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Veritas

Registered: 04/15/05
Posts: 11,089
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Re: The Ego [Re: dblaney]
#5563701 - 04/27/06 04:54 PM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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The ego is a set of ideas about ourself & how we fit in to our world. While the ideas within this set may be fleeting, the fact of having ideas about ourself persists.
Additionally, and somewhat relatedly, many people DO identify with their ideas! (Witness the reactions when their ideas/beliefs are questioned or challenged.) IMO, this does hamper their survival, as they become unable to adapt their ideas to their present circumstances.
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dblaney
Human Being

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Posts: 7,894
Loc: Here & Now
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Re: The Ego [Re: Veritas]
#5563726 - 04/27/06 05:00 PM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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The ego is a set of ideas about ourself & how we fit in to our world. While the ideas within this set may be fleeting, the fact of having ideas about ourself persists.
Thus in order to transcend the ego, one must simply forget everything they know about themself and how they fit into their world?
Additionally, and somewhat relatedly, many people DO identify with their ideas!
Funny you say this. The very first time I took MDMA (an extraordinarily liberating experience), I realized that I identified myself with my ideas very strongly. However, I don't think the identification is total. That is, I think there is often a strong association between a person's ideas and opinions and their sense of self, but I don't think most actually consider their ideas and opinions to be their true self. (Perhaps representative of their true self?)
-------------------- "What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?" "Belief is a beautiful armor But makes for the heaviest sword" - John Mayer Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin. "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln
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Veritas

Registered: 04/15/05
Posts: 11,089
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Re: The Ego [Re: dblaney]
#5563749 - 04/27/06 05:06 PM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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Not necessarily forget our ideas of who we are, but hold them more loosely, and at arms length. 
Quote:
I think there is often a strong association between a person's ideas and opinions and their sense of self, but I don't think most actually consider their ideas and opinions to be their true self. (Perhaps representative of their true self?)
It always tips me off when someone expresses their beliefs in the form "I am a ______" (Buddhist, Christian, Atheist, etc...), rather than "Well, I believe ________." Whenever we identify ourselves as being a belief/idea, as opposed to believing in ideas, the line has become blurred.
Edited by Veritas (04/27/06 05:07 PM)
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dblaney
Human Being

Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 7,894
Loc: Here & Now
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Re: The Ego [Re: Veritas]
#5563760 - 04/27/06 05:08 PM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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It always tips me off when someone expresses their beliefs in the form "I am a ______" (Buddhist, Christian, Atheist, etc...), rather than "Well, I believe ________." Whenever we identify ourselves as being a belief/idea, as opposed to believing in ideas, the line has become blurred.
Very good point.
-------------------- "What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?" "Belief is a beautiful armor But makes for the heaviest sword" - John Mayer Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin. "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln
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Veritas

Registered: 04/15/05
Posts: 11,089
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Re: The Ego [Re: dblaney]
#5563773 - 04/27/06 05:12 PM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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Personally, I like to say "Right now my best guess is..."
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery


Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 95,368
Loc: underbelly
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Re: The Ego [Re: dblaney]
#5563785 - 04/27/06 05:13 PM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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but I don't think most actually consider their ideas and opinions to be their true self.
I have to disagee and would go so far as to say most people don't even consider themselves, at all, apart from their ideas and opinions. Or if they do it's once a year at 2 a.m.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Veritas

Registered: 04/15/05
Posts: 11,089
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When they wake up screaming, in a cold sweat?
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery


Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 95,368
Loc: underbelly
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Re: The Ego [Re: Veritas]
#5563858 - 04/27/06 05:33 PM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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dblaney
Human Being

Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 7,894
Loc: Here & Now
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Aye, I fear you may be right . Plato's appetitive level.
-------------------- "What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?" "Belief is a beautiful armor But makes for the heaviest sword" - John Mayer Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin. "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln
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VirgilKane
Miner for truth and delusion


Registered: 05/17/05
Posts: 1,131
Loc: lowdown
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Nice sig! Looks like someones lost some weight, but not their demeanor!
Nice to see Veritas has kept your head (ahem) in the right place....
Welcome back guys!
-------------------- Absense of evidence is not evidence of absense... "Religion is a defense against a religious experience" Carl G. Jung "So really, ordinary reality is a kind of chemical habit, sanctioned by culture, which says it's okay to use certain drugs, eat certain foods, and have certain sexual behaviors. However, when you transcend all this pre-conditioning by returning to the original wisdom of the animal body, then you discover this immense dimension of opportunity. For some people, it is a frightening risk. To me, that's the psychedelic experience." Terence McKenna
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Huehuecoyotl
Fading Slowly


Registered: 06/13/04
Posts: 10,685
Loc: On the Border
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Re: The Ego [Re: dblaney]
#5564632 - 04/27/06 09:16 PM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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"Thus in order to transcend the ego, one must simply forget everything they know about themself and how they fit into their world?"
Do you really think that you know anything about yourself? We are all truly strangers to ourselves. Most have no understanding of their motivations or explanation for their veiws. Mostly they just believe what others tell them to believe. Their ideas about who they are are defined by other people without their input...they just accept it. Furthermore, the second you think that you know yourself is the second that you have just imposed limitations on the self. The ego is merely a self image...an idea. This idea can arise and fade. Transcending the ego is just adopting a new paradigm of self. Once you accept that you will never know yourself well you will find that the ego is not as solid or consistant as you thought.
-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
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MushmanTheManic
Stranger

Registered: 04/21/05
Posts: 4,587
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"Unknow thyself!"
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