a bit sometimes like arguing with your own self, just make sure you allow yourself to believe what you desire to believe, along the more positive creational aspects..for instance, I don't see a 3rd WW. I don't believe I want to believe, and so therefore I will go ahead and create as much peace as I can right now, to do my part to avert that possibility.
If that is hiding my head in the sand, It is my choice to create a peaceful world, and I know the more people focus on it, the more possibility of that will be enacted.

ego. a lust for power. we have community here, it has nothing to do with lusting for power. love, alysia

BR is by all accounts a tough cookie Alysia, but I lover her book too. It's so grounded and practical. It's interesting that realised people seem to explain their experience in different terms. She was catholic contemplative, her descriptions reflect that. But you can still pick up core similarities with other accounts.

Another take on ego Dave, written off line. It repeats some of what you have said in different language.

As before it's hard to tie down. Perhaps it's easier to describe (from a broadly Buddhist perspective) and in very general terms what an egoless (realised) person is. Or maybe more to the point is not when the facade you mention falls away.

The problem with ego is that self interest and ignorance (as in not knowing how to live through love) leads to selfish grasping after stuff that the ego mistakenly thinks will make it happy - usually at the expense of others. Not just the usual power, money, prestige, sex, fame, bullying  and the like but sometimes very subtle stuff. People for example make out on being victims, holier than thou, more needy than thou, smarter than thou (oops!  ) more sinful than thou or whatever. Not to mention the way we are all to some degree schizo - we adopt differing personae in differing situations. It all depends on the particular 'self' or cocoon we choose to build around ourselves.

The egoless person first of all is 'selfless', or empty of self. (a practical fact it seems, not just some euphemism - see the Bernadette Robert book ref in the post above) And so is not driven by egotistical urges. And so has no cocoon of selective perception or fear to block loving thoughts, impulses and actions.

He/she lives in the 'natural' state, trusting in both their own and the world's basic goodness  - that things work out for the better if we just let them flow. A state characterised by lightness, humour, openness, and consistency. Accepting of the hardships which teach valuable lessons as well as the nice things.

Perception is wide open and unbiased. Their cognition or understanding is again unbiased - informed mostly by immediate 'first thought best thought' intuition that comes from higher mind/God or whatever you choose to call it. Which is informed by natural wisdom, PUL and compassion. Thought and intellectual capability are available, but only if reached for, and do not rush in to swamp first thought with selfish urges as in the case of the egotistical mind.

This won't necessarily result in a loving saint (compassion is sometimes very much of the matter of fact tough love variety) or even an intellectually smart person (depends on genetics, training and life experience) but it does mean they won't be driven into doing harm to others or to the world.

Absent is the obsessive intensity characteristic of the ego driven mind which uses thought to prop up its delusion. It's perhaps the trust in the basic goodness of themselves (underneath this obscuration and confusion i'm a sound and decent person as deserving of right treatment as the next, as is everybody else) and existence (it or God can be trusted to produce optimum conditions for us all if we can only let go and stop the self interested ego driven interference) that along with selflessness that is a key point.

It's when we get intellectually and egotistically hung up, get overwhelmed b fear and stop trusting in this basic goodness, drop living from love  and start to try to force our selfish urges on other people and the world that things get messy.

This trust in basic goodness is perhaps the most basic difference between the Buddhist and I guess new age view of ourselves and the world, and that of conventional institutional Christianity which holds with original sin, the devil, a God prepared to impose punishment and so on. And which often entails a high intensity of belief (rather then a simple allowing of things to flow), and a readiness to push these beliefs on others..

That's not to say that there aren't those in these traditions/movements that despite teaching choose to see things through rose tinted glasses. But they to my mind far from teaching some wishy washy happy clappy take on existence they are grounded in reality. Nor is it just aspirational. Far from denying the suffering and badness that life often delivers it very overtly engages with it, is very tough on the issue of the karma that results from behaviour. But it provides practical means to transmute and transcend it.

Heaven knows what the ultimate truth is (I don't), but as a well established view it's experience based and meticulously argued and justified throughout......

Dave said: Ego seems to be an expression that appplies to our self-image, emphasis on image as opposed to self.
___

I do takes from people like the above, although I did read the whole thing Dave 

self image seems to be composed of wishful thinking, desires, intentions, ideals, and maybe even the jealousy thing where there is a need to keep up with the neighbors because they just got a new car and you didn't.

but theres so many ways to discuss what ego is and isn't. for instance, self image can be likened to those that go into acting, onstage.
in order to be a good actress I knew I had to "believe" I was that role. (I've been onstage before, I'm good!) 

so we "believe" in our self image in life also and we will as ego beings automatically become defensive if another does not accept our self image as genuinely us.
where the egoless person automatically accepts the self image being projected as real,  for the moment, so that the other need not be defensive that they are not accepted.
yet self image is so fallible, untrustworthy, inconsistent all in all.

this points out we are vulnerable to be found out by life that the ego is simply putting on a show and we can tell through body language, tones of voice, intuition, there are various avenues to tell if a person is egoless, or having no selfish endeavors. being selfless seems to be the definition on this thread as to what an ego is.

But I am with Lucy more on the definition of ego. She is putting forth the concept that we cannot be egoless because its not realistic, it's not grounded nor practical, to come to this earth station and have no objective consciousness. C1 is, to my pov, an objective oriented place for spirit to hone it's tools.
tools to mean perception, emotional balance, intention and decision abilities, like soul fruits, somebody mentioned experience is our objective too.

In that respect, selfless activity is selfish activity if it produces what Dave calls the impression of "overall goodness." that impression he's talking about is group consciousness, of the collective area, and what we know as the spiritual premise of "we are one". It's an emotion that gets emoted, but not the totality of enlightenment.
circular thoughts. lol.  Dave is in the sweet part of life. lets just leave that there.
well, at least he's there part of the time I'm sure!

self image, afterawhile, as one ages, becomes disposable easily. one ceases to get their feelings hurt quite so easily as one views self active in the other person, as having gone thru some of the conflicts they are having.

but its like if you have kids, you're a parent, u want to guide them correctly to avoid some of the mistakes you have made, but the thing is, you realize they have to go thru the same thing, in experience, that you did, and thats why we have band aids. they won't take your word for anything but you love them even more because they are so head strong, and if they want your advice or need it, spirit makes a place for heart talk.

So really self image is kind of fun to smash up because the next self image is more authentic until what's real, whats the truth of your being starts to emerge like a butterfly, so fragile, but so light the wind gives it an ecstatic ride now and again because it's not bogged down with hatred or guilt or being driven to ambitions, but still objective enough to listen to the sound trumpets off in the distance calling in a new day for humanity.