Ego

[The Hammer]

What is the Ego? Is it necessary?

Is it a positive or negative thing?

I've often heard schools of thought about lessening or even doing away with one's Ego. And others that talk of bolstering it with an unbreakable sense of Self.

 

[Wu Wei]

Taoist view - The ego is seen as an obstacle to realizing one's true nature and connecting to the Dao.

Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu - chapter 24
He who stands on tiptoe is not steady.
He who strides cannot maintain the pace.
He who makes a show is not enlightened.
He who is self-righteous is not respected.
He who boasts achieves nothing.
He who brags will not endure.
According to followers of the Tao,
"These are extra food and unnecessary luggage."
They do not bring happiness.
Therefore followers of the Tao avoid them.

Buddhism
The Ego seeks to divide and separate. Spirit seeks to unify and heal - Pema Chodron

A strong ego is needed, but without becoming egotistical. To make a wish that you become able to help all beings throughout space. You need a strong self: with a weak self such intention is impossible. - His Holiness the Dalai Lama

 

[dybmh]

What is the Ego? Is it necessary?

I vote yes. Isn't there a "hitchhiker's guide" entry on this topic? The ego is necessary else we never would have left the oceans to populate the land? Something like that. It's an analogy.

Is it a positive or negative thing?

To me, necessary means it's neutral.

I've often heard schools of thought about lessening or even doing away with one's Ego. And others that talk of bolstering it with an unbreakable sense of Self.

Different strokes for different folks? To your own-self be true, moment to moment. Sometimes emptiness, sometimes not.

 

[wellwisher]

What is the Ego? Is it necessary?

Is it a positive or negative thing?

I've often heard schools of thought about lessening or even doing away with one's Ego. And others that talk of bolstering it with an unbreakable sense of Self.

Humans have two centers of consciousness; inner self and ego. The inner self is the original and the primary center. It is much older than the ego and is the center of consciousness common to all animals. In Psychology, the inner self would be the center of the unconscious mind and contains DNA based behavioral firmware; archetypes, that is common to each species. In the case of humans, our inner self defines our common and collective human nature and human propensities. A baby has just an inner self, which instinctively that knows how to use its cries and coos to get its needs met. The mother via her maternal instinct in her inner self, senses these needs.

The ego or secondary center is unique only to humans. Animals do not have an ego, just an inner self. The ego evolved somewhere between 6-10K years ago. It finally consolidated with the invention of written language and the rise of civilization. Written language allowed for sort of an external hard drive of external culture wisdom that could be learned and studied until almost instinctive. The ego of the baby, starts to form as they learn their name; external said by the parents. The terrible two's are about the ego breaking free.

The ego is the center of the conscious mind and unlike the inner self with its innate DNA firmware from birth, the ego develops from interacting and learning from environment. Our cultural distinctions are connected to the ego, whereas the inner self in all humans, from all cultures have many things in common, since we are all genetically human with a human inner self.

In the Taoist view the inner self is the Dao. The ego, due to learning and its will and choice, can override natural instinct and undermine the inner self or Dao. However, the goal is not to get rid of the ego, but rather to learn to use the ego to cooperate with the inner self. This relationship has many benefits since the inner self uses the main frame parts of the brain due its genetic/neural connections as the center of consciousness down to cellular control and feedback; awareness. This can allow the ego to have more capability, but only if the ego has the proper relationship as student and the Dao is the teacher; enlightenment.

Taoist view - The ego is seen as an obstacle to realizing one's true nature and connecting to the Dao.

Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu - chapter 24
He who stands on tiptoe is not steady.
He who strides cannot maintain the pace.
He who makes a show is not enlightened.
He who is self-righteous is not respected.
He who boasts achieves nothing.
He who brags will not endure.
According to followers of the Tao,
"These are extra food and unnecessary luggage."
They do not bring happiness.
Therefore followers of the Tao avoid them.

Buddhism
The Ego seeks to divide and separate. Spirit seeks to unify and heal - Pema Chodron

A strong ego is needed, but without becoming egotistical. To make a wish that you become able to help all beings throughout space. You need a strong self: with a weak self such intention is impossible. - His Holiness the Dalai Lama

In Western Religion, Adam and Eve were the first two modern humans to have both an inner self and an ego. Before these two symbolic humans, what science calls humans due to human DNA; million years ago to about 10K years ago should be called pre-humans, since they had human DNA but only an inner self. They were natural human animals; paradise driven by natural human instinct.

When Adam and Eve symbolically ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, this implied they began to use external knowledge to second guess their instincts and inner self; civilization. The boastful pride of life is from the ego; learned behavior, and not the inner self. In the story of Adam and Eve, after they ate they saw that they were naked and tried to cover up. Naked did not concern the inner self; inner animal, if it was a pleasant day. But they had externally learned a cultural taboo; naked is evil. This change of behavior; shame, was a tell of damage being done. The story goes that a wall formed between the two centers; tree of life was taken away and sealed to protect the inner self. The ego was allow to evolve itself with external knowledge, until it could find its way home. Many religions are about reconnecting to the inner man, inner self, Dao, etc. It can also be done with Mystical Psychology.

 

[Jimmy]

Seek joy in life and be kind. That’s all. That’s what life is all about.

 

[sun rise]

My understanding is that the personal ego is a structure that is necessary at a certain stage of development but in a person's spiritual evolution and in any given life. The characteristic of this personal ego is "I want. I don't want. I like. I don't like. This is mine. And so forth.

Once that structure has served its purpose, it starts dissolving and the self continues its development. This is the state of learning to love. Various spiritual path refer to this. For example, as Rav Michael Laitman said "Love is when you don't pay any attention to yourself, but you take the desires of another person and try to fulfil them in exactly the way they would like. In other words, you turn yourself into a vessel of fulfillment for the other person."

 

[The Hammer]

Seek joy in life and be kind. That’s all. That’s what life is all about.

I prefer to build a more purposeful life than that but this is a good foundation.

 

[Bear Wild]

What is the Ego? Is it necessary?

Is it a positive or negative thing?

I've often heard schools of thought about lessening or even doing away with one's Ego. And others that talk of bolstering it with an unbreakable sense of Self.

The ego is necessary it is the identification of self. To function in a complex world including dangers then self is important as long as it is not ego alone. Even Jung warns that to completely lose the ego one can get to lost in the sea of the unconscious. In most initiation processes such as indigenous traditions of many pagan initiations there is a letting go of the self or should I say self importance. One may dismember or dissolve the self to connect to a greater world but in fact you are not truly removing the ego or self but shadowing the self or repressing it enough that one can see that there is not true disconnect with the soul, greater than human world, the greater consciousness. In the initiation process once the self is repressed and one accepts the greater connection one then needs to bring the ego/self back but in alignment with the soul and is balanced with the greater world.

 

[Twilight Hue]

What is the Ego? Is it necessary?

Is it a positive or negative thing?

I've often heard schools of thought about lessening or even doing away with one's Ego. And others that talk of bolstering it with an unbreakable sense of Self.

I think ego or the sense of "I" is generally positive, but I also see it as a temporary phenomenon by nature, and will always be subject to change.

 

[Balthazzar]

Taoist view - The ego is seen as an obstacle to realizing one's true nature and connecting to the Dao.

Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu - chapter 24
He who stands on tiptoe is not steady.
He who strides cannot maintain the pace.
He who makes a show is not enlightened.
He who is self-righteous is not respected.
He who boasts achieves nothing.
He who brags will not endure.
According to followers of the Tao,
"These are extra food and unnecessary luggage."
They do not bring happiness.
Therefore followers of the Tao avoid them.

Buddhism
The Ego seeks to divide and separate. Spirit seeks to unify and heal - Pema Chodron

A strong ego is needed, but without becoming egotistical. To make a wish that you become able to help all beings throughout space. You need a strong self: with a weak self such intention is impossible. - His Holiness the Dalai Lama

A strong self-applied towards interdependence and general social wellbeing as a mechanism or part connected to the larger machine or social construct without negating the importance of the many other parts. I think this implies a position that recognizes the many roles of human social structures without placing too much importance on our personal role as part of the construct itself.

 

[Jimmy]

Seek joy in life and be kind. That’s all. That’s what life is all about.

I prefer to build a more purposeful life than that but this is a good foundation.

family absolutely

 

[The Hammer]

Seek joy in life and be kind. That’s all. That’s what life is all about.

family absolutely

 

[Jimmy]

View attachment 94272

Good word. Oh yeah health is up there. A few bucks wouldn’t hurt eaither

 

[LuisDantas]

In recent years I have come to define ego as the sense of self - the realization that there is a scope of authority which can't be legitimally surrendered to others even if we are pressed into making the attempt.

In that sense, yes, it is not only healthy but also unavoidable and necessary. I have on occasion described it as a form of authority that comes from "inhabiting our own bones".

It is not that any of us is special or superior as such; but we are each uniquely placed to understand our own needs, values and cravings better than anyone else. It doesn't always happen, but we should attempt to make it so.

I don't mean to imply that there is no such thing as an ill or over-inflated ego; they do exist and they are quite dangerous.

As with so much else, there are people who suffer from having too little of it; too much of it; having it malformed in some way; or even feeling guilty from having it at all.

Cultural factors create trends on this regard. There are cultures that actively punish people for having too little or too much or too unusual an ego.

But ultimately we do need an ego if we are to exist as members of a community. If for no other reason, because other people will expect some form of predictable behavior from each of us in order to inform their reactions and expectations.

It is to some extent a construct, and far less stable than many people realize. But it is necessary all the same.

 

[The Hammer]

A few bucks wouldn’t hurt eaither

Not my interpretation of "prosperous".

 

[The Hammer]

But ultimately we do need an ego if we are to exist as members of a community.

This is how I tend to see it. It's a necessity as we are a social species. But we need not let it rule all our actions (self centered), and we need not ignore it completely either (egolessness)

 

[Jimmy]

Not my interpretation of "prosperous".

What’s your personal definition of prosperous? Good at what you do.?

 

[We Never Know]

What is the Ego? Is it necessary?

Is it a positive or negative thing?

I've often heard schools of thought about lessening or even doing away with one's Ego. And others that talk of bolstering it with an unbreakable sense of Self.

Had an ego for breakfast this morning.

No wait. That was an eggo. My bad

 

[The Hammer]

What’s your personal definition of prosperous? Good at what you do.?

Full of good things. A prosperous attitude. One of gratitude and giving, serenity and contentedness. It circles back to "flourishing and a state of being happy" in the definition above.

 

[We Never Know]

What is the Ego? Is it necessary?

Is it a positive or negative thing?

I've often heard schools of thought about lessening or even doing away with one's Ego. And others that talk of bolstering it with an unbreakable sense of Self.

They can be both positive and negative.

Positive ones can produce ambition and confidence
Negative ones can be destructive