During my readings of the various posts on the forum, I've come across several references to the dissolution of either aspects of or the entirety of the Ego, and this concept is a confusing one for me to grasp. I hit a wall in understanding due to the fact that I have a hard time differentiating Ego, identity and personality, which may be a result of me not having much of a personality. When I say "lack of personality", I mean that I often look at things from a very analytical perspective and have very little emotional or moral opinion on the events I observe, but this may be a personality of its own and I am simply misunderstanding the concept. So, my actual questions are these:

What constitutes the Ego? Is there a difference between Ego and identity? If so, how are they different? how does personality factor into the equation?

Hi Boheric,

When I was looking into different religions and alternative beliefs many years ago I always seemed to encounter a vein of what felt to me to be self-denial running through them, a need for supression or dislike of the ego. Being human or the acquiring of a human ego was somehow unfortunate or supposedly a consequence of having done something wrong...and the less you had the better your chances of 'escaping' something. Maybe living through an abundance of negativity and criticism in my childhood was a heavy influence, but I just couldn't go along with the belief that I was innately bad or flawed because of the human ego.

I don't know if these books would be of interest to you, but they helped clear the fog for me regarding ego, identity: Seth Speaks; Robert Monroe's 3 books; Bruce Moen's 5 books.

What I came away with was that ego is a fundamental of being human, even something sought after, to add to and enrich our ever-expanding true selves. The many facets of the human ego offer a bonanza of knowledge and experience.

And about your personality--you're unique, be yourself. There are too many people running around trying to be like everyone else--gets old .



Much love,

Ginny

  Hi Boheric,

  Probably your best bet would be to meditate under more ideal conditions and ask this question of your guidance.  For me, more ideal conditions would be to state something like, I deeply desire and ask to connect to only the most expanded, PUL attuned, helpful, creative consciousnesses.  I deeply desire and ask for their help and guidance. 

  Then practice Bruce's remembering and feeling of Love exercises. 

    Then get still and centered and listen, after asking your question(s). 

    One of the more interesting takes on ego, is something i recently re-read from an author named Rosalind A. McKnight.   Rosie, as some knew her as, was one of Bob Monroe's earlier and long time explorers.  She was a very good explorer.  Many years after her experiences with Bob and her guidance, she wrote two books, "Cosmic Journeys" and "Soul Journeys". 

    Rosie and i were friends.  We talked via email for awhile.  We also met up a couple of times for dinner.  She was one of those people that you meet, that if you have any sensitivity, you know she was an "old soul".   She died a couple year or so back. 

  Anyways, in her 2nd book, she writes about meeting a kind of helper whom she labels "Radiant Lady".   Later on in the book, she finds out that Radiant Lady is an Elder, and was on her council for arranging her incarnation as Rosalind.  Elders are extremely mature and developed consciousnesses, and have a lot of responsibility and authority in the nonphysical.

   Here is what Radiant Lady says about the ego, and i'm sharing it because it's one of the most interesting and unique ways i've heard any spiritual source talk about it. 

   Rosie to Radiant Lady, "Well, where does the ego come in?  The ego gets a lot of bashing around here on Earth as something that often works against the good of the human being." 

   Radiant Lady responds, "That's because the purpose of the ego is not clearly understood on the Earth plane.  God would not give you something that is not useful..."

Rosie, "....But what is the purpose of the ego." 

Radiant Lady, "The ego is a very important part of the energy of the physical body.  Because the physical plane is so intense, the ego acts as a shield or protector for the human personality that is innate within the soul/spirit.  That is, it reflects these emotions back to the world as it checks 'thought ID's'.  It often gets a bad rap because it becomes associated with the lower emotions.  But the ego is not a negative emotion, but an energy that is stronger than any emotion, functioning like a parental protector of the human personality as well as the soul/spirit that resides within the personality."

   Rosalind, "I'm not sure i completely understand what you are saying Radiant Lady..."

  Radiant Lady, "...But the human ego is not part of your soul/spirit body because we have no need to have such protection in a world where there is no conflict and where only Love exists.  The personality survives the death of the physical body, but the ego does not." 


  From my own experience, i've come to learn and think that too many spiritual sources focus too much on the "ego", and demonize it too much.   Rather, i've learned, that the more you focus on PUL and build that up within, the more it automatically brings the ego part of us into balance and alignment with the soul/spirit parts. 

   Making the ego the enemy tends to facilitate polarization and imbalance some.   I know of some spiritual sources that spend more time talking about ego than they do about what we do want and are trying to build. 

   This doesn't mean that we don't observe and watch for those aspects of self and those thoughts and feelings which are negative and limiting.  Course we need to pay attention to these to be aware of self and what self needs to change or work on.  But more focus needs to be on that which helps and transforms imo. 

   It is what i would call, a positive, directive focus, with the emphasis on what helps and heals, rather than so much focus on the problem or what we are trying to get away from. 

  It's the same principle in hypnosis, suggestions, and the subconscious mind.   If someone is afraid of water and wants to get over this fear, a good hypnotherapist will not give a suggestion to a person like, "you are not afraid of water anymore."  Nor, "water is not scarey anymore."

  But rather they would phrase it in a more positive and directive manner, "Anytime you are in water, you feel safe, strong, centered and courageous." 

  The focus is on the change or reality you want, not the issue you are trying to get away from.  It is similar with ego and spiritual growth.  Focus more on PUL and all that which is creative and constructive in nature, and this will help more than anything else. 

As far as transforming limiting parts of self, these come more in more specific aspects rather than a generic force we call ego.  For each person, their limiting and negative aspects are a bit different.    It's more helpful to work on these as individual aspects than lumping them all together under one generalized concept. 

  For some, it might be more anger and impatience.  For others, it may be laziness and procrastination.  For some, it may be over emotional sensitivity or criticism of others, for others it might be a specific limiting belief, etc, etc. 

So from what I gather, there is a difference between identity and Ego, and even personality seems to fall out of the reach of Ego. One more question: How does one determine the strength/ effect of one's Ego? Perhaps if I had some indicators, I could better identify my Ego.

Boheric:

Everybody on this thread provided good responses.

Perhaps this article that I wrote in some way relates.

http://nondualityisdualistic.com/articles-2/jeff-foster-advaita-vedanta-and-nond...

Yvvak wrote on Feb 27^th, 2014 at 4:46pm:


Hi below is my understanding of the ego,

Our human bodies are in reality just one great unit a composite entity of living interconnected integrated communicating aware cells.

Our biological bodies combined with the mind/ soul and spirit are that which reality makes us up the complete being you really are and mostly never realize and in my case I call it Alan. My ego if you like!

All human beings consist of earth bound physical parts as well as an indestructible an infinite eternal soul and spirit..

Each of us are a unique fragment a vital part of the great awareness within the grand awareness that makes up the boundless cosmos and we are bound together for eternity to maintain the balance of our colossal cosmos.

We always retain our own unique self awareness, both in this life and in the next, we are not absorbed into some cosmic soup that some people suppose.