The Ego: Good or Bad?
posted by McGarr | February 8, 2010
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IcerocketAfter doing the meditation I described in an earlier post I had a dream which told me, repeatedly, that I must seek out Steve Pavlina as my fire bending master.
I had been watching a lot of Avatar : The last air bender (Nothing to do with Cameron's). It's a great children's animation that is very psychologically astute. In it there are four nations, each representing a different element. Fire, earth, water and air.
Fire = Willpower
Earth = Senses
Water = Feelings
Air = Thought
Some of the characters in the show have the ability to manipulate their particular element in combat. They are called benders. So a fire bending master would be somebody who could teach me how to master my willpower. I've always lacked willpower so that would be a good thing.
So, after having this dream I look Mr Steve Pavlina and it turns out he has a blog. "Self Improvement for Smart People". I think I must have know about it before but forgotten about it. So, on his blog I found this article.
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2010/01/how-to-build-a-stronger-ego/
The basis of this article is that the destruction of the ego is a bad thing and that we should build a stronger ego. But I've always read from various different sources that my aim should be to overcome my ego. I think that that way of thinking lead for me to weaken my root chakra and become ungrounded.
In the show the fire nation are the bad guys. However, the fire nation prince shows signs that he is not all evil. The show goes on to explore the nature of power. The hero in the later episodes must master fire/willpower and overcome it's destructive elements.
Ok, so now I am a little confused. If I fully overcome my desires then how will I escape apathy? Is there a way to develop the ego in a healthy way? Isn't a healthy ego required to overcome my instincts?
Any ideas?
Comments
rocking on
— Feb 08, 2010
I personally think to develope the ego in a healthy way is to be a one with Nature..... have you ever met a tree who thought, 'here let me move my branches out of the way?" Not really, the tree just has its arms hung out like that and if some one smacks their face on it then some one smacks their face on it... and if a bird builds their nest on it then a bird build their nest on it.
All of what the tree is, the tree is. It is never a question of ego. It lives every moment inside the being of what it is..
Take also tornadoes... as far as emotions this is how I look at tornadoes. Sometimes 2 energies, one moving one way and one moving the opposite way meet (could seem somewhat like a conflict or a differenc of belief or systems) the next thing you know the energies start circling around makes a funnel cloud, and depending on how much energy is between the 2, a tornado may form, tear a path across the Earth..
I personally believe we are supposed to have emotions.. like the way the tree is the tree.. and the tornado the tornado.... and the lightning the lightning (I may hurt if you get struck by lightning, but if you are standing there and the lightning strikes near by, then it should not have the same effect...
My self I think the ego, where it gets involved in an unnatural manner would be like if a person had an emotion that looked like a tornado ripping through someones house.. In the natural order, once that energy disappates the tornado is no longer present.. In a human being it would be the ego who went around bragging and trying to inflict further damage on the persons whose house they blew up..
......... soo..... well.... I hope that makes some kind of sense to you... It's how I think it should be.... ego carries on well after the emotion is past.. I have seen some people still talking about the same person in a negative manner 2 years later... to me that is ego... to me the original emotion was a part of the natural order, the letting go, that is walking one with nature.. the holding on that is ego...
rocking on inside your blogs... thanks.. I hope I made some sense as this rule I follow for myself is nothing I really speak of with others, so it might be expressed choppy...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
here we are inside the dance of our creation.
I feel disconnected from my
— Feb 08, 2010
I feel disconnected from my ego. As if there is a higher self in me that does the thinking but when I'm dealing with other people my ego comes in and does the talking. When I get in a groove with someone about a topic I know a lot about then my ego starts to dissipate and I can sort of be "real" with them for a while. The majority of the time my job demands my ego be in place so that I can make good impressions on the people I encounter, and generally not be mean.
When someone does something dumb though I find myself often making fun of them or pointing it out and I'm sure it's from my ego...my fragile ego.
I believe the problem is with the "communities" (if you can call them that) that we live in, and the general distrust and alienation from others. If people were more friendly and didn't point out your flaws and weaknesses then people wouldn't have their shields up, so afraid of having their ego harmed.
So basically, to relate to your blog, I think an ego is a good thing to have. It gives you confidence in yourself, but an ego in this society can be a hard thing to bear, and I think that's a huge reason there's so many of these intentional communities popping up all around: because they all want to feel connected to one another, not separate and alone and afraid of being hurt. Everyone's so afraid of being hurt because a lot of the times when we put ourselves out there we get put down.
I hope one day soon we will all be able to feel the kind of interconnectedness that is needed for us to make it into our next step in evolution.
Peace
Perfect timing!
— Feb 09, 2010
Perfect timing for myself and for you. I have been dealing with the same issue lately and being a fire person myself, I have recently realized the damage that I have done to myself by trying to destroy my ego. It's been a very long and complicated struggle for me lately but to keep it short I have come across some info that might help you:
Kabbalah teaches that the ego in its original, natural state is simply the will to receive and maintain our physical selves. Somewhere along the line it ballooned out of control and took over our thoughts, emotions, lives and entire society. (The Bible seems to draw a parallel to this in its description of Satan. Not pushing a religious view, but it's interesting reading.)
So lately I've been learning to distinguish the difference between my natural ego and the unnatural one, and to ignore the unnatural one, as you would ignore a petulant child, and to nurture the true ego.
As a result, my bending has gotten significantly better. (Yes, what you see in the show is real and surprisingly accurate, but strictly on an energetic level)
I think I have come a long way in a short time and responding to your blog has given me the confidence to reaffirm that within myself, so I have to thank you. And if you want to continue a more detailed discussion, please, feel free to contact me.
Namaste
PS: I think the other responses above me are wonderful. Definitely think deeply on them as well.
Thanks for your replies!
— Feb 10, 2010
Thanks for your replies! I've given the topic a lot of thought and I'll be posting soon with my conclusions / questions
thanks for posting this :]
— Feb 10, 2010
that and the other comments here reafirm some of the conclusions ive draw about the ego over the last year or so
one of the things that blew my mind the most was at buring man when one of the experiment subjects from that book DMT the spirit molecule was speaking and he told us
"The ego, is the voice between ones ears that says wether or not something is egotistical in yourself or in others"
just letting yourself and others be as they are, the whole radical self acceptance thing, it really works for me. not till i came to my own personal realization as to the "how" of it though.
i like to think of it like, you have to completly embrace everything about who you are(especially the dark side of your soul) before you can be whole.
And then theres also the whole idea that the problems we find in others are most often the problems we have with ourselves internally but refuse to face.
so, i think when anyone complains about other peoples big ego or tries to go around telling people to let go of their ego THAT is THE negative expression of ego. honestly i find it vicously disempowering.
and that avatar stuff sounds pretty cool. i dont really watch tv but my little sister loves that show. i think im gona talk to her about how the elements relate to aspects of individuals and the symbolism and whatnot :]
A HEALTHY EGO IS AWSOME!
I read an interesting
— Feb 11, 2010
I read an interesting article recently that restated the ego as the speech centre of the brain, and since this is the part that we use the most, it requires the most oxygen and therefore the largest share of blood.
Besides blood, the other liquid in the brain is cerebro-spinal fluid, which is lighter than blood and circulates only in the spine and brain - which means that due to gravity, the not a great deal of blood actually gets to the brain. The ego is therefore the part that is active most of the time. Albert Hoffmann used to hang upside down daily in order to get more blood to the brain, to the other parts of his brain besides the speech centre. So it wasn't his intention to eradicate the ego but to destroy its monopoly.
The actual article puts it infinitely better than I have:
http://www.brainwaving.com/2009/12/30/can-human-nature-be-changed/
I liked the first answer to your question best, the example of the tree - an entity that doesn't impose itself on others, but it doesn't bow to let others impose themselves on it either.
The ego is important to survive in a world of egos, but it doesn't really have much use outside that world, the world of ego-monopolised brains.
I'm not sure how well that answers your question, if at all. I meant it as more of a clarification of the nature of the ego, which confuses me sometimes
