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WHY does ego try to avoid the Truth?
Mateeah
Explorer
The truth that we ARE everything, consciounessness itself that is DOING the universe, manifested AS the universe?
Why on earth would ego try to avoid this anyway?
It's puzzling to me!
Why on earth would ego try to avoid this anyway?
It's puzzling to me!
0
Comments
As for your question, sorry I cannot help you much or have much of an opinion. I have seen my ego grow less with time due to Buddhism and I have seen it be torn to shreds for a short period of time on psychedelics.
I think personally speaking that it is a question probably best left alone, it may be one of those unanswerable ones that leads to confusion etc. Suffering can be found in everything, desire can even be found in this question and thus suffering if you look closely.
in my humble opinion
The animal in us needs to eat, drink, take a leak, find a mate, copulate and die.
Ego is just an evolutionary step, I think, for it has brought more worse then good.
Specieswise.
Where is the evidence that consciousness precedes form?
Being part monkey I should know . . .
Some Dharma Wisdom from 'The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension' may be applicable:
Dr. Lizardo: "Laugha while you can monkeyboy."
B. Banzai:
"Nothing is ever what it seems but everything is exactly what it is."
"The Mind's a funny thing . . . in the Summer it longs for Winter. In the Winter it longs for Summer. In the Spring . . . it heads for the Bahamas."
The body grows old, becomes sick and dies whether one wants it or not.
One becomes separated from loved ones and comes into contact with those that one dislike. More often than not one doesn't get what one wants.
This ego doesn't want to die for then it would ceased to exist. So it identifies with Life or the Universe itself, so it can "live" forever. But the Universe and Life did not exist before the Big Bang according to scientists, so where was this ego before the Big Bang.
The ego is nothing more than the clinging to existence in any size, shape, form or not.
Try fitting ego into the kandhas/skandhas model..Its an interesting exercise.
It can be done, but it requires a shoe-horn and a lot of grease.
So its not that there is something bad in side us which holds us back.
It is more a matter of constant habit. We feel threatened by anything that seems to disrupt our self sense..so we renew our subscription to our self sense with every breath.
When we let go to some degree of that activity and see things simply arising, that activity lessens.
I would imagine that being Enlightened would mean that particular activity i.e. constantly renewing our sense of being a solid self , stops entirely.
But I have no first hand knowledge of that. Just glimpses.
Great name poptart! I used to be big fan of Paul Young's poptarts.
I try not to, but honestly sometimes I find myself taking on a certain level of 'resentment' when the word "westerners" or phrases like "western culture" are tossed around as the target/blame for all the woes of the modern world....
Yes, western cultures -particularly the USA- is responsible for the most part or in some part, for many modern developments: electronics, space travel, modern medicine (both the good and bad of it), computers, phones, TV, cars, etc etc.
There is a huge amount of "good" that comes from these things. But, of course, along with all that good comes the bad; air, water and ocean pollution, deforestation, etc; and then there's the questionable good or evils; extreme social & cultural changes, globalization, and such.
But when I read something like: "... they knew that they "were" that environment. until westerners arrived. now, they want i-phones. sigh."
I have to ask, why is that OUR fault?
They are certainly free to choose to revere and maintain their way of life as it was prior to western influence. Westerners aren't forcing them to carry iPhones or set up dishes for satellite TV and internet, are we?
I think it's fairly safe to say that nearly every culture around the world has chosen to update and upgrade their society's participation in the modern world, once they are exposed to these things. Why is that something WE in the "Western societies" should feel ashamed about or blamed for? It is just a "natural" progression through modernization. It's part of human evolution - for good OR bad.
Are we forgetting about the impressive advances and developments from the Eastern societies when they dominated the world? You know, things like forging metals for early weapons, making gun powder, using horses and elephants as beasts of burden for transportation and war? Making ships and building fortresses - also for the waging of wars, mostly, or defending against them.
These were also huge things that influenced the world as they became known... and it wasn't all good side effects either. If we never advanced beyond burning wood and coal for all our heating and cooking needs, imagine what our level of air and water pollution and deforestation would be. (Think China's major cities, or Japan's or India's... ).
I think sometimes we romanticize The Eastern world and demonize The Western world a bit too easily.... That's it. Just thinking aloud. YMMV.
If you don't think there's any ego (AKA; hierarchy) involved in native life deep in the rain forests or high in the mountains, far from westernized civilizations... Well, you haven't seen many National Geographic documentaries about these people.
People only get 'in trouble' in their lives and societies when EGO becomes the one dominant force above all others.
WHY does ego try to avoid the Truth?
Self preservation.
If ego sees the truth it will die... poor ego（＾∇＾）
I think the delusion of a separate ego is a lot like that-- we get so caught up in what we're seeing, thinking THAT is reality, when all we're really doing is getting ourselves out of kilter, buying into it.