Hey Danny,

This was very enlightening. I have been struggling with my Ego lately, i believe it’s from all the wisdom overload i have about Ego-Death. When you spoke about hiding behind your Ego, and allowing your Ego to run you is what’s happening to me. I deny my Ego, because i see how it affects others. I’m scared that i will end up wanting this and that and having authority over others, treating them like peasants. I have potential, but i need the Ego. I want to have my Ego, but have it balanced and in the mystic light of a sparkling crystal.

I think you have a really interesting thing going, I would like to add to. If a person completely detaches themselves from their ego they will do nothing! The ego drives us to fulfill desires, whether or not they are for their own sake. Sometimes our ego causes us to do things that are only meant to prop a weak ego up, othertimes the ego can be the driver of great things. Human’s are indeed driven by Ego, when this is done unknowingly it is dangerous. We look at organized religions and see how many precious egos are involved and we see why there is violence surrounding things that should not be surrounded by egos, yet we see people doing great things and this too is the ego. The ego is like a burning fire, uncontained it consumes everything that is combustible. If the ego though is contained and managed and understood, then a person can do great things, because that fear of being wrong or failing is gone. The ego can be involved in everything a person does through out their day and their life and they may never know. When they are cut off in traffic and must speed up in order to let the person have it, it is their ego. A great work of art that changes the people see the world is done because of the ego, but also in spite of it. Anything we do that is driven by the ego, can also cause us great damage to that ego if it fails. The ego need not be ignored, the ego should be understood. If it is understood then there is no reason to allow another’s judgment cause a person to question their own existence.

The fact that man sees himself above other animals is a testament to his ego. Some think that all that there is was created for man, that is ego of another kind. Creationism is a human ego centric ideal, why must humans have souls that live on forever but other animals do not. Why not do what is right for its own sake? The philosophical question, which is better doing something that is right for its own sake and not needing to be acknowledged for it? Or doing something that is right because it has been labeled as right and there is some type of acknowledgement for it? Should we always be rewarded for doing right? Religion often puts something over a person’s head as to why they should do right, like God is judging. What if God is not watching? My ego drives me to do right, because there is guilt for no doing right, not because of what a religion has told me about God, but because of my own philosophy of life.

If the ego is understood, we can interpret every thought and desire that crosses our minds and make a determination as to what the ego is trying to convey and why. We can understand why others do what they do, why they must judge others. Right now as I type I realize that it is my ego causing me to type, because I have a drive to put my ideas out there. If someone comes along and says what I have written is garbage, I need only detach myself from ego and understand that me feeling hurt is a ego response, but they disagreeing with what I have said in a hurtful way is an ego response as well. People judge others always based on ego, whether or not they are following some religion or not. If someone says that what you are is wrong and that you should change and be something else, then they are saying that you should be like THEM because they are right. It is a strong ego, based a belief they hold that they got from somewhere. I do like some of the things Jesus says in the New testament, I get a sense that he was more aware than anyone else during that time. But if I read various philosophers that were alive before, during or after his time up to now I also see people that have great understandings. I say Jesus because Christianity is a major world religion, but people don’t realize that Jesus didn’t create Christianity those who came after him did in his name thus allowing their Egos to poison the true story. Buddha made great contributions as well. How many possible contributions to our world could there have been had not the human ego destroyed through war and hatred. During war, warriors go through and destroy anything and everything that has cultural or religious value. So how many great philosophers were killed and their ideas burned that we will never know about all in the name of someone’s Ego? Caesar? Genghis Khan? Hitler? Stalin?

If we look out into the world we will see that everything is the way it is, nothing is perfect, yet it is here and it is perfect in that way! I look at a tree growing naturally I do not see perfection I see something perfectly imperfect. Each one being different, yet beautiful. There is nothing in the tree saying that it must be as good or better than the tree next to it, it just does its thing and flourishes if the conditions are right. The universe doesn’t operate on laws of perfection, rather they operate by the laws of chaos. We have finally been able to really see the universe and all around our solar system we see just how chaotic and destructive things are. When we look at things at the atomic level, we see how imperfect and unpredictable things are. With all this imperfection and chaos going on around us, it is a wonder that our egos still hold ourselves, others, and God to such high standards of perfection. If you were to take a deck of cards, shuffle them and throw them up in the air and then looked at how they fell, the odds of them being in order is an almost incomprehensible number. The odds of a universe such as ours existing is an incomprehensible number, why allow our egos to take away from such a beautiful and mysterious event that we are a part of. It is something we will never understand! Why we must be so hard on each other is beyond me to infinite.

I am really sorry if I got off track, just kind of went where my thoughts took me!

I really love this thread! Thanks everyone! OP – I think the adventure your mind and thoughts take is wonderful! It looks like your thought adventure brings out the best in other people’s adventures too. I hope to hear more from all of you. This was fun.