Wouldn’t zombiness be ego…being a zombie and eating people?
And mentally ill people are having the experience of their particular mental illness. Wouldn’t that be a solid ego…an identification with a particular mayaic delusion of being in a private world of a separate existance?
When I would saturate with drugs I was having the egoic experience of being the child personality that had “grown up” and was drugging out.
I remember hints of being a very young, though somewhat corrupted personality that would have experiences of the awesome divine everywhere. Maybe that more pure ego experience would be a little closer to what I’d call a “divine personality”. The kind of shining innocence I see in very little human beings that puts a big child-like smile on my face. If we were all allowed to mature with such innocence (in a more perfect world) then we wouldn’t be having conversations about ego, we would be tending the garden together under the watchful loving eye of our Mother/Father Self.
I see my ego as the collection of uninvestigated delusional thoughts in my conscious and unconscious mind that I believe to be true about who or what I am.
These delusional thoughts of my ego lead me to actions that hurt myself and/ or others however subtly and continuously point at the truth underneath.
Ouch 
, more truth please!
I believe the ego is an essential tool for this existence as we know it.
It is what glues together our autonomy and helps us make sense of the barrage of chaotic sense inputs we receive.
It is something that can gradually be replaced by faith in god, or self realization. But i believe that even at that level it is only put aside periodically and temporarily as it is a sort of language that connects us to everyone else in this world, and we are here to develop unity.
When we drop our ego, we disappear to all the others who have one, and therefore lose the ability to communicate with them and help them with our universal goal of unity.
I believe my ego is this here thing talking to you all about what I think my ego is 
Lets take the definition of ego from answers.com:
e·go (#275;‘g#333;, #277;g’#333
n., pl. e·gos.
- The self, especially as distinct from the world and other selves.
- In psychoanalysis, the division of the psyche that is conscious, most immediately controls thought and behavior, and is most in touch with external reality.
- a. An exaggerated sense of self-importance; conceit.
- b. Appropriate pride in oneself; self-esteem.
I think by the time we got to AYP most of us have already dealt with and defeated 3a and 3b. Whatever we may have, we have from God and God alone, right?
All comes from One, so is anything really distinct? Just because the motion of each wave on the ocean surface is different, does that mean each wave is separate? The ego by the number 1 definion is only an illusion, and through spiritual practice we learn to see through illusions.
God watches us through our own eyes, but we cannot watch God. Once we are truly united with God surely our psyche is of a complete infinite being and not that of a finite individual(ego). Surely the elimination of ego is the final point of our transformation. Ego is only useful as an obstacle on our path.
Zombies cannot love God with all their heart, all their mind and all their soul…
I think we can watch god. he’s all around us in everything. We just can’t watch all of god at the same time; only a little at a time.
I really don’t believe ego is only an obstacle. It’s only an obstacle when it is misused, and it is almost always misused, giving it a bad reputation.
Because our goal is to reunite with god, aspirants tend to discount all the value we have gained by separation from god. i believe we separate from god, harvest all the experiences and energy transformations that are only possible as a result of duality, then return to god, rich with experience added value, and autonomy that was not there before.
Here we see why I don’t like notions like ‘getting rid of the ego’. Not only are the four meanings above highly distinct, even within them there are all sorts of shades. And ‘the self’ includes all sorts of mechanisms which are essential.
Added to that we have a meaning such as the one being suggested by Anthem, which is more like ‘delusion’.
Well said Ether
I think we are the eyes ears and sense organs of god, there to gain experience of matter, we and all gross matter are simply the ones experience of matter.
Oh dear does that makes our ego and power of free thought no more than an accident?
RICHARD
What I am concerned about in a notion like ‘getting rid of the ego’ is a phenomenon of ‘putting the cart before the horse’, as discussed in this post of Frank’s here:
http://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1198
An attempt to ‘get rid of the ego’ within certain meanings of the word is no more helpful or useful than ‘get rid of the brain’. Within other meanings of the word it may reflect a sensible goal in a sense, but if it is cast in that way, the attempt may be wrong and unsuccessful. People, without a proper yogic/spiritual foundation, may attempt to ‘get rid of the ego’ in a way they don’t understand usefully, and it will produce incorrect results.
Just as ‘getting rid of desires’ tends to lead to a tremendous false-start, as Frank points out, so with ‘getting rid of the ego’.
Well David, instead of getting rid of ego what about seeing truth for what it is and then finding out what that leaves us with?
For example, I noticed last week my ego felt threatened by someone I knew. She irritated me, because I felt she made everyone uneasy with her turbulent emotional reactions. It would change how I acted around her, being cold and unfriendly, trying to convince others of my perspective etc. After looking a little closer at the issue, I realized that she irritated me because she reminded me of things in myself that I thought might be inadequate. After “staring” at them for a while with my awareness, I realized my fears were unfounded and unnecessary thoughts. The next time I saw her, I felt warmth and friendliness towards her, she taught me well!
So bottom line, one less way for my ego to manifest, I’m still here and a little happier for it. What happens when 100 more misperceptions like this one are weeded out, who will I be or how will I feel then? I’m pretty sure I will still be here!
I wouldn’t worry too much about getting rid of the ego. I don’t think the ego can get rid of the ego
Yes, Yes, Yes!
The answer is in the truth. The enemy is resistance to the truth. All those layers of our personality that are built over falsehoods and delusion.
The delusion-mind does not want to face the truth. Instead, it will even go as far as pretending that the true is true, while still believing what is false.
For example, there is a reason we should not be inflated. The reason is that we aren’t that special. This is true. If we face the truth that we aren’t that special, we won’t be inflated. The delusion-mind couldn’t stand for this however, and may even try to be humble instead, and hope that it is earning special brownie-points for that! The delusion-mind will pretend or fake that it is not special, while not standing for, or not facing, the truth of it.
Well, maybe that’s a bit off-topic. But I was crystallizing those thoughts and I thought it was worth a mention.
Nice Andrew. Did you Katie it?
I generally come up with these turn around when I Katie my issues… at times I have come up with answers that were completely opposite of I thought the answer really was…
You know it’s your inner silence making its appearance during your every day life, right?
Wish you many more of these insights…
Thanks for sharing this.
It makes sense David, I find writing things down often helps crystalize things.
Hi Shanti,
I actually did and look forward to every opportunity I have to “Katie” it! I find big releases from the process, very rewarding.
I always used Self-enquiry, but Katie’s “work” helps me get to the bottom of it more efficiently.
A
Moderator note: Topic moved for better placement