If You Have No Ego, Wouldn't People Walk All Over You?

[Clay]

I don't understand what I'm suppose to do with my ego:

If I have too much ego, I would think too highly of myself. I would not listen to anyone about anything, and thus I wouldn't grow.

If I have no ego, I would not have a "self" to refer to. I would be open to suggestions from everyone, and let everyone I come in contact with, pull me in whatever direction they wish, whether good or bad. Couldn't this end up leaving me in a bad place?

[Ajax]

Nothing is more powerful and influential than the Truth. When you take yourself out of the Truth, you gain the ability to harness the truth. When you speak the truth you get to peoples minds and conscience much more effectively than yelling or threatening.  In addition the more truth you see the more you can use you higher knowledge to manipulate the situation to your advantage...

*Edit*
Besides, there is a difference between identity or personality and EGO,  the latter is the sum of our desires and experiences... our judgements, opinions, biases, fears etc. Basically the aspects of yourself that causes you to react to things. 

Edited February 24, 2016 by d1ajax
Additional Thoughts

[Azrael]

20 hours ago, Clay Curl said:

If I have too much ego, I would think too highly of myself. I would not listen to anyone about anything, and thus I wouldn't grow.

Actually, it's not that black and white. I had a temporary spiritual experience last year and one of the most interesting things that appeared were that it actually seemed that I am more arrogant than usual. I had a buddy around and laughed him out and told him that I can actually not detect any difference between him and the wall next to him.

Now, how can this be? Were I fooled? No, what seems to be the case is that you become very grounded when you dis-identify from your ego. You get completely grounded in what is and probably don't become the product of the other people's talk. 

You just do your thing, without being frantic and neurotic about it. It's the most beautiful place I can think of and there is nothing in this world I know that could be compared to this.

Btw, you = ego. You can't have to much ego. My ego is just talking to you. An enlightened person still has an ego, but just chooses not be identified with it if he wants to.

Edited February 25, 2016 by Arik

[Shubham]

answer to the topic:

if you don't have ego... You wouldn't know or mind when people are trying to walk over you... You would be busy with your own stuffs....

does I really matter wether people respect you or walks over you... This question can only be raised by ego..itself...

vulnerability is a state when your ego gets maximum impact.... So be vulnerable.. And focus on growth..

peace?

 

[Ayla]

@Clay Curl , 

Ego can only stick to the PERSON, and no PERSON can become enlightened. In order to become enlightened, that person that you think you are, needs to be brushed off. 

Also, your existence is a mirror of the grievances, sorrows, shame, blame, guilt, fear you hold. When all that - is no more, nor your reality will bring them into your experience. Even if they did, they will be like footsteps in the sand...  

[Keyblade Viking]

Oh boy, that is the greatest question ever  

And the answer is NO!

Look, listen if you you didn't have an ego it would no longer be about you however it's not really about "Not having an ego" because that is 100% impossible but instead look at the ego as a Golden Armour that defend the Holy Spirit.

"Any word spoken against the son of man will be forgiven but a word spoken against the spirit will not be forgiven."

It also mean you don't give a fuck what anybody think of you or how hard your life get or if you're hanged up on a cross to die and wither away, it doesn't matter if you can't get any good food or hot girls or awesome video games cause that all ego stuff and now you have no reason not to preach the truth to everyone, to truly make a difference.

What do you think the character of Jesus represent? Whether he actually lived or not doesn't matter but he was the perfect man who always walked around preaching the truth to people, he smashed all the stores in the temples and pissed everyone of, calling them hypocrites etc etc, now there's a real man who never let his ego get in the way and always stay on the correct path.

Btw, the "Temple" is symbolic of your mind, think about why Islam is so anti Idolaters and how Muhammad ran around in the temples smashing all the Idols. Ha ha, it's fucking perfect, he broke everyone idols, ha ha (moral of the story, everyone is an idolater, it's not only celebrities etc but also ideas of status, worshiping our own egos or just worshiping bad products or habits the way we always need sugger and porn etc etc)

Anyway, here's a dude who taught me so fucking much about all that and truly opened my eyes after so many "disagreeals" and always being proven wrong lol:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCopFXXNwqXYTe5uFIo1viEA/videos

(and those recent videos about the gospel of philip are awesome)

If I have too much ego, I would think too highly of myself. I would not listen to anyone about anything, and thus I wouldn't grow.

When you are to ego-driven you might as well have a great social anxiety because you care to much about what everyone say to speak up, at least you're not likely to try to be like everyone else if that's the case but Ego =/= Arrogance.

That's kinda the big lie, the "Good" side are the "Nice" and "Polite" people and the "Bad" guys are being to "Harsh" but those are all just illusions and there's nothing real about that shit at all, in fact it's the original sin to see the world in that black and white context.

Edited February 24, 2016 by Keyblade Viking

[Grasshopper]

3 hours ago, Clay Curl said:

If I have no ego, I would not have a "self" to refer to. I would be open to suggestions from everyone, and let everyone I come in contact with, pull me in whatever direction they wish, whether good or bad. Couldn't this end up leaving me in a bad place?

Not likely. You can still set and enforce boundaries. There's a difference between ego and self-respect.

[Mohsinuddin]

On 2/24/2016 at 11:14 AM, Clay Curl said:

I don't understand what I'm suppose to do with my ego:

If I have too much ego, I would think too highly of myself. I would not listen to anyone about anything, and thus I wouldn't grow.

If I have no ego, I would not have a "self" to refer to. I would be open to suggestions from everyone, and let everyone I come in contact with, pull me in whatever direction they wish, whether good or bad. Couldn't this end up leaving me in a bad place?

Very Good Topic.

It is kinda true people will walk all over you. But you will have choice to react to it or not when it coming from higher place. You don't become unconscious with other person rather stay conscious and deal with situation. It has more chance of you not getting the situation worst for you and him or her. That's what i think. 

[abrakamowse]

5 hours ago, Clay Curl said:

I don't understand what I'm suppose to do with my ego:

If I have too much ego, I would think too highly of myself. I would not listen to anyone about anything, and thus I wouldn't grow.

If I have no ego, I would not have a "self" to refer to. I would be open to suggestions from everyone, and let everyone I come in contact with, pull me in whatever direction they wish, whether good or bad. Couldn't this end up leaving me in a bad place?

Clay, you are thinking about your ego as you. You feel you are your ego and you are not.

You have to try to connect with your higher self, that is done with meditation, the higher self knows better than you what is good for you. In fact, he is You, but you don't see him as you. We are all identified with the ego, and the ego doesn't know anything. He goes to extremes, he doesn't think what is good for you, he thinks what is good for him so you believe he is you.

I'm not sure if you are getting exactly the idea of what ego is. You have something much more powerful than the ego, but because of conditioning we don't know how to connect to it.

Take your time, be quiet. And you will feel your real self.

 

Maybe you need to understand what ego is first, you don't have to be against it. First you have to know how it works. Read this, maybe this can help.

http://www.osho.com/read/osho/osho-on-topics/ego

 

Edited February 24, 2016 by abrakamowse

[Leo Gura]

If someone is a doormat, that's most often because they have low self-esteem -- i.e., a weak, wounded ego.

If you didn't have an ego, you wouldn't care what anyone thought of you and you'd stop being a doormat.

[asgard94]

The one mistake most self-actualizing people might be making is seeing ego as an imaginary cancerous part of the brain that requires amputation. Well, not really. Simply understanding what ego is, and understanding how it affects your life decisions already grants you a serious chance of acquiring  self-control and self-discipline. Even so, there is really nothing wrong with being egoistic sometimes. I think very often we are addressing the wrong problems here. First of all, one that is self-actualized should not be so dramatically self-centered at a point which an individual starts to worry about the ego which is basically imaginary in its nature. So what I'm saying is... There is so much to explore, learn, experience. There are billions and billions of galaxies out there, yet we have not even begun exploring this solar system we live in. So instead of worrying about the matters of ego and confusing the hell out of your mind, why not relax. Be aware that you exist, here and now. In the form of energy-matter, and that you are a part of this vast universe. On the other side.. you are a complex biological machine that has many different needs and desires. So what do we do from here? Well.. Go where your personal curiosity takes you. And stick with the universal truth. And by the universal truth I really mean, a set of truths that are like 2x2=4. The kind of truths that you know for sure are unquestionable. It is one good method of making sure you are not getting lost in the dilemma your own mind has created upon itself..

[Clay]

I truly appreciate everyone's input on this discussion. I have pondered on all the answers here, and I think I am finally starting to understand:

The ego is a collection of perceptions of the self. These perceptions include how you perceive yourself, and how (you perceive) others (to) perceive you.

So, you can move around on this "small-to-big ego" spectrum, and tune the dials of how much importance your perceptions of self matter over the perceptions of others.

Or, you can remove yourself entirely from this spectrum, because you realize that these perceptions are irrelevant when it comes to seeking truth and living purposefully.

[Ayla]

10 minutes ago, Clay Curl said:

The ego is a collection of perceptions of the self

It is a masquerade of those yes, exclusively based on your own programming