Spiritual Ego Traps

[spiritual dreams]

The past few days, I've had a rude awakening that all my so called spiritual progress was just spiritual ego and that I was full of shit the whole time. Here are some traps I fell into:

 

1. Believing in states of consciousness. That some states are 'higher' than others. That psychedelics give you a higher state. That there are even states in the first place.

2. Conceptualizing spirituality. God realization, oneness, Infinite love, Emptiness, Nothingness, Idealism, Nonduality. All of these are mental constructs constructed by the ego. I created these mental constructs and believed I knew more about the true nature of reality than everyone else.

3. Enlightenment and awakening. The ultimate ego traps.

4. Creating a separation between awake and non-awake people. Judging others for not being awake. 

5. The I am god/solipsism ego trap I got from actualized.org

6. Thinking I'm more spiritually advanced that everyone else, pretending to be humble.

7. The 'I've seen though ego traps' trap.

 

The ego mind is always trying to sneak it's way into the back door.

[Mandy]

4 hours ago, spiritual dreams said:

 I've had a rude awakening

Why is it rude? 

[Joseph Maynor]

Spiritual ego is when you create a persona as a spiritual guru and have to pretend that your perspective is superior to other people's perspective, otherwise you can't gain spiritual authority or have spiritual expertise.  You have to convince others that your perspective isn't only useful to you, but useful to others as well.  This isn't bad necessarily, but it's something to note and to make sure you're healthy in how you go about about spiritual teaching.  It can cause suffering because it is a form of ego.  Ego run amok starts to grate on you inside.  You're feeling inauthentic and like you've gotta control reality outside of yourself.  And because you're doing it with such a sensitive subject to other people, that also factors in.  You're judging yourself always as to your own conduct.  You have a relationship with yourself.  So when you display lots of ego, you know that inside.

Edited November 11, 2023 by Joseph Maynor

[Blessed2]

@spiritual dreams What do you think the ego is / means? How are those things you mention egoic in your perspective?

 

 

IMO this sounds pretty good. New perspectives. Courage. Like growing up in a sense. But not really. No-one grows up. 😂

 

Went through similar shattering of a house of cards when I left Actualized. And it's just been getting better. In fact I'm starting to get kind of grateful of the whole Actualized ordeal. Learned so much about the tricky nature of believing thoughts.

 

[Blessed2]

2 minutes ago, Joseph Maynor said:

Spiritual ego is when you create a persona as a spiritual guru and have to pretend that your perspective is superior to other people's perspective, otherwise you can't gain spiritual authority or have spiritual expertise.

 

I agree. To get more specific, I'd say it's the "I know", "I understand", "there is a knower/understander" etc.

 

It can also looke like being a follower. "I don't know, but you know better than me." Like another side of the same coin.

 

[Alexander]

6 hours ago, spiritual dreams said:

The past few days, I've had a rude awakening that all my so called spiritual progress was just spiritual ego and that I was full of shit the whole time. Here are some traps I fell into:

 

1. Believing in states of consciousness. That some states are 'higher' than others. That psychedelics give you a higher state. That there are even states in the first place.

2. Conceptualizing spirituality. God realization, oneness, Infinite love, Emptiness, Nothingness, Idealism, Nonduality. All of these are mental constructs constructed by the ego. I created these mental constructs and believed I knew more about the true nature of reality than everyone else.

3. Enlightenment and awakening. The ultimate ego traps.

4. Creating a separation between awake and non-awake people. Judging others for not being awake. 

5. The I am god/solipsism ego trap I got from actualized.org

6. Thinking I'm more spiritually advanced that everyone else, pretending to be humble.

7. The 'I've seen though ego traps' trap.

 

The ego mind is always trying to sneak it's way into the back door.

You had legit experiences same as me.There is truth in those experiences.You have to conceptualise to communicate to others.

[Rose]

Yea… I‘ve had that too.. mine also came with hating religious people.. hating “non spiritual” people.. weirdly I think those were all actualized.org traces and consequences 

 

As I’ve let it go (somewhat) I feel so much lighter, so much more easier, its amazing…

Edited November 11, 2023 by Rose

[spiritual dreams]

2 hours ago, Mandy said:

Why is it rude? 

Because it sucked 🤣. Imagine thinking you got it all figured out and realising you were just crazy 

[spiritual dreams]

2 hours ago, Blessed2 said:

@spiritual dreams What do you think the ego is / means? How are those things you mention egoic in your perspective?

 

Identification with thought. The thought that there is a self that experiences.

[spiritual dreams]

30 minutes ago, Alexander said:

You had legit experiences same as me.There is truth in those experiences.You have to conceptualise to communicate to others.

That's the trap!

[spiritual dreams]

13 minutes ago, Rose said:

Yea… I‘ve had that too.. mine also came with hating religious people.. hating “non spiritual” people.. weirdly I think those were all actualized.org traces and consequences 

Yeah holy shit, actualized.org fucked me up so bad. But oh well, mistakes are the best teacher.

[Mandy]

20 minutes ago, spiritual dreams said:

Because it sucked 🤣. Imagine thinking you got it all figured out and realising you were just crazy 

There's no you to be crazy or to have it figured out. Isn't that a massive relief? 

[spiritual dreams]

@Mandy Actually it was kind of a relief. But I was mostly like 'Holy fuck I can't believe I was this much of an idiot'

But yeah the crazy thoughts were just believed and identified with. 

[Alexander]

1 hour ago, spiritual dreams said:

@Mandy Actually it was kind of a relief. But I was mostly like 'Holy fuck I can't believe I was this much of an idiot'

But yeah the crazy thoughts were just believed and identified with. 

What is left when thoughts are no longer indentified with.An Infinite self.So you are not crazy your experiences are why we do this spiritual work in the first place.

[spiritual dreams]

2 hours ago, Alexander said:

What is left when thoughts are no longer indentified with.An Infinite self.So you are not crazy your experiences are why we do this spiritual work in the first place.

The idea that there is a 'self' which has these experiences is the illusion. The infinite self is also a thought that is identified with.

[Orb]

@spiritual dreams it's fine happens to most on the path. 

 

essentially the work is: 

 

more feeling, less believing.

[Alexander]

11 hours ago, spiritual dreams said:

The idea that there is a 'self' which has these experiences is the illusion. The infinite self is also a thought that is identified with.

Not if you experience it.Where do you think spiritual path leads?

[spiritual dreams]

6 hours ago, Alexander said:

Not if you experience it.Where do you think spiritual path leads?

Are you experiencing it now? The spiritual path leads right here.

[Mandy]

21 hours ago, spiritual dreams said:

@Mandy Actually it was kind of a relief. But I was mostly like 'Holy fuck I can't believe I was this much of an idiot'

But yeah the crazy thoughts were just believed and identified with. 

The Nature of Consciousness by Rupert Spira is a great book to really drive it home if you feel the itch to do so. 

[spiritual dreams]

@Mandy Thanks, I might read it when I get a bit better.