ego
Jung has said that to be in a situation where there is no way out, or to be in a conflict where there is no solution, is the classical beginning of the process of individuation. It is meant to be a situation without solution: the unconscious wants the hopeless conflict in order to put ego-consciousness up against the wall, so that the man has to
... See moreRobert A. Johnson • Owning Your Own Shadow
The ego, in Zen terms, is the habitual tendency to stand apart from experience and say, “This is happening to me .” It’s the narrator, the manager, the one trying to secure control, meaning, and permanence in a world that refuses to provide any of those things.
The problem isn’t that the ego exists. The problem is that we believe it’s who we are .
The problem isn’t that the ego exists. The problem is that we believe it’s who we are .
The Backyard Buddhist • The Death of Ego and the Persistence of Self
Process-oriented thinking gets around this problem by defining the ego as one of our possible observers. The ego is, to begin with at least, the "I" which identifies itself with the doings of the world.
Arnold Mindell • Working on Yourself Alone
dreams present a fresh perspective. The dream maker’s views can differ radically from our conscious mind’s opinions and values. Jung said dreams are “invariably seeking to express something that the ego does not know and does not understand.”
Joseph Lee LCSW • Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams
Under those conditions, the ego is primarily concerned with predicting every outcome of every situation, because it is overfocused on the outer world and feels completely separated from the 99.99999 percent of reality. In fact, the more we define reality through our senses, the more this reality becomes our law.
Joe Dispenza • Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One
This aspect of Sol niger can show itself when consciousness becomes unconsciously critical. Alchemically, the heat is turned up too high, and the ego's skin is burnt, blackened, or tortured with stinging criticism, producing shame and threatening bodily integrity. Hillman describes a similar process of mortification-when the ego feels trapped or
... See moreDr. Stanton Marlan • The Black Sun: The Alchemy and Art of Darkness (Carolyn and Ernest Fay Series in Analytical Psychology Book 10)
In Buddhism, what’s annihilated is not you but the deeply ingrained illusion that there’s a solid, independent, permanent “ego” at the center of experience. What’s discovered on the other side of that illusion isn’t nothingness, but a far more intimate, responsive, and alive way of being.
The Death of Ego and the Persistence of Self
Modern Zen teachers often emphasize how liberating this is. When the ego loosens its grip, there’s no longer a fixed self to defend. Praise and blame lose their sharp edge. Fear softens. Compassion arises naturally, not as a moral project but as a consequence of intimacy.
Shunryu Suzuki put it simply: when we let go of self-centered practice, our... See more
Shunryu Suzuki put it simply: when we let go of self-centered practice, our... See more
The Backyard Buddhist • The Death of Ego and the Persistence of Self
Here Jung defines the ego as follows: “It forms, as it were, the centre of the field of consciousness; and, in so far as this comprises the empirical personality, the ego is the subject of all personal acts of consciousness.”2 Consciousness is a “field,” and what Jung calls the “empirical personality” here is our personality as we are aware of it
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