Are the ego/sense of self and self-image issues related at all?

[mandyjw]

@Nahm No kidding, I just remembered I left something in the toaster. Not feeling so hungry anymore though. 

[4201]

 @Nahm Oops, should have been more attentive 

Makes more sense now

[VeganAwake]

9 hours ago, 4201 said:

I can relate to this. I liked myself better prior to realizing no-self. Back then I was in a process of becoming more and more awesome as a person and it was amazing.

?

Understand that body/mind has spent its whole life identifying as a separate individual. Completely influenced by society whether there was rebelling or cooperation.

This conditioned way of behaving and thinking doesn't change overnight.

It's recognized this so-called individual with all of its conditioned judgments, concepts, ideas and beliefs..... isn't a real entity (its more of an assumed identity).

Enlightenment isn't a better experience for the individual.

It's freedom for No One from the socially conditioned individual that was never real in the first place.

❤

 

 

 

[4201]

23 minutes ago, VeganAwake said:

Understand that body/mind has spent its whole life identifying as a separate individual. Completely influenced by society whether there was rebelling or cooperation.

This conditioned way of behaving and thinking doesn't change overnight.

"I can't stop identifying right now because of how used my body is to identification. I'm screwed, no way out but to suffer 20 years of intense identification games before I can be free, all of that because my body needs time to stop identifying."

Lack of identification is possible right now regardless of the life story of the body. I do think that is true, although this truth can be turned into an expectation "I should be awake right now" and then things turn sour.

Edited July 20, 2021 by 4201

[Anahata]

Contemplate on how you've always been constructing & projecting *self-referential meanings* while deriving your sense of self from being the ego. Now think about the most triggering, judgemental & hurtful self-referential thought you ever had as a child. It really hurt, right?

Why does that thought not hurt you anymore while recalling it now that you are an adult?

Well, it's because you are not identified with being that child anymore.

It's like, now that you're no longer identified with the 'child ego-mind', thinking that thought feels as 'impersonal' as hearing about other's opinions & judgements they have about themselves.

Your ego-mind morphed into another version of itself now.

In the initial stages of awakenings, one of the facets of the process is You basically realizing that you are That which is aware of the ego, you realize the personhood have been dreamed up by You all along.

As you awaken deeper and deeper, there will come a point when there will be no difference between admiring your 'human face' in the mirror & watching the sunset. No difference between what you call 'other people's eyes' & 'your eyes'. Up & down. And so on. And I mean recognizing the substance of all form & ideas. Pure divinity.

Just ISness

Clear

Direct

As the *ego dissolution* starts getting 'deeper' and 'deeper', Awareness/You recognizes that you've never been an individual/human self/ego-mind. It's pure imagination.

You see Yourself in everything & everyone.

You stop getting things personally. You become Love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Breakingthewall]

the separate self is inherent in the human being. It is not a false identification or an error, it is a genetic characteristic. just as in a seed it is inscribed that a tree will develop branches, a human will develop a self, interrelated with other selves. In this society there is a lot of dysfunctionality of the I, legions of people who live in a gray area. In x, or xvii century the i was much more solid than a xxi century i. many people had a huge, solid self, and a good self-image that was passed down from parent to child. Today we are raised in the indefiniteness, and that generates suffering, misplacement, madness, but it also gives the possibility of awakening. There is no room for solid i nowadays. they are an anachronism, something out of place, antiques. how to educate a child today? very difficult. in non-duality? would that be good for a child?

[The0Self]

On 7/19/2021 at 1:16 AM, Gesundheit2 said:

Can someone have a very big sophisticated ego, and at the same time be free from all self-image issues?

Conversely, can someone be in a state of total no-self and still have major self-image issues?

This is a difficult one to talk about because it reveals the false non-absolute nature of words.

Whenever we speak of a self separate from this, we aren’t actually talking about anything.

? 

❤️