The Ego
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What is your opinion on the ego? Is it better to attempt to build the ego, nurturing and strengthening it in order to develop an unbreakable singular ego a la Nietzsche, Stirner, etc. or is it better to try to dissolve and destroy the ego a la taoism and buddhism? Should you seek to go against the current of life to impose your own will on it, fighting against anything that gets in the way of manifesting your will, or should you try to go with the current of life, attempting to remove all desires and will?
There's a reason why the mind can go both ways. If you can do both you're gold.
/Eastern Philosophy
that question is being asked by the ego. so, any choice you make will be the 1st one anyway.
if you are to go for the second you dont 'destroy' it or do anything. you just stop and let things go by. but of course when this happens, our consciousness keeps working and showing us all we take to be things ego permanence etc. that is the nature of the human mind. the point is realizing that this things we see are just another natural phenomena, like the sun rising and setting, or the plants withering and thriving.
the language, or at least ours, plays us a trick here, it is always a step ahead. cause by phrasing the issue as 'attempting', 'stopping' etc we are implicitly posing an active agent, no matter what the verb is. and even if we use the passive form this is still being taken as given. if one overlooks this, roaming in the world of ideas using this structure wont take you anywhere.
>>8205699
>s it better to attempt to build the ego,
only hedonists think this
>>8205699
I've had ego death once when I did LSD. As I felt it coming on, I was extremely afraid; imagine dying. But as soon as the ego was gone I felt total bliss. Hard to explain really. The experience has made life slightly harder for me. For awhile it was impossible to enjoy superficial things or want to better myself in regards to money/health.
Letting go of the ego feels good desu senpai
>>8205699
>universal "should"s
You have a bit of reading to do, my friend :)
>self-negation
>>8206005 #
What's the difference between self-negation and ego death?
Is your ego good? Strenghthen it.
Is your ego bad? Kys
>>8206029
(I mean are you* good/bad for that post, rather than your ego levels)
>>8206029
when is an ego good or bad?
>>8206072
Ego just means consciousness. Aware of the feeling of your tongue right now? Oh thats you egoing
Conscious bad-actors I guess.
>>8206088
Dont *literally* kys if bad, just dont be a dick, fuck it man I dont even know
Modern man may not know it, but he behaves as if his own individual life were gods special will which must be fulfilled at all costs
This is the source if his egoism; one of the most tangible contrā of the neurotic state.
Any person accusing him being too egotistic drives him further into his neurosis
If i was to formulate a 'cure' for egoism, i would be forced to acknowledge it as a true will of god.
The ego must be left to a man, for it is his strongest and healthiest power which sometimes drives him into complete isolation; estranging himself from other people who seek to rob him of his sacred egotism.
However wretched this neurotic state may be, it also stands him in good stead; for in this way alone can he get to know himself and learn what an invaluable treasure is the love of his fellow beings.
It is only in the egotistic state of complete abandonment and loneliness can we experience the helpful powers of our own natures
>>8206028
hypofrontality; a state of decreased cerebral blood flow in the prefrontal cortex of the brain(implicated in all the functions of the human self model)
>>8205699
Manage your ego. Neither stoke it nor ash it.
I say understand what factors of yourself flare your ego and be happy with them but not proud of them. Know they're both ignition and fuel sources for the natural mind. Where you can have too much and too little of either one.
I believe total annihilation of the ego isn't true. Because those who do so are still doing so to please either themselves or a dieific entity/utmost authority. Which is still a form of ego, just not the fairground concept.
In short, do what makes you happy, but remember your actions stay with you and define you, especially to yourself. And that all time is limited so to always be aware of non-permanence.
I'm sure some philosopher said it sometime.inb4 pleb
>>8205699
even if you lose your ego do not lose your action if you lose your ago and your action you have done as they wish if you lose the ego and your action remains strong then you have succeeded in not falling in to but one of the many traps set along the road.
>>8205699
Ego is an empty and undefined word. Try not to let your models of behavior and information processing get in each other's way and try not to emphasise the self in ways that are overcompensatory or just disfunctional.
![[wú wéi intensifies].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/NthY1a9.jpg "[wú wéi intensifies].jpg")
>Implying you can develop, dissolve or destroy nothing.
Eastern philosophy does not suggest "weakening" the ego, it says that there is no such thing as ego. In fact, it is for this reason that man is passive and will-less, and why the height of religion is actually the development of a will and single ego directing all the conflicting impulses within yourself.
>>8205699
this thread is a disaster.
OP, next time if you feel like making a thread like this where you want actual answers, make sure you very clearly define the word "ego".
Who knows, maybe this is a clever way of making people try and work out the general meaning of the word "Ego"
>>8207145
based on your definition of good, you develop the "good" characteristics of your ego while destroying the "bad" ones.
if you need examples, ha fuck you i don't feel like typing anymore
Mystics and other ascensionists and emanationists who try to deny the reality of the ego, or religious people who try to deny its freedom, to me, are committing a kind of weird error by ignoring the "dignity" of the subjective and subjectively free self.
Those kinds of mysticisms always seemed weirdly lopsided to me. It's like, "God created you with the experience of freedom just so you could REALLY be determined anyway!" or "You exist just you can rejoin the great nous!" So why bother existing in the first place? Because of some Manichean creation myth about spirit's alienation in icky matter?
On the level of everyday science, I'm willing to resort to a cautious, materialist psychologism (transcendental apperception is just a quirk of consciousness that allows for persistent behaviours and perceptions, e.g.). But on the real level of metaphysics, the ego has to be dignified, to me. I just can't abandon that basic personalism.
Relevant?
>This finding of a similar pattern to dream activity is intriguing. While the psychedelic state has been previously compared with dreaming, the opposite effect has been observed in the brain network from which we get our sense of “self” (called the default-mode network or ego-system). Put simply, while activity became “louder” in the emotion system, it became more disjointed and so “quieter” in the ego system.
>facilitate a state of “expanded” consciousness – meaning that the breath of associations made by the brain and the ease by which they are visited is enhanced under the drugs.
https://theconversation.com/magic-mushrooms-expand-your-mind-and-amplify-your-brains-dreaming-areas-heres-how-28754
>>8208251
>>8205699
>an unbreakable singular ego a la Nietzsche
rrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeEeeeeeeeeeee
>>8208218
>work out the general meaning of the word "Ego"
![1407962584683[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/k0NnIKx.jpg "1407962584683[1].jpg")
>>8207145
>Can you explain how you can do both?
GURUR BRAHMA,
GURUR VISHNU,
GURUR DEVO MAHESHWARAH
GURUR SAAKSHAAT PARA-BRAHMA,
TASMAI SHRI GURUVE NAMAH.
The Guru is Brahma (The God of Creation)
The Guru is Vishnu (The God of Sustenance)
The Guru is Shiva (The God of Annihilation)
My Salutation to such a Guru, who is verily the Supreme God
So hold on, what are we talking about here?
Ego death, self-negation, dettachment, enlightenment, religious experiences.
Controversial subjects, ya?
You see, people coincide in describe ego death as a feeling of pure bliss, almost like...mmh...a RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE, that's it.
Praying nuns.
Monks in meditation.
What are they doing?
Death of dialectics, of indoctrinated social infrastructures inside the mind. That voice inside your head? It's gone. All that's left is nothing, but that nothing is something, catch my drift man?
See, that feeling of pure bliss is truly a feeling of freedom. A feeling of infinite possibilities, ya?
Maybe the Hare Krishnas were onto something.
We're all part of Brahama, and by chanting HIS name we see him, and he guides us.
Monks seclude themselves, because in this realm of newfound infiniteness and nothingness they truly see things as they ARE. That's a huge responsibility, so they entrench inside themselves, ya? Self control.
What I'm getting at is that POSSIBILITIES are infinite, ya? Why seclude oneself on a temple like a clam. Pssht, boring. Better to spring into action.
"But that's the ego speaking", you say.
Is it?
Why not build a skyscraper, write a symphony, kickstart a successful business?
Read Schopenhauer, Borges, Einstein, Schrödinger. Experience existential dread, and in the next moment shout out in pure joy.
The ego doesn't mind if it's not there. Maybe it wasn't there in the first place. Another <<semantic limitation>>. Simply boring!
You could be a satirist, a comedian if you will. Maybe Manson was simply that, our fellow /s4s/ satirists channeled into his consciousness, who knows?
>>>/s4s/4543289
Heh, don't get all mopey on me, kid. Remember it's all a joke.
/Stoner Philosophy Rant
![1466865533546[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/UV1AXq5.jpg "1466865533546[1].jpg")
>>8208628
Here's some soap to wash your mouth.
![1466590833998[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/LxN4rNW.jpg "1466590833998[1].jpg")
>>8208628
