Anton Rogachevski

Is there an unchangeable core to our personality that is outside the reaches the web of belief? Or can we change completely? What do you think?

I suppose that if we didn't, all enlightened masters were the same person. We can distinguish different styles of teaching. Personality tests suggest that we have different types of personalities. Let's say if someone is an introvert, is this his fundamental nature? or is it a changeable belief?

Am i comforting myself with fantastical ideas about enlightenment in the future?

"The ego doesn't exist." Said the ego to the self.

If you think that you have fooled ego, ego has fooled you.

I am enough, just the way I am right now! I'm where I always wanted to be! I've arrived! You can't "have" awareness, It cannot be possessed. Being better or worse at it. Meditation is the meditator. Krishnamurti Allow yourself to be completely wrong. And let others be right. Is there a brain perceiving reality? Is there a mind? Is reality brain-generated? Even if it was I couldn't know.

@Gopackgo Yeah. It's multiplying abilities are beyond imagination. The fact that it now projects 7 billion different entities, who you believe are absolutely separate shows the magnificence of the show.

The biggest ego trip is to think you are somehow seperate from ego. Do you realise that you are the ego? When you talk about your ego doing something you didn't want to, you are multiplying it! Now there's a "good" you, standing aside from a "bad" you, pretending it's seperate, and so justifying it's selfishness by blame. When the truth is that you are both and neither at the same time. Because we are hopelessly selfish. No matter how much we might pretend that we are not, that attempt will be another ego trip. It's power is beyond our imagination. The easiest way is to admit right away: "I'm selfish, I only care about myself." So now that we are honest with ourselves, it's time to start asking who is the self we are selfish about? What is a self? Am I a self? And one day we will find out, that our real self was actually the whole thing.

@Gopackgo Thanks for a detailed reply : ) My theory is that while we operate in an unenlightened state we are helpless against ego delusion. We might theorize about it, but we can't really see the depth of it until a breakthrough. Even then, until you reach a constant awakened state you might be "under influence".

@AstralProjection Thanks for your reply : ) The ego has ways to make it seem like you are generous, when in fact you secretly serve your self agenda. In the money loaning situation it's a classic power law (48 laws of power by R.Green) , to show generosity. It makes you seem benevolent in the eyes of others.

When my peactice leans towards asceticism I tend to think that the less pleasure I get the more I'm progressing. Would that completely wrong to assume?

@Prabhaker Thank you for your comment. The things you say are truly insightful and go deep into the distinction. My question focused more on the aspect of avoiding pleasure. Is it beneficial or not to consume the least delicious food for example.

When you say Awareness what do you mean? For me I would say this gets pretty close by saying what its like. I would love some input from you guys! Awareness - acceptance, calmness, peace, authenticity, alertness, awake, spontaneous, compassion, love, unity, focus, emptiness, like a mirror, pure experience.

By looking at the way an insane person is perceiving reality, in a completely different way than we do, we can see the twisting power the brain has, it's distorting what we consider to be "really out there" into its frame of limited experience. So now we must ask ourselves whether we can really take it on faith that the so called "normal" way of perception is truly the accurate one. How do we know that we have the accurate picture? Maybe the crazy person is actually getting a glimpse into reality as it is. Since we can only have our own personal perception we can never really know what's it's like outside it. The only thing to do is to remain open to the idea that there might be more than meets the eye.

I actually was pointing towards true nature. But from a different door. Why do you think that we couldn't? Let's be optimistic about it : ) I wouldn't suggest otherwise. My motive is to raise a deeper interest in the ultimate questions. Aren't these two paths that lead to the same destination? I think that a good old inquiry will suffice. Would you care to elaborate my dear sir?

@PureExp Hey thanks for your comment! I won't know, but I'd stay openminded and never stop exploring into experience. It's the most fascinating thing there is.

@Leo Gura So a person that isn't waking up doesn't know he's aware? That's why I wanted a cleat definition. Because anyone can say: "Here I see an apple, therefor I have awareness. I am aware of the apple" I recently realized that this path is tricky because we mean different things but use the same word. So it's easy to listen and think you got it. But you only got it through your own definitions.

@Leo Gura Can you know that you are aware without knowing what awareness is?

@Leo Gura Any powerful affirmations you might suggest?

Pay attention to all words that bother you, and are recurring in your thoughts, because very often they carry a feeling, and if dismissed as irrelevant or not correct it might turn into a suppressed issue. Any word that arouses an emotional reaction, or inner resistance in you, is a good sign to pay attention, and inquire into why a collection of letters is making such a mess in your brain. A good suggestion might be, to write a list of all the words you would be scared that people would associate with you. And read it from time to time, try to be with them silently until the resistance melts completly. Don't explain to yourself that they are "just words". Be patient and just sit with them for a while. These are your emotional buttons, and the sooner you will take care of them, the smoother your life will be. There will be no fear of being exposed or judged, because you came to peace with any emotional trigger you might have had, and now you are free to concentrate on things that really matter to you.

If we understand the different ways in which we created this identity, and how we keep building it, we might have a good chance to actually start changing deep rooted patterns of behaviour. Easy step by step process for molding an ego: 1. Have an opinion and protect it. Disagree with opinions diffrent than your own and Agree with similar. 2. Now hold on to it tight and call it "Truth" and never change it. 3. People with different opinions are stupid, possibly an enemy. They are completely wrong, and they should have an opinion just like yours. In fact ignore other people. 4. It's very useful to keep around you a like minded group that is always agreeing with you. 5. Tell yourself and others different reasons why your opinion is the best. Have positive opinions about your opinion to reinforce it. 6. Seperate yourself completely from others by judging them and feeling angry about them. 7. Compare yourself to others constantly to make sure you are in fact better. Be jealous and angry at those who are more fortunate. 8. In every conversation try to prove you are smarter and superior to others. Say annoying things to create an argument. 9. Have imaginary arguments in your head with those who disagree with you. And keep looking for reasons why they are wrong. 10. Be jealously possessive of your significant other. 11. Please others so they will pat you and give you approval. 12. Fight for power and fame. 13. Fulfill all you desires for pleasure and feed them constantly. Get comfort and escape any pain. Depend completely on outside circumstances to feel satisfied. 14. Feel pity for yourself and complain. Be the victim of circumstances and avoid any responsibility. 15. Withhold love to get what you want from other people. There must be conditions to receive love from you. 16. Go around and preach your opinion to others to "save" them, and if a holy war is needed, go to war to force your opinion on the infidels. 17. Care a lot about what others think about you and always behave in a way that pleases everyone. Forget about your authentic identity and desires. 18. To feel good about yourself you must be the most successful, and everything must be perfect in your life. You can't fail or do mistakes. 19. Reality should change to how you think it should be. 20. Withhold and ignore all your feelings. Bury them deep and don't let anyone see your weakness. 21. You can never have enough. Always want more and never be grateful for what you have. 22. Hold grudges and never forgive those who hurt you. Have enemies. Be vengeful. 23. Control everything and everyone according to your will. Don't trust anyone. Don't ask for help, or you will owe others. 24. Regret your past and worry about the future. 25. Think that you are special and your problems are worse that other's. Be stubborn and think that nothing can help you. 26. Have very high and unrealistic expectations. 27. Think you are doing something for the good of others.

An unhappy individual will associate his discomfort with irrelevant things, and with a genuine belief they are in fact the source of his pain, but the truth is that a deeper unresolved issue is the underlying cause of that behaviour. What people say when they are hurt or displeased is rarely about the actual object of the conversation, but rather a general expression of how they feel. Seek between the lines to see why a person says what he says. The reason for this is that we are rarely taugh to express ourselves genuinely by our parents. So we must learn to do so as we grow up, to have our emotions expressed in an assertive manner, conveying the message we truly intend to convey So if we try to go into What he says and try to seek a rational solution we will feel confused and even hurt sometimes, because a person in that situation may say things that offend us, and it's easy to get angry and start a fight. On the other hand if we stop ourselves from getting carried away by emotions, and try to understand his situation instead, we might not say things that will aggravate the pain further.

The ego is not some mysterious spiritual monster you fight. It's just the automatic pilot system that takes care of things while you are day dreaming. It's really doing the best it can to ensure basic survival. Even though it's means aren't as elegant and diplomatic, it gets the job done. If you really feel ready to be responsible, wake up and take matters back into your own hands. But get a strong desire to lead instead of being lead. Be the Shepard and not the sheep. Take 100% responsibility for your situation. Stop being the victim of circumstances. Blaming is the egoic way of avoiding responsibility. Be the leader of yourself. The captain of your own ship.

@PureExp The ego loves the simplicity and certainty of an absolute fact. It's so easy to just say "I know." Thank you for your insightful input, it really adds an edge.

It's quite dangerous when the rational mind gets hold of "spiritual facts" without actually experiencing them, and is trying to fit them onto a logical framework in order to have strategic action steps. The problem is that spiritual facts are beyond rationality and cannot be understood simply by grasping with the mind. And thus the rationality will twist them to fit into a little box and they will lose their true essence. They've now been turned into moral codes and 1,2,3 rules of action without an authentic inspiration. Actually an active ego will use them as an excuse for egoic actions. That's how religions were turned into fanaticism. An example of this phenomenon is trying to rationalise anger away by saying "You shouldn't be mad at illusion!" This is basically a failure to accept and love the angry side inside you, which is the only thing that will transmute it to love. Or saying that you shouldn't be jealous because of it's all illusion and you can't gain anything. It's okay to feel feelings. There are no wrong feelings. Allow yourself to feel, or you will suffer inner conflict and resistance. Thinking the world is illusion is delusion. Because there's no outside witness that is real. You are part of the same illusion until you've woken up from it.