The => means it interlinks within, and the ^ means it comes from the previous level, the brackets mean it is contained within layers.
I'll have to process that a little more, but off the top of my head the model I tend to prefer which seems counter-intuitive to most, is than rather than following the great chain of being in a hierarchical structure, I tend to view these things as parallel to each other in greater and lesser degrees of depth and sophistication. For instance, Spirit is not the top, but rather runs alongside, all the way up, and all the way down. I think I tend to go more with the bodies or sheaths as well. Rather than being a ladder, it's more of a nested hierarchy with Spirit equally present at each stage. The only thing that changes is the level of conscious awareness we have of Consciousness itself, which is equally present at all levels. Now, lest I start getting really vague here, I stop there.
This is why posted our dynamic's, as not sure the ego is only our inner/outer reflection with the outside world... It's a projection created by our self image.
Of course the ego is not the only set of eyes we perceive the world. That's why our subconscious and unconscious mind is always sending information up to us, which we scarcely are able to understand while we're so busy indulging in our active thoughts and ideas as if they truly can figure out reality. When we shut up long enough to listen, we hear what our mind's perceptions are picking up all the time, from gross to subtle to causal. I'd love to go into some depth here, but again will refrain.
But I like what you say about the ego is a projection. What it is is simply a model of ourselves we construct and look at when we ask the question "who am I?". It's a metaphor, actually. It is an "as if" this is me statement, a representation, a pointing seeing truth hidden in patterns. When we strip away that mask we wear, the question of "Who am I?", becomes one which leads you down the path of Enlightenment. It begins by saying, "If I'm looking at all of that, then who is it looking?". And back you go, striping away layer, after layer, after layer of these projections. And what you are left with is just the one seeing, the Seer. Just simple Formless Awareness.
Within my own NDE realized that the outer levels of Heaven (Oneness), had all encompassed unconditional love...
That unconditional love is a dimension of reality, that can transcend any level of consciousness, and is interwoven into reality.
It is the Source of reality. It is that Emptiness, that is not "other" to reality. It's the paper which all reality is drawn upon, the seamless cloth which all patterns that constitute our reality are embroidered upon, and so forth. A long list of metaphors could be used to attempt to describe it.
Though i agree with what you've said more or less, think the wording can be refined...
A word about NDEs. I would advise a certain degree of caution in literalizing what is experienced as if what you experience,
how it manifested itself to you, defines what it is. An NDE, in most descriptions of them are subtle-level experiences. Seeing a deity, seeing light, tasting unconditional love embracing you, etc. All of that is valid, however, the subtle level is really "form", manifesting, or expressing 'formlessness" beyond them. How these things manifest are a combination of the truly Transcendent, coupled with our own symbolisms from our psyche conditioned by many contributing factors, certainly including culture. It "manifests" in ways the what is above and before the subtle can be represented in our minds. The Christian will see the Christ, the Buddhist a thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara, the Hindu Krishna or some other form. It is not that those forms are the actuality itself. They "represent" the Infinite, which has no form itself, that Emptiness, Godhead, Brahman, and so forth.
So I'd be careful in imagining, "I saw this, therefore this is what is real". It's actually not. It goes far beyond that form, even if that form is one of the highest forms we can touch before the Infinite itself. I often say "God is the Face of the Infinite". Any subtle level manifestation is what our mind's see before they drop away and there is that Infinite Ocean that is within all that arises, the subtle, the gross, waking, dreaming, deep sleep, and so forth. There is a saying from Meister Eckhart I think captures this perfectly. "
I pray God to make me free of God, for [His] unconditioned Being is above God and all distinctions." There is truth in the subtle, but to make it literal is to miss the point, mistaking the finger pointing at the moon with the Moon itself.
When we accept our soul is universal, and thus become one with all, then we're open to unconditional love.
To me, when we move beyond the soul, then we are everything. We are Emptiness. Soul to me, is subtle-level reality.
Agree we shouldn't be used as a doormat; yet in a world full of hubris ego, it solves nothing to make more of it.
The funny thing is, being a doormat is actually the ego trying to find love through not having people upset with you for calling out their bad behaviors. It's the terribly weak and unhealthy ego. And that's the other thing, for someone to say the ego is "bad", is dead wrong. That's why I dislike how we in our culture hear "We must get rid of the ego". It suggests it's a bad thing, whereas in reality it is a healthy and necessary thing. But we have to nurture and mature it. We have to grown beyond the self-centered ego, to the cosmic-centered ego.
