True Individuality and Ego: same or difference?

[aceofcups]

Hi Friends,

Some people believe that we all have our own unique place to fulfill in life. It is called our “True Individuality” by some. This “Individuality” is different then ego personality and closer to our Soul Consciousness. What are your ideas on the subject?  If you do believe we have a unique "Individuality" how can one get aligned with it?

peace,
aceofcups

[spiral]

Sometimes people who aint done that well in life have the power to identify with themselves, its about listening to others who are going through the same thing, and moving forward, in time your senses come alive, shocking for me at 1st, and wasnt going to well for me, was saying stange things, going to dr all the time, eventually i just stuck on some relaxation videos and came across ASMR, the self is responsive, and sometimes im not myself if im occupied, but being sensitive has its karma, learning to control this is the key to rewarding yourself by identifieing

[baangus]

Jan 27, 2014 11:38:01 GMT aceofcups said:

What are your ideas on the subject?  If you do believe we have a unique "Individuality" how can one get aligned with it?

Hi aceofcups. I have no specific ideas or beliefs regarding the subject of "our own unique place to fulfill in life." That said, I do believe each one of us is a unique eternal soul that incarnates many times. I also believe we all have our own personal and self-chosen soul tasks to fulfill with each incarnation. So in that sense, yes, each one of us is a unique individuality, that much I believe. I'm just not sure how unique our personal soul tasks are in relation to other souls. As a soul-spirit collective, we're all evolving in the same direction and for the same purpose, we're just at different stages in our personal self-development journey. For example, what I might be attempting to fulfill in this life and incarnation (my chosen karma if you will), you may have already dealt with yourself in this or some other lifetime. In that sense then, individual soul development really is just incarnation-specific as opposed to being something singular and unique.

As for your second question, I can share what I've experienced. When I empty myself of worries and distractions, when I am present in the moment, when I am observant and sensitive to life, nature and others... those are the times I feel most aligned with my unique individuality or soul-self. But I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it. I guess I feel by simply being present in the world, one naturally begins to recognize, understand and align with who s/he is in this particular lifetime:

Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path." ~ Kahlil Gibran

[Ishtahota]

The ego is just of the body, the animal part of us while we are on this Earthwalk. It can also be trained by us and/or by others. It is the part of us that reacts without thought. If you train with the mystics they will ask you who serves who? Do you serve your ego or does it serve you. It also makes your heart beat and it makes you breath while you sleep. Autonomic functions are part of the ego. A lot of it goes with us into the in between world at death,but it falls away when we walk into the light.
When I have popped open or what others would call fully awakened I did have a sense of oneness with all people places and things, but I also was still an individual. Being fully awakened does not mean loosing yourself. I guess the first part of the would be to realize that we are not our true self. In the culture that I follow we do personal work to reclaim and reawaken what we call authentic self. The world turns us into something that we were never meant to be. The longing that we have in our hearts when we search for our soulmate is just a shadow of the truth hidden from us by our own ego. We are looking for our true, authentic self.

[holistichealer]

If you listen to different teachers who are connected to the Truth, you'll hear most of them saying the same thing, but using different words to describe it.

Of all the ones I've paid attention to, "Daskalos" is the one who, to me, seems to have an all- encompassing view of things, described in a way that is truly integrated and forms a working system of understanding.

Daskalos said that the "Ego" is actually the sum total of all the thoughts we have ever had. And since "thoughts are things" (which he termed, "elementals", but many of us refer to as, "thought forms"), he stated that one major focus of our existence should be to think in a good way- a constructive, higher way.

Ishtahota's comment above, "Do you serve your ego or does it serve you.", is a way of saying the same thing, if you look at it.

More recently, I was with a new friend, a healer from Siberia, who put it another way that I really appreciated: "You are either acting from the heart, or from the ego." I interpret that to mean that in acting from the heart, you are acting from a soul level, while acting from the ego is basically mind- chatter.

"Individuality", as I understand the meaning behind what AceofCups said at the beginning is more likely, what our mission here is, on an individual basis.

[spiral]

I agree with holistichealer's point on mind chatter, maybe people have ego for shield, because if we open hearted to everyone, we can be easily and wrongly treated, i was open hearted for a while and was overwhelemed by it, i noticed things other than open heartedness, could thise other things or thoughts be ego? For example, voices, emotions, character, manners ect
What do you think? And is choice between these two traits or does it need more than a choice to change to understand and stablise the both?

[holistichealer]

As one of my teachers is fond of saying: "The ego is a drunken monkey which must be tamed."

[qbmonk]

I find this really hard to answer, if I answer from the soul part, which is connected to the oneness, then the answer is it has no consiquence, it does not matter. If I answer with the ego and my thoughts, then I am reinforcing that part which I am in the process of letting dwindle, and be less of the whole. So I will say thankyou for your post and leave it at that.  Love and Light Ace Peace.

[aceofcups]

Thank you all for your insightful "Individual" answers to this question I posed.

peace,
Aceofcups

[markings]

We are individual as far as the body is concerned, and that is good.
Most are individual as far as identification or ego, is concerned, and that is bad.

The funny thing is that as far as our body goes, where we ARE individual, we all want to be the same, size 0 dress size for woman, a six-pack for men, etc. We dress the same, want to impress people with our apperance, knowledge, and so on.

Where we should be universal and free from self-identification, in our thought sphere, this is the area where we cultivate individualism to such a degree that it becomes problematic. Whatever happens we refer to ourselves. It is as if the universe only exists for me. It is either for me, or more commonly against me. It creates a sense of entitlement and gives raise to the me-me-me culture.

However, in the creation and application of thoughts, where we think we are so unique, we again seem to follow the worn paths to past problems.

Only a radical repositioning of our world view can help us to get out of this quandary which perpetually creates teh same or similar problems.

Individuality is a given, by the birth of the body, It does not go beyond that. Evertyhing else must be seen from a non-personalized, non-individual perspective. The mental-emotional sphere is not yours, it just comes and goes, it happens. It just so happens where your body is located, but it could also be somewhere else, and we know it does. Such are the feeble grounds on which our 'unique self' is built.

[sagemode]

It's amazing to see a question framed in exactly the same way as I see it.

During most of my life, I considered many aspects to my self that I now consider unique, to be failings. For instance, I've never driven a car (don't have a driver's license) and in all likelihood never will. I don't like big cities, I cannot really function there. I like small environments, that I can grasp in their entirety. I don't have a penchant for history - I really cannot study and remember the events of past times. If you say to me "18th century" it doesn't ring any bells, no matter how many times I have read about it.

What I discovered as I hit 'enlightenment' is that these were not my failings, but rather things that make me beautiful. The world is a beautiful place and everyone and everything has its niche. Trying to perform on the big market, out-competing everyone else, is a recipe for disaster. If you want to excel, do the thing that only you can do best.

So I will say: yes, you are a unique presence on this earth. You have many attributes that make you you. When you differ or deviate from the norm, this is no reason for worry, but rather for celebration. There is a niche for you. You are given a special task.

Ego would tell you that the world is a difficult place, and you have to sacrifice your self in order to obtain some meagre essentials to life, such as food, security, money, income, love, etcetera. Ego would tell you that you cannot be who you want to be. Ego would tell you that if you sacrifice now, at some point in the future you will reap the rewards. Ego would tell you that you need to do things for others that you really don't want to do, in order that others do things for you that they don't really want to do. And that this is the glory of life - sacrifice. You give up your self (your uniqueness) and participate in the mainstream economy. You try to get the same jobs that everyone else also competes for. You try to get the same women (or men). You try to get the same clothes. The same houses, cars, jewellery. Because you think if you do, you will at least get something back.

So I will say: "uniqueness" coincides with "niche". The authentic self feels abundant: there is no need to give up any part of your self in order to get back a part of your self. That would be insane, like cutting off your left hand in the hopes that it will heal your right hand. Life requires no sacrifice. The authentic self feels confident: it knows that it can trust itself, that as long as it behaves and acts according to its innate wishes, everything will turn out great. The self does not judge according to appearances, because it knows rejection is temporary. The self cannot be rejected by the self. Any form of rejection must therefore be illusionary. The ones who reject feel insecure. They are even insecure about their rejecting you. Because they are afraid that by rejecting you, they will miss out. They are not quite sure whether their own salvation lies within you. When they push you away, they feel fear: the fear that they are making the wrong decision.

But as you know the self, you know your own self, and you know theirs. You know that their true desire is not to reject you. Their true desire is to take you in, completely. Any form of rejection, then, is a symptom of someone not knowing Who They Are.

The self is a very secure thing. You can count on it. So trust your self. I see people doubting themselves constantly. I see them doing good and wise things and then thinking they are doing something wrong. I see people telling others to doubt themselves. I see people questioning their own motives.

As you put your own intentions in a positive perspective, they will become positive. And they ARE positive. You ARE brilliant. As you enter the "true world" all sense of brokenness, lack and inferiority vanishes. You are NOT a lacking being. All thoughts of lack are simply mistaken ideas about your self. You do not lack. You do not lack. You do not lack.

While you may often wish you had done things differently, in actual truth any form of "improved" behaviour would not have brought the same benefit to the Other as your current behaviour did bring. You may think you did not speak your truth well enough, or you may think you made some kind of mistake, because you didn't get the results you wanted. But had you done anything different, you would not have served the Other Soul's agenda as well as you did now.

The Others have been counting on you to present yourself in the way that you have. Some teachers may seem better or more advanced than other teachers, but the student always receives the teacher that is a perfect match to its own needs. This may not always be the more enlightened teacher. So you have done nothing Wrong, and you have been Perfection itself, in every occurrence, in every encounter and circumstance.

In short, you have always been Love to all of the Others. You have done nothing out of selfish reasons - nothing. Such a thing is not possible. That's not who you are.

Rest assured, the ego is completely clueless about reality.