Is it really necessary to kill the ego?

You and you're ego need to acknowledge that you are not it, and it is not you. It is a part of you, just like any part of your mind/body/spirit. But only once you integrate this idea, will you not be a slave to your ego.

You're ego is there to protect you, love your ego, don't be ruled by it.

The ego is a glutton. Its selfish.

It needs to be leashed and overcome. Needed when needed and told to shut up and sit down when not. Its needs to listen when told to be quiet.

Not necessarily killed.

Wouldn't killing it defeat the purpose of experiencing a separate reality?
Yes, so dont kill it....train your control over it.


Don't higher beings also have an ego of sorts?
I never met a God without an ego.

derp, ^you and your^

Not doable, just avoid an inflated ego.

Killing the ego is the mantra of collectivist movements, so no.

I mean really think about this--you were given such a wide spectrum of emotions, perceptions, and do you really think it would be natural to throw all of that away just because someone tells you?

Go out into nature, explore as much of the world as you can. That will expand the parameters of your ego so much that it might feel like you've "killed" it, but instead you've broadened the river of your thoughts into a massive ocean.

Not kill, dissolve.

Ego is what drives us to succeed in life, without it nothing would get done.

Competition is a biological necessity and is the purpose of the ego.

When you get to the point of realizing who you really are you will voluntarily let go of the ego.

That's what I thought... what is with all of these teachings telling people that their ego is "bad" and that they need to kill it?

Seems that by demonizing it, it makes the hold of it even stronger on the person.

Idk, just a perception.

Yeah feeling emotions is definitely natural. I like to experience feelings. I just try not to identify with them.

At the beginning of my journey, I got involved with some of these ideologies and it made me lose all motivation to do anything (even make money so I could live).

It seems dangerous considering we are not currently floating in the ethers....

If you don't have a lot of arrogance I believe it is possible to avoid it. But many people have to experience the "dark night of the soul" in order to know who and what they really are.

THIS

We are all having different experiences. The ones advocating killing the ego are ready to do so b/c it makes sense to them.

If killing the ego doesn't make sense to you than don't. Everyone is on a different path. Do what's right for you.

You can keep it in chains into the basement...at least if cought you won't be processed for murder.

Basically this. Everyone awakening process is different.

I want to kill mine because it is disgusting.

It loves nasty sexual stuff, it thinks it is better than other people, and would love to be more powerful than anyone else. It does not know love. It only knows "fight, flight, feed, and fuck".

I feel like I am this awareness attached to this AI machine I call ego. I know I am not this ego, but I struggle to control it. I have to constantly listen to it say nasty things and whine all day.

IS that my ego?

Or is it my "reptilian mind"?

Drug abuse has made it worse.

It literally feels like a circuit in my brain that only cares about itself. Archon-like. But it's hard to kill, because it is capable of triggering a powerful feeling of panic and "I'm dying" that distracts me whenever I try to kill it.

By the way, if you kill your ego, you will experience the most blissful and euphoric feeling of your life.

It's like being in perfect love with everyone in the world. You have this intimate connection with the world, because you can literally FEEL that you are part of it all! Like when two people love each other but for everyone.

I have done it before, but I fucked it up by abusing drugs and being around "normal" ego-based people.

It feels kind of sexual too, but it rises above sexuality at the same time. I think that is because sex is on most people's minds.

I believe you have to come to terms with your ego...it is also your vital force and sense of survival.

don't do it man

never try to follow budhist teachings uless supervised by master monk himself

dont do it

a human being can not survive without ego and mind

You need to live in peace with your ego, balance is the key to everything..The Ying and the Yang.

The ego is just a survival tool, without the ego you die.
Allot of people let the ego control them and become the ego eventually, that is very dangerous and also why our world is in such a bad place.

I've experienced temporary ego "death", which has given me higher understanding to a point, but then it usually comes back when it's time to get back into the "real" world.

Isn't the ego there to protect the vessel we are experiencing reality in? Really, without one, what would keep me from jumping into a potentially dangerous situation?

Seems different things work for different people. Trying to "kill" it didn't work for me and put me into a state of blind optimism without being able to identify any risks in my environment.

Is it possible when people say they have ego death, it means the death of identifying only with the ego and instead they identify with their spirit, which to the inflated ego may seem like death?

Seems it's best to just let it happen naturally as one gains more awareness.


Just sharing some thoughts....

I'm interested on hearing more views on this.

This seems to make the most sense... integrate the dark side and not let it rule over like most people running around do.

I like to compare the ego to a sword. It can be used as a tool to cut the rope that binds us, or it can be used as a weapon to kill others. Getting rid of the sword completely for fear of it taking over doesn't seem to work from my experience.

I think it's more accurate to say that you have to build a healthy egoic structure/identity first and work on integrating all aspects of 'self' (parts of you previously suppressed and/or rejected). Then when this is accomplished and when the individual has grown tired of consciouus of identification with the physical/egoic mind (and all the sufferring it causes) as a source of 'self' - that individual may feel called to explore one's deeper nature beyond the influence of the physical/egoic mind.

Moving in this direction over time will generate an increasing 'distancing' and 'detachment' from conscious identification with the physical/egoic mind. During this transition it is natural to feel like you are losing your identity and even experience the impression that you are 'dying'.

When this inner proccess reaches a critical threshold there is a profound and life-altering epiphany that will transpire and this is the mind-blowing realization that one's old self (old state of being) has 'died' and no longer exists. In the Transpersonal Psychology field such an experience can be referred to as an 'ego death' experience. This epiphany/realization immediately creates the most blissful/joyous feeling that completely overcomes you - but more importantly there is this awareness altering 'shift' that happens within you where you have finally transcended your former conscious identification with the influence of the physical/egoic mind as a source of 'self'. You no longer mistake it for who you are and it loses the ability to ruin your state of consciousness and cause havoc in your life. You have liberated yourself from mental sufferring.

The physical/egoic mind is still present as it is part of the human body and the human experience - but the key disctinction here is that you no longer experience it in the same manner and no longer mistake it for who you are. You have finally found the 'real you' within, and it is not that of the physical body or physical/egoic mind. So really you don't reject or 'kill' the egoic mind - it's more accurate to say that you arrive at a point in your conscious development where you stop feeding it and playing with it - then you are moving in the direction of consciously rising above it's influence, and eventually you discover that you exist independent of it and you always have. : )

Balance

Ego can help us to survive, since it's concerned with self.

But when we're overly concerned about the self, and meeting its needs, at the expense of others, this can lead to doing unnecessary harm to others.

So consider your own needs (ego), but also be considerate of others needs.

First of all, the ego can't be killed, because it's not real. It's something you do, rather than some noun to kill. It's you, grasping for the world, pushing away the world, in the form of "I am a person," "I am lazy," "I want a house," "I don't want to feel bad." Stop grasping and pushing away TOTALLY, and that's the end of the myth of the ego. That's when you see that you've made this WHOLE thing up, in totally innocent ignorance.

"Wouldn't killing it defeat the purpose of experiencing a separate reality?"

No, yes, sort of. But when you've been dreaming for millions of years, you're going to want to wake up at some point. Especially when the dream starts to get really shitty.

Or, from another perspective (and one that seems more "like it") the end of the dream of "separate reality" and me vs. you or me vs. the world is the next level of human evolution. Understanding who you are, beyond all of this, and living AS the integral flow of life itself is intelligence defined, transcending anything we currently call intelligence or knowledge.

"Don't higher beings also have an ego of sorts?"

Of sorts. The involuntary and confused grasping/pushing away isn't something they do. They do it knowingly, totally aware that it's just for fun and a game and never, ever serious. It's pretending to be a person with opinions, desires, or ideas - typically for the sake of those who still think they're actually really people with opinions, desires, or ideas. Or just for fun.

Leggo my ego.

Ego is being trapped in the cube of false beliefs and too proud to let it fall and admit it.

Ego is for basic survival. It needs to be suppressed to reach higher levels of enlightenment. Pretty common knowledge...

I could also add, too, that there are no such thing as higher beings. There's only you, believing in something called a "higher being." It's all in your mind, really.

Kill the belief in separation, and you'll see.

It's beyond anything you could imagine. Literally.