Hello and welcome all!
If you have any questions or comments, please wait
until the end and I'll be happy to discuss further!
Today is the second part in a series of three scheduled
masses. Last week, we talked about what ego is. We said
that ego is basically the sum of your experiences,
behaviors, all your actions, all your beliefs, all your
thoughts. It is a very arbitrary thing. And today
we're going to continue our philosophical analysis
of ego, more specifically, what happens when your
ego is removed from "you".
Even though we think that ego is so precious that
we can't change it, that if we changed our most
cherished beliefs, then something horrible would
happen: The world would collapse, but in reality,
what happens is that the world would not collapse.
Only your ego would collapse. What would happen
is that your ego would evolve to a higher level
of consciousness, and in that new state, if you
do this process correctly, then that ego will be
lessened. It will be less judgmental. It will
have less boundary between itself and the rest
of the world. It'll be more calm. It'll be less
neurotic. It'll be more comfortable. It'll be in
a position to perform better. So you get better
results out of your life when you numb that ego
down and you rub it out and you kill it. And
the ultimate end of this is the process and
the state of enlightenment, which aislings can
reach, and which monks reach after decades of
meditation and contemplation. They literally
numb down their ego so much that they dissolve
it and they no longer have that boundary between
themselves and the rest of the world. They feel
a sense of oneness that we can't even imagine.
I have not gone through this process although this
is something that I'm interested in researching
right now and it's going to take me some time
to get to where I want to be. Those who've gone
through this process reported they have a sense
of oneness with the world, with the universe.
What Oneness means is that you are no longer
distinct from anything else, you see yourself
as part of everything else, connected to
everything else and you no longer judge things
as good or bad and you no longer cling to your
beliefs so much and you no longer resist suffering
and you no longer resist pain. You just kind of
go with the flow. When you do that, well, you get
a tremendous sense of personal power, control over
yourself, emotional stability, because nothing
can shake you because what do you care? You are
one with the world. Literally, you do not care
because you see as everything being part of you.
You see you being part of everything else.
So there is no good and bad. There is nothing
that needs to be corrected. There is nothing
that is distinct from you. Your body getting
cut or even death is not a big deal because
you're just part of the system. The first time
you hear about it, you might think that's kind
of kind of wacky, kind of far out there and
metaphysical and uh not really the thing for me.
I would argue it's just that most people do not
reach that complete state of enlightenment.
What happens though is that throughout your life,
whether you even undertake this process or you
don't, you're going to be forced to adjust your
ego to the circumstances that are happening to you.
Except what's going to happen is there's going to
be a lot of resistance. So, for example, maybe you
have a horrible breakup. You have a divorce and that
just has a big traumatic scar on you, on your
ego and now your ego has had to change, to
adapt to that pressure. Or maybe you do
meditation and it makes you feel a little
bit more calm, a little bit more relaxed, a
little bit more connected to the world. You're
not completely connected. You've still got your
ego, but it's a little bit rubbed out. It's a
little bit numbed down. And so through this kind
of process, of just living life and learning
about life and experiencing the ups&downs, your
ego evolves. And it goes from the kind of ego
that it was when you were a kid. Basically, it
was all "me me", you know: yelling at your mom
to come help you, protect and provide some comfort.
Then it kinds of goes away from that and you become
more responsible, more independent, more open-minded.
And slowly as you're exposed to more experiences in
life, you become more and more open-minded.
And you start to see that good and bad is
really a more relative thing than you ever
thought it was.
Alright, this concludes today's session
about ego. I hope you've enjoyed it and
we will see you next week for the third
part of this series.
Now let's all praise Cail together.
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