Dissolving the ego — Why one could never achieve that aim

What so many of the world's great gurus don't tell you…

— They're so great, they couldn't possibly be seen to have grievously erred!

It's supposedly common knowledge among enlightened people, including me, on the basis of direct perception, that the 'ego' — the sense of 'I' or 'self' — is an illusion. Yet because the whole meditation-based mindset of almost all such people devalues and progressively disables aspects of their thinking and reasoning ability, they operate on the basis of a misunderstanding of their supposedly 'enlightened' conclusion as to the nature of the 'ego'.

Yes, they're right in that what they're calling the 'ego' is an illusion, but then a high proportion of them bizarrely conclude that therefore one needs to dissolve the 'ego' or 'self'.

Once you stop to really think about that, you can see it's crazy and can lead to seriously untoward conclusions and consequences.

Let's consider. We have no genuine evidence for the existence of 'God', so people who believe in 'God' need to dissolve 'God', right?? — Wrong, utterly nonsensical! No point in trying, because, as far as anyone can reasonably tell, there is no 'God' to dissolve!

Exactly the same with the 'ego'. Yes, something does need to be dissolved, but it isn't a thing called the 'ego', but belief in its existence — and, more to the point, ALL belief (and illusory realities), of any kind, and no matter whether seemingly positive, negative, correct or incorrect.

— And, as part of that, we need to dissolve ALL attachment that we have, for attachment is at the core of belief (attachment to a notion).

This is all great news, because, at least using the methodology I give on this site, for anyone with sufficient motivation and mental clarity it's a simple matter to progressively dissolve individual attachments and your overall tendency to attachment. That, then, saves you no end of struggling to dissolve nonexistent bogeys and seriously harming yourself in the process.

Thought-experiment to check for likely consequences

Let's compare two different mindsets. If you have sufficient mental flexibility (most people haven't), you can do this for yourself. Switch into one as a temporary experiment, so you can then reason from that mindset and imagine what you'd be doing towards your enlightenment and self-actualization within that respective framework of reference. Then switch into the other, and do similarly. Note the differences, both in specifics and in overall impression. Here I give my own assessment, but I do encourage those who have the capability to do so to try this for themselves, so they get away from being 'sheep' and hanging on the words of others.

Mindset 1 — the ego or discernible 'self' is a blight on the person and needs dissolving

If I take this route, I would meditate a lot (or use notionally different practices that amount to the same thing), and train myself to disengage with anything that fed my earthly sense of having a specific individuality. I would thus progressively become a bland 'robo-human'; peaceful, composed, and developing an attitude (typically unaware) of some superiority over those who are more vibrant around me, for I'd then have created for myself an illusory reality (indeed a prison), which I describe as a comforting cocoon of self-deception, which indeed some people equate with a supposed 'enlightened bliss'. It appears to me then that I've 'got there', or at least am well on the way. My awareness has become increasingly weakly grounded in the process so that I become more gullible to notions that aren't based upon direct observations and a fully rational deduction process.

The catch of course is that in doing that to myself I've actually been unwittingly trying to dissolve NOT the 'ego', because there was no such thing in the first place, but part of my very humanity, which I'd been misidentifying as that nonexistent 'ego'!! That can't be dissolved, but it progressively becomes blocked. That results in ingrained patterns of brain function, as unused neural pathways atrophy or are repurposed. That way, I've become effectively brain-damaged, and indeed a largely useless person for taking actions towards making things better in the world at large and indeed for Humanity wherever it exists. My only real motivation is for maintaining or indeed increasing the severity of this self-harm, all in the name of 'dissolving my ego' and supposedly becoming (more) enlightened — whatever that's supposed to mean.

I get kudos among my peers through being gentle, affable and non-challenging, and for doing nothing that could be seen as 'rocking the boat', while they all fail to see as a problem my lack of motivation for radical positive change, and my lack of genuinely inspirational qualities. They all like me in my brain-damaged state, because it's encouraging them to stay in their own current ruts, or indeed to get into my type of rut instead. Big deal!

I'm unawarely imprisoned by a pervasive belief and resultant 'chronic pattern', which by its nature is intrinsically rigid, and doesn't recognise the uniqueness of each experience in my life. It's thus a degraded and very limited sort of life experience, all for the lack or at least minimization of more challenging feelings and experiences I'd been having before I got into this insidious prison.

One big problem in the population in general is that few people have a model of a fully-functioning human to start with. All the spiritual and metaphysical traditions of which I'm aware lack that, and so try to fill that gap in their knowledge with some sort of 'spiritual' belief about our true nature, which nicely takes us off at a tangent from genuine self actualization* — the manifestation of the beauty and creative power of our true nature in all its fullness.

In my denial of my own unique individuality, I may well be contradictory and take measures to project some (inevitably false) image of myself, so negating the whole notion of 'dissolving the ego', for example by having some particular hairstyle — either a shaved head, monk-style, or pointlessly long hair, or, more individualistically, with some 'picturesque' sort of styling for hair and any facial hair. Tattooing and body-piercing are common options for seeking to assert my (false) individuality. I might well let my beard grow long-enough-looking to 'inform' others that I'm 'old and wise', and thus supposedly some sort of authority on 'spiritual', metaphysical or philosophical matters and not to be challenged in that arena. Hideously comical, when one really stops to hold such behaviours up to proper scrutiny!

Another aspect of this whole convolution of pretences would likely be the making a big thing about the supposed need or requirement to be 'modest' in anything and thus never to stand out from the crowd in our behaviours. Like that I'd be totally non-inspirational for myself or anyone else, and a pretty useless member of 'Humanity' — definitely not as my own deepest aspects intend.

The question as to why we bother to incarnate at all is left hanging in the air like a weeping wound.

Mindset 2 — the ego or discernible 'self' is illusory, and therefore simply to be disregarded; what needs dissolving is attachment and beliefs.

This is a whole universe apart from Mindset 1. Instead of seeking to minimize or shut down aspects of my healthy mental and brain function, my aim here is to maximize all mental and brain function that would enable me to live as fully myself. Instead of trying to dissolve an illusory 'self', I'm liberating my real, genuine, self! The methods I choose and regularly use therefore work to that end, diametrically away from the 'self-minimization' or 'self-denial' of Mindset 1.

In this mindset my aim is to manifest my genuine self in all its intrinsic uniqueness. This is not at all what any properly thinking person would refer to as the 'ego', but simply me as I really am, as far as workable, in my full resplendent totality — my real, genuine self —, without my having cause to project any sort of image of myself at all. I am simply who- and what-ever I am; whatever that may be; it simply isn't an issue — I just get on with making the best I can of this life, without limiting preconceptions or taboos! By progressively dissolving patterns and beliefs, I become increasingly dynamic and outgoing, while maintaining a healthy flexible balance between physical and 'inner' awareness.

Aware rationality, objectivity and constructive discernment are all features of this mindset. and become ever more apparent as my old beliefs, illusory realities and patterns dissolve. Life experience is vivid and full of variety — and increasingly so — because I explore new ground and take on challenges that are of benefit to myself and all others concerned.

This mindset excludes the possibility of cultivating, for example, cruel dictators or other perversions of our intrinsic power, because our full true nature is loving and considerate, and always takes account of likely consequences of any thought, word or deed. My uncovered power would always thus be of beneficially constructive nature.

The question as to why we incarnate is meaningfully answered (at least, to the extent that it could ever be answered) without even needing to be asked!

The experiment's conclusion

Oh really! Do you really need me to tell you? — Pull the other one, Cedric!

As to why many people have dismissed me as having an 'enormous ego' — some even having called me 'the lowest of the low', an Antichrist and even Satan on that account, and, if any Eastern traditions are aware of this site, surely I'd be known as the 'Rudra of all Rudras'! —, the answer is clear enough, surely! They're simply misinterpreting the enormity of a person's relatively unfettered genuine self as 'enormity' in the pejorative sense! It goes way outside their own limited horizons. — Let those inconsequential 'sheep' eat fish and chips for the rest of their lives and achieve nothing worthwhile for Humanity, to show us how 'modest' (and thus superior?) they are!

For those who are concerned or terrified about what they've been doing to themselves…

Two sanity-saving principles to start with…

Throughout our lives we need to keep aware of a great sanity-saving and stress-zapping principle:

When you suddenly become aware of an extant adverse situation or condition in your life, that is NOT bad news, but TREMENDOUS news!

Also, heed the following, and abide by that understanding always:

'Hope' is your stress-maker and morale destroyer, so the need is to abandon and discard it totally, for all time! You need 'hope' like a great big hole in the head!

Now, let's pick up the pieces from my shock-horror revelations, and start turning one's life right around. Those statements in bold may look crazy, but I make them seriously because they at last open the doorway to the genuine sound basis for a truly worthwhile life and active self-actualization process. They're fundamental principles in my own life, and have spared me huge amounts of stress, angst and contra-self-actualization confusions, so I have a solid, empirical basis for recommending them for others to try taking on.

Let's look at what those statements are really telling you.

1. The supposed bad news: If it's simply making you aware of an extant situation, then at last you know of that situation and so can do something about it. What was 'bad' about the situation was your not knowing of it, and so not being able, or at least motivated to do anything about it. Even if it's a new situation, that is simply the lie of the land now, and at least one then knows to adjust to and respond to it in the most practical commonsense way(s).

2. That weasel word 'hope': When you're hoping for something, you're struggling against the reality of 'What Is'. The reality is that things are as they are, and whatever will happen will happen regardless of what anyone hopes or prays for. Hoping for something to happen or work out in a particular way is therefore a total and monumentally stress-making waste of your time and mental resources. Hoping (or indeed praying) for something cannot ever change the course of events in the way that you're wanting.

   Indeed, it almost certainly would reduce your chances of a genuinely beneficial outcome — which point nicely underlies the folly of the belief in various religions that prayer is very powerful for getting wanted outcomes. The reality about prayer is that it is a tremendous disempowering factor for whoever does it, so compounding their issue(s), as well as conferring upon one all the harm of embracing 'hope'. What a mess!

What's the constructive, life-affirming replacement for 'hope' or prayer?

The practical, intelligent, replacement for 'hope' or indeed prayer is a clear, conscious and deeply meant INTENT, open-endedly held, so you're always ready for unexpected and apparently unwanted outcomes. In other words, a worthwhile basic intent doesn't specify a specific outcome at a specific time. Then, with foundation of an overall, basic intent, you can sensibly set up subsidiary 'local' intents for more specific outcomes and time-frames — but still with the understanding that things may work out differently so that you then need to adjust your expectations / arrangements (i.e., without getting stressed about it, because, after all, things are simply as they are — not how anyone wants or believes them to be).

Think of that like this: This is what I intend [or would like] to happen, so now let's see what actually happens… — In other words, you're then treating the whole exercise as an interesting experiment rather than a whole series of hope-driven end-gaining attempts. An 'interesting experiment' is really what each of our lives is, if only we'd get properly in touch with 'reality' and the whole meaning and purpose of our lives. It you imagine that life is all about having or getting what you want or like, then you've lost the plot.

Starting to recognise that you're now onto the real life-changer!

Now, setting aside those two troublesome patterns, let's look at the great, tremendous news that you now have. So, you've been seriously harming yourself in an insidious way that has also left absolutely huge numbers of other people hopelessly diminished or indeed crippled mentally without them or anyone around them having a clue that anything untoward had been happening for them, and with no motivation to countenance any change in their situation, That's the observable reality, and, sadly, in all likelihood the vast majority of those will remain in their unmotivated 'meditation-head' ruts for the remainder of their respective lifetimes (but should be free of all that in their next incarnation).

Another part of that observable reality is that you, dear, lovely reader, have come here and are reading this very page. Note this well: If you've understood the soundness of what I've written further above and are now concerned or indeed terrified abut what you've been doing to yourself, straightaway you're one of the lucky ones! — No, not just because you're reading this page, although of course that is part of it, but because of something profoundly 'more'.

The fact of your being able at all to 'wake up' like that and want to do something about it (rather than defensively withdrawing into your rut and maybe dismissing this Philip guy as an effing idiot) tells me that you must be either no-soul or almost so, and for that reason more resistant to harm from meditation-based mindsets and practices. You're effectively on a potential treble-winner now, because:

• For a given amount of harmful involvement, your harm would be much more superficial than for the vast majority, and thus much easier to progressively clear;
• The fact of your concern — at least, if you have motivation and sufficient mental focus to take reasonable measures to clear the harm — clinches the matter, for your recovery has already started to a small but crucially significant extent, even before you've done anything specific to bring about the necessary positive changes. That's so because you've already at least to some small extent reduced your attachment to 'Mindset 1' as described further above. Indeed it would be distinctly more so if you've already started to connect with 'Mindset 2'.
• The third 'win' of your situation now is that this is not just about recovery from the misguided unaware self-harm you'd been doing, but about the whole new mindset (given further above), and use of methods given on this site, which can now take you forward on a genuine self-actualization process at last. That would inevitably make your life much more rewarding, purposeful and deeply meaningful than any of the traditions or recognised 'disciplines' could possibly do, and without any downsides that I'm yet aware of (after years of transforming my own life, and others doing so, using this site), and most likely beyond anything you'd previously been aspiring for.

Some measures to get you going

If you're feeling anxious or indeed rather panicked by your new understanding, please be kind to yourself and understand that, truly, everything is okay for you. Please don't be like me when I was frantically scrabbling on an over-steep mountain slope, trying to get back to the top but actually still edging downwards towards the edge of a sheer precipice… You can read about that and how I extracted myself from that seemingly desperate situation, in Fear versus reality — a salutary mountain experience.

• Initially, periodically re-read the descriptions of Mindsets 1 and 2 further above, to further clarify and reinforce your understanding of what you're starting to get out of, and what you're now seeking to take on board and connect with fully. Take nothing as 'gospel truth' or an 'article of faith', but get clear about what really makes sense. I myself had to adopt that approach for my very own survival years ago to develop my own working model and methodology, to get myself out of one hell of a pickle!

• Basic affirmations and declarations of intent — Do one or two formal readings, following the instructions for doing so, in Some potent self-actualization / healing practices.  Some of the affirmations and DoIs are somewhat dated now relating to my current insights, but I have just done a tidying-up to remove the main anachronisms. Be sure to read the notes that are the main body of the Affirmations page, for they help ensure that you approach the formal readings with the most helpful and effective understandings.

  Even if you don't use those affirmations / declarations of intent, use the instructions in the 'Potent practices' page, for use with the next item…

• Specific Declarations of intent (DOI). To give your great turnaround a really smart and springy start-off or booster, do a formal reading of a declaration of intent, as per instructions pointed to in the last item, using the following statement, possibly with your own adjustments, but be aware that many people adjust such statements as part of a self-sabotaging strategy. These declarations have to be worded in a particular way to be properly effective — and that can include apparent anomalies in tense of verbs.

  With clear conscious choice, I fully and absolutely renounce the whole 'meditation' mindset that I'd taken on, complete with all its beliefs and non-rationally supported tenets, and am now replacing it with the new, rationally-based self-actualization and 'proactive mindfulness' mindset, as described in Philip Goddard's 'Mindset 2' — and that this intent is coming about with all speed.

• Although you may not feel to be in crisis, a great primer to read carefully through and start applying the insights and measures pointed to therein, is Crisis emergency self-help — Life upturn the SMART way. That page is not only a great crash-course in taking on the healthy rationally-based 'proactive mindfulness' approach, but it serves as a great self-triage centre for you to follow links given therein for you to address particular issues specific to your own situation.

• Be sure to read 'Spiritual' enlightenment — personal experience, clarifications, tips. That should turn out extremely valuable for understanding what genuine enlightenment really is, and about the multitude of false trails that people fall into through seeking it out rather than allowing it to occur naturally as a spontaneous transition of perception at the appropriate point in your self-actualization process. It's as ordinary and straightforward as puberty, a nose or an arse, if you allow it to be!

• Finally (for now), Go for it — Tyger, Tyger, burning bright!

  

… With love from your friend…