Ego after enlightenment

[Chrissy j]

Some people claim that you need your ego after enlightenment to function in the world. Is this true? From what it seems to me, enlightenment is the complete loss of ego permanently. There is no more self, only the personality will remain. Yes you can think and conceptualize things, but you still see it as all you when you do this right? Maybe when people say this, maybe they just mean ego as personality and conceptualizatiln though there is no more self? Or maybe this is just one stage on the path towards enlightenment, though I don’t think so? 

 

Edit: Another question I have is how attached to your opinions are you when you are enlightened. I think it would be none, but then you have people like Osho who said he was going to war with Sheela in wild wild country. What is up with that? Or gurus who start cults. This just seems like not embodying enlightenment. What do you guys think?

Edited August 10, 2018 by Chrissy j

[cirkussmile]

What you call ego is attachment to oneself and a set of beliefs. 

When there’s no attachment anymore you don’t suddenly die. Everything is just as it used to but with the exception that there’s no more desire or attachment to a certain outcome. 

That doesn’t mean we become vegetables. It’s rater the opposite. 

 

[Archen]

@cirkussmile But your profile picture is a vegetable 

[nethernalbeing]

Some "gurus" needed communication classes after enlightenment. It seems to me that after such happening you need to learn to act as an ego. You use ego to function and think when it's required - the thinking doesn't control you anymore. The best part of it though is that you can have total freedom with your ego - just for fun.

[Forestluv]

@Chrissy j I group ego/self/personality/character/story all together. They are all so contracted inside an expansive space that I find it distracting to get bogged down in the minutia.

I've had enlightening/awakenings of various qualities and depths. The ego/personality has always returned and there have been various levels of awareness of the ego/personality. It has been an ongoing process of de-personalization, which has included beliefs and deep-seeded perceptions (e.g. objects in space). At times, there is an "I AM" presence observing the character. At times the character is used as a "tool" to function in a relative world, then put back on the shelf. Just like tools come in handy to build a bridge.

From an I AM/awareness perspective, there is no more attachment to an opinion than to a blade of grass. An opinion is simply an appearance and when examined closely, empty. Opinions/beliefs can be deeply embedded into the personality structure and it can take work over time unravel some of them. At least for me. Yet, the liberation is undeniable.

[Chrissy j]

Once you are enlightened though, isn’t it the case that you will always be in that state? Even if you are playing an ego role to interact with the world, you will still see it all as yourself. 

[nethernalbeing]

3 minutes ago, Chrissy j said:

Once you are enlightened though, isn’t it the case that you will always be in that state? Even if you are playing an ego role to interact with the world, you will still see it all as yourself. 

"I" am not enlightened but in theory you're correct.

It's like having a wrench. You use it but don't mistake yourself for being only it. You see the bigger picture EVEN if you do use it.

[WindInTheLeaf]

3 minutes ago, Chrissy j said:

Once you are enlightened though, isn’t it the case that you will always be in that state? Even if you are playing an ego role to interact with the world, you will still see it all as yourself. 

What state? When you are enlightened you don't cling to the understanding that it is all you. With the insight that it is all you, you can relax and let yourself be as you are here and now. It's like stepping outside of the cave and seeing the light. You can stay outside of the cave or go back in without being attached to the shadows, as you carry the light with you. You can be in the cave without being in the cave. Let your inner child play without getting burned, as you have become the flame.

[Rujan Mehar Bajracha]

@WindInTheLeaf I have just posted the principles of enlightenment. Check it out it may be helpful to you. :-)

[Moreira]

Being enlightened permanently is not possible unless you live isolated from society forever. The enlightened person would be forced to relate as an ego with other people and things as a subject-object (duality).

[Sashaj]

Interesting discussion I had a conversation about this very thing with an enlightened teache this morning

[pluto]

Its more of a merge than a loss. A Transcendence.

[Victor Mgazi]

There's no such thing as after enlightenment. No one ever becomes enlightened, yes ego transcends and all but that's pretty much it. One may have super natural abilities but at that stage those things will just appear natural for you. 

It's quite a slippery thing to grasp but once the realization occurs you will understand. Enlightenment is a thing of the dream along with all other meaningful things and once you awaken to all of it...there will be no one there to testify. It's truly a pathless path because right now you are the absolute but mind wants to acknowledge that whilst this is not something to be known but simply conscious of - which is already so. 

But go ahead and seek. It will all not matter at the end ?. PEACE 

[WelcometoReality]

On 2018-08-10 at 11:05 PM, Chrissy j said:

Some people claim that you need your ego after enlightenment to function in the world. Is this true? From what it seems to me, enlightenment is the complete loss of ego permanently. There is no more self, only the personality will remain. Yes you can think and conceptualize things, but you still see it as all you when you do this right? Maybe when people say this, maybe they just mean ego as personality and conceptualizatiln though there is no more self? Or maybe this is just one stage on the path towards enlightenment, though I don’t think so? 

Ego is the identification to thought- and sense-patterns. So if you define enlightenment as "complete loss of ego" it is to no longer have any identification to any thought-sense patterns. There is no self, and there will never be a self. There is just identification to the I-thought.

On 2018-08-10 at 11:05 PM, Chrissy j said:

Edit: Another question I have is how attached to your opinions are you when you are enlightened. I think it would be none, but then you have people like Osho who said he was going to war with Sheela in wild wild country. What is up with that? Or gurus who start cults. This just seems like not embodying enlightenment. What do you guys think?

There will be opinions but no identification to those opinions. So no belief in that they are true. They will not be held onto as truths and can easily be reformed because if that.