posted December 30, 2004 10:37 PM         

Ego.

Ego: A solipsism of mind
which imagines the self
to be prima facie
sovereign
to its being.

Ego: An insularity
projected upon our nature
contradicting the essence
of our humanity,
driving compassion
from the realm of intelligibility;
confusing love with selfishness,
and empathy with foolishness.

What is this dear thing
herewith called I;
echoing through these
tangled verisimilitudes
a unity of fiction,
of memory lost,
of soliloquy,
in darkness uttered
against a faceless people?

Do I reach no further than this skin,
failing to grasp that foreign comprehension
or apprehension
which may mark my being as against and for
the sweet breath of Other?
Yet, it is there that I arise,
embraced in such glanceless propriety
as lends self by reflection
in the arms of so many friends.

The cult of ego
struggles to erase the intervention
of society, and announce absurd
isolation as the standard condition
of man.
And perhaps this is so,
but for it man cannot but suffer
a most terrible rebuke,
in knowing the silence of his tongue
and the meaninglessness of his being.

... But what of woman?
Even by this,
our most favoured cult-ure,
she is cast out of ego,
shunned by that stark metaphor,
as incapable of the popular forgetfulness
required of sovereignty.

She knows what man refuses to see,
that her skin does not enclose
or exhaust
all there is of her being.
She is forced to real-ize
by the tyranny of her name
that Other is not superfluous
nor incidental
to world or even consciousness.

She cannot hide behind ego,
a misfit of that language,
so is excommunicated to the realm
of irrationality,
of unmanliness,
and thrown, exile, into the
prism of embodiment.

As though flesh
might better guard her secret,
or mystify it by the same oppression
that refuses to let her not see
the tyrannical name of Ego.

hok

posted December 31, 2004 12:47 AM         

Why impossible to master, dean? C'mon, big guy , have a little faith in yourself. Others have done it and so can we.

"it is there that needs the focus, not the anger"
Oh, yes, absolutely. That's all part of the mastering though isn't it? Righteous anger can be a beautiful thing in the appropriate venue. Mastering your emotions means just that - mastering.
I will be blunt now. Forgive me. Envy is a sorry ass reason to strive for something better.

"you're only aware thru your eyes - which could be said to contain the ego"

Maybe. And, yes, admittedly my eyes currently do not see clearly. Hence my previous post to 26. Seeing clearly and with right intent is the goal.

" 'psychology is really just the atheist's version of spirituality' Interesting. I disagree though."

I thought you would. Atheists have faith. Just not in God. "Understanding why we do things" Yup. My "whys" are answered with a distinctly spiritual answer. I notice that many times the atheist's are answered by science. And I think the study of psychology is as close to the world of the unseen (for lack of a better description)as the average atheist will get and still feel safe and snug in the arms of the almighty god Science.

posted December 31, 2004 04:30 AM         

quote:

---

OK, my virgo moon is out.

---

No need to explain Dean. Believe it or not, my moon's in Virgo too! And at the Anaretic degree to boot.

Just wanted to pop in and say that I dont think you are offending anyone. I hear what youre saying and it's been nice discussing with you. "I still think our views are pretty similar, we just use different words and have different angles." Maybe you're right.

quote:

---

I don't think any emotions are negative - they just are. If you see them as negative, then so be it.

---

Sorry, but there is no need to not see negativity. There is such a thing. That is the only way to know what positivity is. Everything has it's opposite or we wouldnt know one from the other. It's like picking up a stick. When you pick it up, you pick up both ends. You misunderstand me though. I think it is your choice to choose one end over the other. I dont see much as negative Dean. If you knew me, you'd see that for the most part, I see the positive in all. I'm a fan of the Convo's W/ God books as well. Havent read one in awhile but I believe I remember him talking about everything having an opposite as well. It's all in how you choose to see it. But you must know negative or you would not know positive. I can pull something positive out of just about anything. Just as I have been doing here. I dont see the *ego and negative emotions* as COMPLETELY NEGATIVE - I see the positivity that can be had in them!!

*pulls hair out*

Tink said:

quote:

---

Seeing clearly and with right intent is the goal.

---

Indeed. How ever you define it, it is there to help us become better people if we can open our eyes to it and if we choose to work on it. It is a gift to us. If we choose to use it, we can better our lives. It can help us out of the muck, if we choose to use it to our advantage.

Okay now I'm really feeling like a broken record - ecord - ecord - ecord - ecord ...
Peace all.
26

*creeps back in*

......I disagree about God having an ego. God is in us, but we are not God's. Remember that. We shouldnt put our human aspects on him.

*gasps/covers mouth, & slips back out* Okay I'm done here.

posted December 31, 2004 07:53 AM         

The answers shared all have so much of insight, this question you ask has been burning for oh so long now, it's like the eternal flame....
Ego, someone told me that the word actually comes from OMEGO...go figure...anway, you know I have read so much on the subject and can probably write a book on it, but for what this is worth I would encourage you to enquire who it is that is asking this question?
See it's so easy to get an explanation from Osho, Eckhart, Krishnamurti etc and from all of these beautiful teachers and teachings, but ask yourself WHO IS IT THAT WANTS TO KNOW what the ego is? At then end of it all, we're just fingers pointing to the moon and to look at the moon we have to stop staring at the finger. I dont know if I am making it sense but there you go...

Love as it is!

posted December 31, 2004 07:56 AM         

I heard a man drowned by fighting his reflection in the water.

;-)

posted December 31, 2004 08:55 AM         

Welcome!

So, you're taking the old heisenberg approach eh? By looking at the observer may you learn more of what you're observing - indeed, you are changing it as you observe. Ah, life that it is It's amazing how many times life and love can be used each others place in sentences. Not so much I life you, but there are occasions.

So, you're also saying the ego is very deep? Hm, anyone seen the cartoon "The Max" or something like that. I think it was about egos and ids and dreams et al. Trippy show. Never quite understood it.

posted December 31, 2004 09:56 AM         

Thank you for the welcome and the reply, your blonde joke cracked me up! Life, Love and well Laughter!
I'm not saying that the Ego is deep or Shallow. I think that I'm learning to live and let live with the knowing that it's one flow anyway.
Sometimes I think that I have all the answers, What a shame hey?
I was having dinner with a friend the other night and she said "why do we need answers anyway?"
I'm just rambling...repeating the word water cannot quench your thirst.

Lot's of love you.

Akash.

posted December 31, 2004 10:22 AM         

Happy New Year,

posted December 31, 2004 11:54 AM         

I'll let you know my thoughts on this once I'm done... given you would actually want to hear them.. lol

posted December 31, 2004 01:28 PM         

Kat, no I am not getting older. I am 32.
Its hard for me to explain what I feel. I am not saying sex is bad. Even heavenly beings have sex in the other world I guess. My point was I am above the earthly style
It takes practise and time. I am not there yet. My journey started 2 years ago.

I would like to share with all my following views.

When Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree. He just wasn't closing his eyes and taking a nap. He was becoming more and more aware. Denying himself. Watching his thoughts. And then one fine day while sitting under the Bodhi tree he found it. I am sure he would have smiled like MonaLisa then.

Its a feeling which Jesus describes as what a man buys a small pearl from the kingdom and sells all his richness/goodies. These goodies in my mind is not just our physical possessions but it could also mean to be what gives us our identity that is pride, vanity, career skills, etc....

We think we are creating every day our potential..But the fact is, all this was already done/achieved and was always there ....

Its a feeling which Einstein describes as walking on the beach and only collecting sea shells on the shore while a great ocean lied in front of him.

I like philosophising also...And do read with open mind everyone's thoughts ..Just as a knife sharpens a knife. A human mind sharpens a human mind.

Peace to all and wish you a wonderful New Year.

posted December 31, 2004 01:46 PM         

Do you know that Ghani is very similar to the word Jani(pronounced the same as Ghani) which is actaully sanskrit meaning "the one who knows" or "Enlightnened being"

Of course I would love to hear your thoughts...
Thoughts...clouds across the sky flowers on a tree, twinkling of the stars just for you and me!

These books are very special to me, and were recommended by a teacher who has travelled the path.

You must read "Beyond the Himalayas" first and then move on to "Yoga of the Christ"
Read these books slowly, and take time off them as you need to.

Take care.

Akash.

posted December 31, 2004 02:28 PM         

IAT,

quote:

---

Its a feeling which Einstein describes as walking on the beach and only collecting sea shells on the shore while a great ocean lied in front of him.

---

I loved that.

Have a great New Year all. May this be everyone's best year yet.

posted December 31, 2004 03:07 PM         

Lovely to hear from you! You are amazing.

I know that you will enjoy these ones!

posted December 31, 2004 06:32 PM         

26

posted January 02, 2005 02:36 PM         

Check this interesting link out. It explains just about every possible view on the ego. I heard each of our perspectives on the ego somewhere in here.
http://www.meaningoflife.i12.com/ego.htm