Ego Loss?

Two answers. There's the kind of ego loss that drugs like the above induce, and the ego loss that's talked about in Buddhism and Hinduism, that comes after an experience of 'cosmic consciousness' or using it's usual name 'Nirvikalpa Samadhi', which is:

"...Attaining the state of “Nirvikalpa Samadhi” by the body and mind is believed to be culmination of all spiritual practices, particularly the yogic practices. The aspirant's objective is to come face to face with the ultimate reality - through realisation of the Atman (the inner Self which in the nondual Vedantic traditions is believed to be synonymous with Brahman, or in dualistic traditions a transcendent individual spirit), and thus attain unification with God or The Absolute. This is endeavored to be achieved by gaining an absolute control over senses and mind. It is believed that during the state of “Nirvikalpa Samadhi”, the aspirant reaches the pinnacle of spiritual evolution.
While many traditional Indian spiritualities teach asceticism and renunciation of the world, some Gurus to the West say this is not necessary for the attainment of Nirvikalpa Samadhi. According to Sahaja Yoga, a sect and meditation technique which claims to be able to help seekers achieve the state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi, one can continue to practice and aspire to attain Nirvikalpa Samadhi, even while continuing to lead a normal social and economic life; this path is often referred to as 'the way of the householder'...."

After the above you lose desires for things, gain compassion, and lose your ego, but not through any kind of decision based on what you learn in the above state, just that when you come out of it it's all there, it's part of you. So really 'ego loss' in the strict sense isn't what you describe - but what you said IS a kind of losing the self in some ways.


MelT

 

blah blah blah, something something that's a total anti climax and couldnt possibly follow MelT's very informative post above.

ego... fancy term for sense of self? perhaps. when your awareness is full on, and there's no sence of "I" with greater emphasis than all that is not "I", when all just is, the whole, of the whole, and a carrier of the whole.

then it shall be.


may samadi be with you.



http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3313968958314441665 <- of relevance to adding a perspective from wich you yourself may percieve yourself to behold the situation with great clarity. i cannot say it is truth, only that i offer it here.

 

Yes, the above is on the money.

Nirvikalpa isn't exactly common, but it isn't uncommon either, though depths may vary. I believe that you yourself have had at the very least a damn good taste of it at least a couple of times, and I'm sure there are others here too who may have had something similar without realising what had happened.

However, there are lots of people on the net who haven't had anything like it and still think they're the second coming. I can think of four almost household names and others authors of many books, who make some very grand claims when they shouldn't. Shame, but its a commercially driven world, and the spiritual attracts more chancers per square inch than just about anything else apart from medicine


MelT

 

Why would you want to lose your ego? YOur ego is what makes you you. Its your individuality. I guess thats why i perscribe to objectivism.

 

well i perscribe to Sprint. they have better coverage(i'm not sure what perscribe means or if its a word, but i'm high so go figure)

okay i'll say something on-topic so i dont get whacked ...

i dunno, i guess ego loss is a form of suicide of the mind, since you're doing away wiith all that constitues your personality. thats wat i tink anyhow. then again i dont have much of a problem with suicide.. so yall have fun

 

Psychoactive drug experiences are chemically induced psychosis. The good part is the possibility of being humbled. When you "let go" you may "regress in service of the ego." This means that you engage a past memory through lived experience. Even though you are "impaired" you have a new experience of life that is enjoyable and puts you in "the zone(whatever it is you dig)."

Anyhow, that's what ego loss through drug use means to me. Another kind of ego loss happens, of coarse, without the use of drugs. In my eyes, every last grown motherfucker on the planet has experienced this. If you put a commitment to something bigger than yourself ahead of yourself, then you have, by definition escaped ego-centrism and extended your perspective on life.

It sounded to me like your experience was more of a trip that you weren't really controlling. That's not to say that being in "the zone" or "ego loss" in life is about control. Most of the times somebody describes something that was amazingly beautiful they were engaged in, it's like the camera is rolling and they're making a conscious choice to watch the film, but they're just pleased with the direction it's headed, even though they don't have ultimate control. Being groovy doesn't mean you need to take drugs (all this said while I enjoy my vaped White Rhino and rum on the rocks. But I have enough wherewithal to handle most emergencies, should they arise. I feel decently centered and am enjoying watching about a thousand birds fly over my house and back between these trees and throwing my dog the frizbee in the backyard.)

I apologize for writing this arrogant sounding post. But I'm too lazy not to try and get credit for all of this shit I just typed.

Anyhow, I appreciate the thread you started. Very interesting!

 

whether or not the ego is what makes you you, stnoed, the ego can casue problems for the psyche. to me, it seems, that a loss of it, or a diminishing of it, would make it easier to answer or come closer to an answer for who, what, and why we are. to view ourselves with no predisposition of what we may be is something i, personally, strive for, be it through psychedelics or not.

 

Thats on you.
Read Anthem, its quick and easy.
Thats just not what people are, without our individualism we're lost, we've become something we are not. That doesnt mean you should be an egomaniac, obsessed with yourself.

Ego: Egoism states that each man's primary moral obligation is to achieve his own welfare, well-being, or self-interest. He should be selfish in the sense of being the beneficiary of his own moral actions.

But i think about other people too, ive done my share of community service, i was a boyscout for crying out loud. And i dont think you have to be without an ego to do something beneficial to society, infact i believe just the opposite. If we think were all the same, then we start to think we arent capable of doing anything to change the world.

I dont think we are so insignificant in our existence unless we choose to be. All the great people in history we're born the same as you and me in my opinion. Our greatness lies in the choices we make.

 

You're not lost or reduced to nothing when ego truly dies, it doesn't mean that you're unable to function for yourself or that youve lost your individuality. The term is misleading in some ways, so it's easy to get the wrong idea about it. Small effects are things like you dont want to lie, you have no desire to keep seeking things for stimulation as everything gives the same pleasure, you don't want possessions, you have no need to acquire money, you stop worrying about how you look and what people think of you and you put others feelings before your own. But none of this is contrived, you don't set out to be 'good', it just seems silly to be worrying about things and to have any concern for yourself. On the useful side, you have no fear of other people, or danger, or death, because there's no ego left to protect, no 'me' to cherish.

Ego loss doesn't mean that there's no 'you' with which you can interact with others, or be a real person. It just means that you, and most of the things that might have previously concerned you in life, have ceased to matter.

MelT

 

I like that book, Be Here Now. It illustrates ego loss in a light-hearted way. Anybody flipped through that one?

 

some of whats been posted in this thread is fear motived. fear of loss of self. there is no loss really (like i just read MelT got there first and wrote). like the principles behind the conservation of energy. in a sence, you gain infinately more than this mere self percieved state before allowing into consciousness the concept that we are all one big thing, and the extent of your individuality goes about as far as any-cell-in-your-body's individuality goes. (if the analogy remains true))

kinda like stepping into a great uncertainty, only with the suggestion that you'd benefit, but typically with a strong doubt that came about through an unfortunate shape in the english language which kinda shoved people another direction, or that same doubt which came about from percieving something else as "the self", like your thoughts and mental constructs to which you've become attatched, entangled, addicted or dependent.
you are not these things, and that which is experienced is a loss only of something which has inhibited your ability to be, as best you can be, to see, as best you can see, to feel, as best you can feel, to listen as best you can listen, and when that is removed, a great understanding, an openness and acceptance, ease and flow. i'd even speculate that someone clinging very tightly to their illusions based on ego would experience far less joy than someone who has shed their clingingness to this the first stage of the journey consciousness takes in exploring/remembering itself.

those who are self obsessed, i'm sure ALL of you will have experienced, are far less easy and enjoyable to be around than those who are, for lack of a better term, "selfless".



ps. sorry, dyslexia seems particularly rampant tonight now i've run outta weed... heh, and i always thought it made my dyslexic tendencies worse. hope that read ok for ya.

 

i'll give this a shot, i believe ego loss refers to the loss of individuality and the acceptance of being one with the universe. i wouldnt say thats a bad thing. although i havent read it personally if you wanna know all about this kind of thing, you should check out "the psychedelic experience" by Timothy Leary

 

If your talking about me, your damn right i would be afraid to lose myself. But i think this thread basically boils down to a difference in the definition of ego. If you mean losing self-conciousness, the belief that you are better than someone else, etc then i would agree with you. But if you mean losing track of that which makes you different than everyone else then i disagree. I do not believe we are all "one big thing".

"In the temple of his spirit, each man is alone. Let each man keep his temple untouched and undefiled. Then let him join hands with others if he wishes, but only beyond his holy threshold."

 

ah, thankyou Melt for that clarification. thats damn near precisly what ive thought.

and stneod is correct as well, inthat the term ego can be misconstrued and identified with narcisism or, well, sheer egoism.

one aspect of ego death or loss that i think everyone can appeal to is the possibilty of looking at things (especially onesself) without a bias. this objectivity, i think, could be very beneficial for self improvement and progression.

 

i would call this transcending arrogance.

if i meant losing track of that which makes us unique i would disagree with me too.

there is yet more to explore, more to learn, and perhaps most importantly, more to unlearn.

 

that reminds me of when i was {(and forgive the desperate seeking of suitable words and terms for this)} sparsified, consciousness without specific location, devoid of singularity, able to "see" physicality from all around, throughout, and within, much the same of intellectual concepts where i could intellectually grasp with perfect clarity all known "sides" to any "argument", and could watch all arguments dissolve in a state of knowing... i'd say more, but it'd just come out as arrogance, but suffice to say, this experience came about from a large dose of psilocybe mushrooms.

 

There was a time when I felt that the mushroom experience wasn't quite complete, but there's hardly a difference between the above stoned and an experience of 'Cosmic Consciousness' straight in meditation. Very interesting.

MelT

 

Just incase anybody is really interested in "ego-loss" the book I mentioned has been life changing for alot of people.

When I got my copy it was hard to find, but now you can go on Amazon and get it easy.

If you want to validate the experience of transcending your ego, just flip through the book, it's very non-pretentious, full of drawings and big text - hippy spirituality at it's best, good stuff

 

it's not actually possible to loose the self, the self is what is always there, the self is the core, the self is tied with silver cord, which nothing, not even nothing, can break.

http://tv-links.co.uk/show.do/9/5823
^ alot of the stuff in the video in this link is very relevent, with a googleplex* of clarity. theres so much in it though i could have almost posted this link in any thread here.

*ok, i exadurate.... or do i?