what is the ego made from?

[Consilience]

The surface level sense of I is constructed out of:

1) Physical body sensations

2) Emotional body sensations 

3) Self referential mental images

4) Mental Talk

5) Physical sounds (we identify with the speaking voice coming from the head)

These 5 perceptions loop and tangle themselves up into a knot, forming the sense of “I.” This feedback loop is also flowing as a strange loop and therefore, reinforces itself. When we start to notice the strands of this knot in meditation or through self inquiry, the knot slowly starts to untangle until it’s too lose to and it falls away.

As Leo mentioned, this ego thing is deep. The process of identification (which is a conceptual/emotional [“Emotional body sensation” listed above] in nature) is operating in at a multitude of ever deepening levels. It takes an INCREDIBLY sharpened, concentrated, mindful state of mind to start to untangle this ego identification knot at the subtlest levels which is why rigorous meditation is required even after someone has experientially seen through the illusion of self. 

Of course the obvious question still remains, if this knot isnt you, what are you?

[ilja]

@Megan Alecia animals have ego

[Megan Alecia]

@ilja did your dog tell you that? 

[diamondpenguin]

This shit is confusing as hell. I don't know who to believe. Everybody in this thread has staked a claim on what ego is. You are reading my post trying to understand what I am saying. You piece together your own idea of what is being said. The question is, how do you know that your right? 

[Rilles]

4 hours ago, Megan Alecia said:

@ilja did your dog tell you that? 

Its unfalsifiable. I would bet that animals have some sort of ego though. 

[snowyowl]

I've got a loosely held theory that the ego is basically the prefrontal cortex of the brain, but viewed subjectively. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefrontal_cortex

"Many authors have indicated an integral link between a person's will to live, personality, and the functions of the prefrontal cortex.[2] This brain region has been implicated in executive functions, such as planning, decision making, short-term memory, personality expression, moderating social behavior and controlling certain aspects of speech and language.[3][4] The basic activity of this brain region is considered to be orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals.[5]"

This kinda fits with the feeling that I exist in my head, between and behind my eyes. That might sound materialistic to those folks who think the brain doesn't exist, but I'm not putting physical existence above subjective consciousness. It suggests my ego is part of the mind-body complex, not a "little me" inside the "big me".

Edited March 26, 2021 by snowyowl
grammar

[allislove]

"The Ego is a veil between humans and God."

“Love means to reach for the sky and with every breath to tear a hundred veils. Love means to step away from the ego, to open the eyes of inner vision and not to take this world so seriously”

Rumi

[VeganAwake]

The ego is YOU.

It's the fictional character experienced within the body comprised of accumulated knowledge, experience, ideas, beliefs, concepts, dogmas, parameters, emotions, conditioned thoughts, ....all identified with as 'ME'.

But it's an illusion or misidentification if you will.

Sometimes this illusory sense of self is seen through and seems to collapse( Awakening)

❤

 

 

 

[PureRogueQ]

I am still trying to figure this out, because ego is like other entity in you, it is like you are split in two, there is chaos and order, I know that some like to say that ego is not real, but if anything  two sides are more real then everything in between that they create. 

 

 

[ilja]

@Megan Alecia no

[ilja]

@Etherial Cat so wait, you saying it is the structure that causes the perceiving consciousness to be identified with things that keep the structures survival?

[Etherial Cat]

1 hour ago, ilja said:

@Etherial Cat so wait, you saying it is the structure that causes the perceiving consciousness to be identified with things that keep the structures survival?

Hmm. I would say it definitely contributes to do so. I picture the structure as a container for the content. You can get good result to disidentify the consciousness by working on the structure or on changing the content.

For instance, when you are watching your thoughts you're doing both a work on the structure and on the content.

[mandyjw]

 Snips and snails and puppy-dogs' tails, sugar and spice and everything nice

[GreenLight]

Maybe it is made of Skandhas?

[Zigzag Idiot]

I’ve been scanning Almaas’ glossary the past few evenings. There are 17 different categories associated with ego. There are good excerpts to be found in all categories. Ego structures - https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/ego-structures -is one such category but I drew two excerpts from the category of ego death to contribute to this thread.

https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/ego-death

Cessation of the Activity of Identifying

The capacity for global disidentification allows us to be permanently in touch with our essential presence, although the identity and the self-representation remains in experience. This condition allows the experience of self-realization to arise, at least occasionally, when the identity relaxes to the extent of total absorption by (or into) essential presence. The more this capacity for global disidentification develops, the more frequent, and the deeper, are the experiences of self-realization. This development continues, in principle, until permanent, full self-realization, where total global disidentification coincides with complete absorption of the self-representation, and complete openness and flexibility of identity. Complete flexibility of identity raises the phenomenon of disidentification to a new level, beyond the normal egoic experience. This flexibility involves the dissolution of self-identity, or more accurately, the cessation of the activity of identifying. This condition, which occurs in isolated experiences of self-realization, but is the permanent condition of full self-realization (enlightenment), is what is referred to by some traditions as "ego death" or "the death of the self." In this state of complete annihilation of identity, one does not have identity in the usual sense; our identity is now with the presence of Being. In other words, our identity has shifted from the self-representation to Being. 

The Point of Existence, pg. 129

Ego Death Feels as if Everybody Else is Dead

To be completely you means being alone. When this is experienced, it will bring very deep grief and sadness. You have to learn to say good-bye to everything you have loved -- not just your Mommy and Daddy, your boyfriend and your cat, but to your feelings, your mind, your ideas. You are in love with all of these. Letting go of them will feel like a great loss, even a death. It is not you who dies. What dies is everyone else. In the experience of ego death, you don't feel you're dying; you feel everybody else is dead. You feel you're all alone, totally alone. You have lost a boundary which was constructed from past experiences. But this boundary never really existed! It was just a belief. When you experience reality as it is, there is no sense of boundaries or of being separate, of inside or outside. 

Diamond Heart Book Two, pg. 169