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The defenses of ego...
Spoogle
Explorer
I was just wondering about what defenses or barriers ego has presented to you during your journey....... Also what techniques or skills you have used to overcome them.
The initial one I came across was denial, and that everything was perfectly alright as it was. Of course, that is not the case. There have been others and I am sure there will be more going forward.....
I would be very interested to hear your thoughts and insights on this please folks 
Namaste
6
Comments
Resistance/boredom/irritation during meditation. The fix: I changed my attitude and began enjoying meditation. Now I still face some resistance when I meditate, but it's a lot easier to deal with.
@Spoogle
Every.... single..... phenomena that has ever sauntered past your sense gates getting leered at, pushed away or even deliberately ignored, has been a demonstration of your own ego's defense of the very dream that the Buddha exhorted his followers to awaken from.
I am not sure that I can think of a way that my ego has not tried to manipulate my sense input in support of that dream?
But...
I still don't think that my Ego needs to be overcome so much as it just needs to be meditatively addressed as objectively as one tries to do with any other arising, living and fading phenomena.
Meditation, the precepts, the Sangha & the mastication of the Buddha's Dharma have been my means of trying to do that.
I am still using everything I know.
Meditation and mindfulness for sure. Good company, mantra, shrine, sadhana, reminders etc.
Great question,
A few defences I've found are distractions, when the light shines on the ego it seems to create any distraction. "I need to do X or oh I just remembered to do Y"
The biggest defence is fear. Fear of annihilation. Fear of losing "yourself" the self you have grown up with, all the aches and pleasures. The story of us.
To turn the attention onto who exactly am I? Is very very hard. I think many people won't jump off this cliff because of the fear of losing ourself. (Ego)
I've once sat and inquired who exactly am I? Who is this one that likes, dislikes, wants, doesn't want, loves, hates...
One pointedly looked at this in cold observation and the fear is nearly overwhelming.
But the fear is hiding nothing. It's just such a deep rooted attachment. Probably the biggest one.
If ego doesn't exist then no more suffering, but who is willing to give themselves up for freedom?
The ego is our raft. Adding too much to it just adds on weight, but taking too much away from it will make it less durable. It has to be balanced all along the way.
I don't attempt to deconstruct my ego, nor shred my skhandhas apart, nor disown this conventional persona in any way.
I just call it names when it attempts to set boundaries between this fiction that we call "me" and reality, "me" and other fellow sentient beings.
Mindfulness is key to me. Being very present to reality, the here and now.
It's the best way to blur all boundaries and inter-be with reality, I find.
Just being in the present moment, breathing in and out this present moment, we realize we are a tiny bolt in the macro-machinery of dependent origination.
Part of a whole.
Apart from the mythical badass buddhas and boddhisatvas who have dissapeared up the nether regions of their rainbow body, we all function through our awake or sleeping characteristics ...
Are the awake in alignment with enlightened unborn 'traits'?
http://powerofconsciousness.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/the-tricks-of-spiritual-ego.html
Are they like all of us, travelling or arriving?
http://www.mindfulnessmeditationinstitute.org/2012/07/12-qualities-of-an-enlightened-person/
OK, wots de plan?
I thought you always haz plan...?! Can't believe you are so unprepared, @lobster !
Getting caught up in opinions is where I notice it, often reacting to other opinions. But with mindfulness I realise they're just thoughts and I don't have to believe everything I think!
Sometimes I don't really have an opinion, which is nice.
I don't see ego as something to be got rid of, but something to be transcended, or put in a larger space.
Once this is seen, then ego becomes just thoughts. Not really ego anymore. I refer ego to the belief rather than the content.
Like Santa Claus.
what happens when you find out Santa is just a belief? Sure we can have space for Santa but the belief is gone.
In my case I find it builds assumptions, a structure of beliefs which crumbles causing havoc when contradicted. The mind would rather believe complete bs then admit it knows nothing at all. It is not easy to live with uncertainty.
Always found this interesting. "Vaillant's categorization of defence mechanisms"
It always brings to mind that some "ego defenses" are meant to be cultivated, not overcome.
I would like to offer my thanks and appreciation to you all for adding your thoughts and insights to this thread so far my friends. I have enjoyed reading and contemplating on everything offered. I see that this little online community I have joined has a great deal to offer and I feel privileged to be a part of it
Namaste
I waiver between having conflict with my ego, as it fights for survival and seeks to be fed negative and irrational thoughts, and thanking my ego for being my lifelong companion and good friend. Sometimes it's only trying to do it's job of protecting me.
^^^ Exactly so.
Nice ego, good ego. Sit!
Good boy!
Interesting that something of no (abiding) reality is capable of nourishing so many defenses and barriers to protect it. Now that's creativity!
I don't understand what can be rid? Transcended? Cage widening?
There is a very common form of ego polishing, refining, progression rating passage. However gilded or large the cage, there is nothing abiding in it.
Wot no plan?
Or self-view becoming less dominant as the mind becomes more spacious.
Actually I'm never quite sure what people mean by "ego" in a Buddhist context.
How many times has this been posted? At least 4 or 5... well, here we are again!
Hope this is of help, @Spoogle !
Thank you kindly Federica
I have read the article before and it is very insightful. Recommended for all to read.
What is it that drives one to start a thread and others to post comments upon a thread ...here's a clue it begins with the letter "e" and more often that not is difficult to let "go" of ?
The ego is really nothing more than becoming 'attached' to the focus of conscious attention and the practice of mindfulness is a way to overcome this attachment, which is not to say that the ego serves no purpose, awareness can use the ego as a convenient analytic device....... by making the ego into an amigo
"Awareness can use the ego" is an assumption that awareness is a thing. Awareness is not separate from anything.
metta all
It's thought that makes it seem separate.
Something for the ego to hold onto, "I'm not the ego! I'm awareness! " that I am (insert anything) is ego.
We have nowhere to go.
@Earthninja when having to communicate in the conventional sense( which we are doing at the moment) awareness can be seen as a thing ...in the ultimate sense it just 'is'....(and things just show up in it).
Useful link from @federica as it counters the ego centric ultra spirituals and the nihilistic ego destroyer tendencies ...
The integrated or self independent of self cherishing that @SpinyNorman mentions is less dependent on unskilful karmic behaviour. Ideally these prevalent tendencies are not the basis of Being.
In other words the expression becomes aligned with the transcendent/unborn/nirvana that we hear about occasionally ... and open to ...