Zigzag Idiot

Beginning the discussion on ego I'm going to talk/write about ego a whole lot. This could become too boring or too hairsplitting for some to follow. Luckily I've got A.H. Almaas' Diamond Approach glossary to draw on. In the unfolding of the Diamond Approach Teaching, Hameed studied Developmental psychology, Ego Psychology, Analytical Psychology and Jungian theories, Depth Psychology, Humanistic Psychology and I'm sure whatever was written about Transpersonal psychology at the Time. Other texts I'll be quoting will be A Course in Miracles and the revised I Ching; The Oracle of the Cosmic Way. Both of which use the term 'ego' extensively. I may also quote Ram Dass, Charles Tart, Stan Grof, and maybe Eckart Tolle and Martin Butler. And probably others. My first two quotes will be from Hameed dealing with different usages of the term 'ego' basically. Both usages converge in a way at the point of "ego identity or sense of identity. The second quote brings in the idea of 'being' and how egoic perspectives can be an impediment to the experience and unfoldment of being, as experience, in one's inner world. Confusion About the Term "Ego" Here we digress to point out a source of confusion about the term “ego.” Readers who know both the spiritual and psychological literatures will find the term freely used in both, but with no general agreement on what the term refers to. This ambiguity often leads to confusion. The literature on spiritual development, on essential or inner development, on all matters of religious concern, generally uses the term “ego” to mean something which is seen as the barrier to spiritual realization. The literature on depth psychology, however, uses the term with a very different meaning. The ego referred to by Freud, and which ego psychology studies, is not the ego which is the barrier to spiritual development. They are two different concepts. The psychoanalytic term “ego” refers, rather, to the functional self, which is the site, organizer, and coordinator of the functions of perception, memory, mobility, and so on. There is, however, a concept in depth psychology and ego psychology that coincides with the ego of spiritual literature: it is called the “ego-identity,” and is sometimes referred to as the sense of self, or the sense of identity. This sense of self or separate identity is the main concern of ego developmental theory. This identity is, in fact, the acme, the most important outcome of ego development. It is ultimately the organizing center of the psychic apparatus. This psychic apparatus includes as one of its units the Freudian ego. In other words, the Freudian ego is part of the mind, is a structure or a structured process in it, while the self is a sense of identity and a center of action. The exact sense in which the ego identity is a barrier to spiritual development will become clear in later chapters. The Void, pg. 9 The Delusion of the Ego View The habitual way that human beings participate in the dynamism of Being is known as the conventional view. We usually participate in the revelation of reality by being a self that exists on its own, among other selves and other objects in a world of linear time and space. This is commonly known as the ego, or dualistic, perspective. As a view, the ego perspective is neither bad nor a problem. Most nondual teachings consider the ego view delusional; they think that the dual experience of reality is false. But reality does appear as ego experience and, as such, it is only delusional if viewed from the perspective of the nondual. The view of totality recognizes it as simply one of many ways that reality manifests. The real difficulty with the ego view is that it obstructs and closes us to other possibilities of Being. The ego perspective limits the freedom of our nature to respond appropriately to the situations in which we find ourselves. At the center of this conventional view or ordinary philosophy is what we think of as our self. The sense of self is the center or foundation of the ego view—“I am here, and I am in the world, and I perceive things from here, and I act according to my preferences.” Many traditions consider this position to be ignorance or delusion. The delusion of the ego view is in its sense of finality—“This is what reality is and that’s that.” If the ego understood that its view is only one of many ways that reality manifests, then its position would not be a delusion. It’s true that the dual view is one way that reality happens. But believing this one way to be definitive is the delusion of the ego view. Runaway Realization, pg. 138

My elaborate plan to change the whole world and stuff I have just a few years left to live. I'm 54 now and something tells me I'll probably leave this body sometime in my mid to late 60's. This may sound just a tad grandiose but here's my idea that I've repeatedly considered since about the time when I first joined Actualized.org. I'm going to change the world by legally defining within in the United States Judicial system that egoic mindset is the legal definition of insanity. It may be a huge understatement that I'm swinging for the fence. But what the hell,,, I think it's a beautiful idea. Chances are that this initiative will never make it to fruition in my lifetime but If I from time to time continually make arguments for how this might happen maybe one day in the future after I'm gone others will take on the cause and make it happen. Here's some trivia to begin with. A Justice does not have to be a lawyer or a law school graduate to sit on the Supreme Court. Not that I'm planning to become a Supreme court Justice but rather to reveal something about the United States Judicial system that many people are probably unaware of. With my aim, one line of thought to begin with is with the term Human Being. We are human beings, not human doings or Human ego's. Therefore, BEING is our true nature! This is my introduction to this aim that I have. I will continue to provide written arguments from time to time about this notion which I'm sure will leave any licensed attorneys who happen to be reading this, slapping their knees and howling with laughter. Have a nice day.

Reaching Up "What Does It Mean to Have Peace of Mind?" by Dr. Jim Rosen ©2021 Dr. Jim Rosen It means that you express the feeling of peace toward yourself and toward your brothers and sisters. You are not at war with the world or yourself. You are not in a state of conflict with yourself and others. You want to learn and grow. Indeed, you strive to learn and grow. But you do not point the finger at your own mistakes or those of others. You look right past the mistakes to the inner beauty. You recognize that the outward picture of a person is just that. So you look past the picture and see the spark of goodness in all. And because you do, you see with clarity what we really are. And you give peace and gratitude to what we really are. When you stray from peace and gratitude, you renew your focus on what is real and good in us. And you do it with patience. Dr. Jim Rosen is a PhD Clinical Psychologist. He is an experienced psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, and couples counselor. He offers treatment for anxiety disorders, panic attacks, depression, relationship problems, self-esteem issues, assertiveness training, anger control, stress management, and overcoming the effects of sexual, physical, and emotional trauma. Dr. Rosen works with his patients primarily over the phone. When needed, face-to-face therapy sessions can be scheduled in his home in Magnet Cove, Arkansas. Because he does not accept insurance, his fee is only $60 for a full 50-minute hour of treatment. He can be reached anytime by email at drjrosen@ipa.netor by phone or text at 501-623-2050.

I remember my little 5 year old self riding in the back of my mother's Oldsmobile. We had been out to my Grandparent's house that was about 15 miles southwest from our home. My sister was recovering from chicken pox and it was going through all the local schools. I was in kindergarten at the time. The talk that day had mostly been about chickenpox and how bad it got with some children. The fever and the terrible itching that accompanied the illness. On the ride home in the back seat I remember jumping up, raising my right arm with pointed finger and declaring in a loud voice, "I AM NOT GOING TO GET CHICKENPOX!" I remember my mother from time to time over the years recounting my emotional declaration that day to others. What made it rememberable was the fact that I never did get chickenpox. Looking back and pondering what took place in my mind is a simple phenomena comprised of two ingredients. The placebo effect combined with strong emotional intent. I've also oftentimes wondered why doesn't it work more often. Intuition or some other faint voice tells me it's a lack of purified wholehearted intent. Something like that anyway. That when I've tried to manifest without success. Somewhere in my being there is a division within or a vague doubt,,,

Man is never helped in his suffering by what he thinks for himself, but only by revelation of a wisdom greater than his own. It is this which lifts him out of his distress. Carl Jung (1875-1961) Truth Only that truth which is recognized by all can become a fellow-being. You should grow up around your grievous mistakes like a tree, and let them be, until one day they become a part of your strength, and they no longer hinder your ascent. Thinking is a force, feeling leads to new motivations. Remain receptive to both and truth will become attainable. Truth is that knowledge which becomes one with being. You will become one with being when all of your burdens and loves, objects and fears, sorrows and joys have found their place in the whole. Joy and Sadness Sorrow originates when false thoughts supplant those things that are right, and a shadow realm comes to represent the being. Joy is wakefulness in love. Sorrow is the precondition of joy, not because there need exist an antithesis to joy, but because no one can let himself fall deep enough without sorrow. by Arnold Keyserling from; https://schoolofwisdom.com/visions-and-poems/from-dark-to-life/

I'm probably more neurotic than my score shows,,, Openness - 85% Conscientiousness - 77% Extraversion - 31% Agreeableness - 62.5% Neuroticism - 40%

If you're starting to feel overwhelmed have you considered getting a hormone shot? I figure you probably have considered. Just wanting to be supportive,,,

Great Idea!

I just thought it sounded good and really wasn't thinking that deeply so I may have to crawfish a little here. Pondering a bit more about it some text from A Course In Miracles came to mind. It's maybe more in line with the notion of us being a chip off the old block. So to speak,,, I took just a snippet from this section- https://acourseinmiraclesnow.com/course-miracles-chapter-9-viii-grandeur-versus-grandiosity/ T-9.VIII.5. From your grandeur you can only bless, because your grandeur is your abundance. 2 By blessing you hold it in your mind, protecting it from illusions and keeping yourself in the Mind of God. 3 Remember always that you cannot be anywhere except in the Mind of God. 4 When you forget this, you will despair and you will attack. T-9.VIII.6. The ego depends solely on your willingness to tolerate it. 2 If you are willing to look upon your grandeur you cannot despair, and therefore you cannot want the ego. 3 Your grandeur is God's answer to the ego, because it is true. 4 Littleness and grandeur cannot coexist, nor is it possible for them to alternate. 5 Littleness and grandiosity can and must alternate, since both are untrue and are therefore on the same level. 6 Being the level of shift, it is experienced as shifting and extremes are its essential characteristic. T-9.VIII.7. Truth and littleness are denials of each other because grandeur is truth. 2 Truth does not vacillate; it is always true. 3 When grandeur slips away from you, you have replaced it with something you have made. 4 Perhaps it is the belief in littleness; perhaps it is the belief in grandiosity. 5 Yet it must be insane because it is not true. 6 Your grandeur will never deceive you, but your illusions always will. 7 Illusions are deceptions. 8 You cannot triumph, but you are exalted. 9 And in your exalted state you seek others like you and rejoice with them. T-9.VIII.8. It is easy to distinguish grandeur from grandiosity, because love is returned and pride is not. 2 Pride will not produce miracles, and will therefore deprive you of the true witnesses to your reality. 3 Truth is not obscure nor hidden, but its obviousness to you lies in the joy you bring to its witnesses, who show it to you. 4 They attest to your grandeur, but they cannot attest to pride because pride is not shared. 5 God wants you to behold what He created because it is His joy.

This may be slightly off topic but I've found the following to be true, Don't make eye contact with someone who is angry or antagonistic. It feeds their ego while robbing you of your chi energy.

Lots of great replies.... Ego = "A bad case of mistaken identity" as Ken Wilber put it. One that obscures the realization and experience of Being. Here's a quote from the glossary that I've never shared before when this topic has come up- Ego Seen as the Belief in a Self Other perspectives see ego as the belief in a self or entity. The activity of ego is taken to be the activity of a person -- an entity -- who has desires and hopes. So here ego is seen as taking oneself to be a person, separate from the rest of the universe, who was born to a set of parents, who was a child, who grew up, in time, to his present status of an adult who has his hopes, desires and goals. The belief that this separate individuality is one's identity, one's self, is seen by some teachings as the main barrier to the ultimate reality which is an impersonal and universal Being, or alternately, the Void. Enlightenment then is the insight that one is not really this separate individual, a realization which is equivalent to the state of unqualified Being, or nonconceptual Reality. Pearl Beyond Price, pg. 21

I listen as a heretic. To hell with the lyrics. It’s the beautiful voices and melodies that makes me smile and the tears well up,,,,

Periodically I get hit with overwhelming depression. Yesterday was one of those days. And some early this morning reading Bernadette Roberts, contemporary Christian mystic. The material she had written had to do with some of the very trying times which are encountered in our inner world,, when we are confused and hurting. The existential angst that may appear in our lives for no reason at all. Or to me that's how it has seemed on some occasions when I have really felt overburdened and overwhelmed. Fortunately as I have grown older these periodic bouts of severe depression have grown a lot fewer and probably less intense. it's amazing how much difference there can be in just a couple of days time. Often a long nights sleep with a very active dream pattern is the thing which lifts the distress and heavy mood for me. Whenever these one of these spells shows up and kicks the shit out of me. I find myself having a little more compassion towards whoever it may be that I encounter in life. I share this now in case there are any readers who are 'going through the shit'. Just hang on. It will get better,,,, It can help a lot to find some kind of activity to " break the worry cycle", as transpersonal psychologist Charles Tart puts it.

In the Fourth Way the process of disentangling the four Jungian functions is stressed. From my perspective it seems this process is prioritized differently among lineages. I took a snippet from the following article written by Ralph Losey. This is pertaining to the feeling function. If it interests you, I think you'll enjoy the full article and maybe some of the adjoining links found in it. https://schoolofwisdom.com/laws-of-wisdom/laws-of-human-consciousness/ Our ability to feel is also stunted for much the same reasons as our senses. There is little or no place for our feelings in the adult world we are trained to enter. Very few feelings are acceptable in western culture. We are taught to turn off our feelings, the boy children especially. Some sedate feelings may be permitted, but the palate is quite limited. In general strong emotions of all kinds are suspect and forbidden. The subconscious, instinctual world is considered dangerous, especially feelings related to sex. Some children are abused, physically or mentally. They are subjected to strong negative emotions, deeply hurt feelings, and do not know what to do or how to handle them. Many cannot endure the pain and so turn from all feelings, becoming dry robots, autistic or schizophrenic. Even in the best of families we acquire complexes or neuroses of one kind or another. In today’s culture we all leave childhood psycho-traumatized to a certain degree. The home of feelings, the dream world, is a forgotten area. It is given little importance by most of the adults who raise us. After some indulgence, we are encouraged to grow up, to put our fantasies and play behind us. Imagination is “kids stuff”, dreams are unreal or unimportant. So the indoctrination-education-program goes. We lose all touch with our dream world, our deepest desires and wishes. In today’s world of advertising, subliminal fill our feelings with new, acceptable desires and goals. In the United States for instance many of us actually come to believe that our deepest desires in life involve material consumption of one form or another. The pursuit of happiness becomes the pursuit of money and thrills. We find pseudo-happiness in consumption and entertainment, in movies and television. Our emotional needs come to be filled from the outside by observing the actor’s feelings. On the inside we become dead, hollow – the juices of our own feelings dry out. The function atrophies, and for some dies. Again, this process can be reversed, feelings can be resurrected. The joy of play and imagination we knew in childhood can be regained. There are many procedures for this reawakening, you have only to find the one you like. For some it may be music, for some acting, for some martial arts, for others loving and hugs, for others sex. For many there are powerful traumatic events in their childhood which must be worked through. There is deep pain and emotional hurt in their past which must be overcome before their feelings can develop and grow, or before they can mature sexually. Many different psychological therapies have been developed to overcome this pain, including the pain of birth itself with which we all enter this world. As we face and overcome the traumas and hang ups of the past, our feelings naturally strengthen, and our overall energy grows with the increased capacity to feel. Our dream world starts to communicate better with our waking selves. We start to transcend the advertising propaganda, to get in touch with our own desires. We start to find out what we really want out of life. We learn what we really love, what gives us real happiness and fulfillment. We learn from both our suffering and our joy. The dry sensations become charged. We awaken to art, to beauty, to sex. Our whole lives become filled with a new fire, with intensity and new feelings of all kinds. The purified feelings give our thinking a whole new dimension, our will a new power and force.

I find some wisdom in everyone's remarks. For myself, feelings are always sincere and never lie. Not so with thoughts,,, My deepest hatred became a doorway into a place where nothing is wrong anymore. With the caveat that the absence of Self Remembering is a return to some level of Hell. The idea of a 'once and for all permanent threshold' into tranquility is a fallacy. In my experience anyway. But the Kingdom of Heaven is always at hand if- "Ye become as little children". It gets complicated because sometimes my inner child is a mean little shit. So the idea of becoming as a child needs to perceived in a certain light. One of letting go and of embracing or a return to innocence where stupidity is not mandatory.

Thanks @gettoefl I found this interview to be much more approachable than her book - The Real Christ Held in high esteem by many with no sugarcoating and very plainspoken. Bernadette Roberts says modern Christianity has devolved into just a "Jesus cult". Under the surface here in this YouTube I see a division being made in more than one way from the old Patriarchical dominance of the Piscean age. Does anyone else see a parallel with Paramahansa Yogananda's: Second Coming Of Christ? This to be Christ Consciousness spreading in the minds of Earth's population instead of a returning messiah figure,,,

This will be a junction for all Christian perspectives. The backbone of today's Contemplavtive Christianity feeds on the roots of Eastern Orthodoxy. I'll be adding videos with sparse commentary unless meaningful dialogue ensues with others. I hope this is alright for this new community endeavor.

Becoming more grounded in the hara or belly center is usually a key ingredient for embodiment. There's some good excerpts about the belly center and embodiment on these two glossary pages. https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/embodiment https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/belly-center

This one came to me during my last psychiatric hospital stay. God is Great. I'm just good.

“We’re all fucked up.” ? “Hatred is perfectly normal.” ? “Be kind to yourself.” ?✌️

Reaching Up "Pills Don't Teach Skills" by Dr. Jim Rosen ©2021 Dr. Jim Rosen Pills don't teach you how to like yourself. They don't show you how to manage stress. They don't instruct you on how to be more assertive. If you want to be healthy, you have to live a healthy lifestyle. Pills make the pharmaceutical companies filthy rich, but they don't guide you into a healthy lifestyle. They don't teach you self-esteem or how to relax or how to get rid of painful emotions. They don't educate you in relationship and communication skills. Pills don't give your life purpose or meaning. They don't teach you fulfillment or enjoyment or how to develop a support group. They don't give you control over your own life. Pills take away a few symptoms and then give you other symptoms (called "side effects"). But pills don't teach you how to get rid of anxiety, how to overcome depression, how to control anger, or how to be a more effective parent. Pills don't teach skills, period. Dr. Jim Rosen is a PhD Clinical Psychologist. He is an experienced psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, and couples counselor. He offers treatment for anxiety disorders, panic attacks, depression, relationship problems, self-esteem issues, assertiveness training, anger control, stress management, and overcoming the effects of sexual, physical, and emotional trauma. Dr. Rosen works with his patients primarily over the phone. When needed, face-to-face therapy sessions can be scheduled in his home in Magnet Cove, Arkansas. Because he does not accept insurance, his fee is only $60 for a full 50-minute hour of treatment. He can be reached anytime by email at drjrosen@ipa.netor by phone or text at 501-623-2050. If you like Dr. Rosen's Reaching Up column, you are free to share it with other people. There is no fee for this column. It's free. If you're not on the list to receive it, just send an email that says "Please Send Column" in the subject line. You will receive a new column each Sunday. If you are on the list and you don't want to receive Dr. Rosen's column anymore, just send him an email that says "Stop Column" in the subject line.

Just joking,,,,, This is a paraphrasing of the Bible which often puts meaning in a different frame of reference. With the lightheartedness; metaphorical interpretation is sometimes more realized.

Poem by Red Hawk. Inspired by Lao Tsu's Tao Te Ching The greatest love seems indifferent The greatest love is Holy, and wholly impartial, which does not mean cold, uncaring; it means without judgement, indifferent regarding the arising of phenomena; it loves all equally, beggar and saint, friend, and enemy. The fool says he is "in love" which is how fear distorts relationship: the mind seeks an object to focus on; it seeks to claim and control, and it calls this love. The greatest love is without preference, Emptiness showering its fullness: the Sun warms flower and beast alike, shines its light upon the darkest heart.

" If you could float above the earth and become aware of all the negativity that is going on, you would never laugh again. The world is ruled by negative emotions." - Ocke de Boer