Annihilating Ego

[@HardcoreZen]

Those of you asking for a PART 2 of this, please try to tell me specifically what you'd like me to talk about. That would help a lot.

[@sleepyslop]

About experiencing non-self vs losing your mind pls :)

[@osip7315]

there is always an element of "non-self" in losing your mind

[@markbrad123]

Thinking progressive meditation is more so about putting thought in its truthful context or perspective. Egocentric behavior is exaggerating passing thinking to be a permanent person. Through watching thought with attentive spaces thoughts can be see in their correct context. Slowing down thinking one can ask is it just a passing thought, an attitude, intended attitude, a parroted dependency, false judgment and whether such thought has any real bearing with the reality of wider attention.

[@chrislasagna]

It's like in Genjokoan where Dogen talks about the whole moon and sky reflected in a dewdrop, but the light doesn't break the dew drop.

[@osip7315]

what good does "reflection" do you ? rambling idiocy ?

[@danielpinojr.8312]

Zazen makes my identity & creativity more clear and laser focused! 🕉

[@InnerRevolutionProject]

The people in buddhist groups trying hard to be egoless buddhist zombies always creeped me out :D Good video!

[@PeterParsleyOfficial]

I would certainly welcome a PT 2 to this video. Really like where it's going.

[@punderlord]

This is something I definitely worried about when I first started reading about Zen. I would've benefited from a short talk like this back then, but somewhere along the line I stopped worrying so much. Great video!

[@marisse8589]

Thanks for this explanation. “Sokath, his eyes uncovered!”

[@mac1414]

The confusion is with understanding of concept of no-Self, as always! Emptiness is form and form is emptiness though.

[@peterreyes9919]

5:09 Reminds me of the line in the Bruce Lee film Enter the Dragon where he says, “A good fight is like a small play, but played seriously.”

[@thegline]

"When you see the people in me Minus you, what will you do?" The Music Machine were one of my favorite unsung bands. Big influence on The Stranglers, apparently. I've received no small amount of confusion and pushback about Zen just being "self denial" or somesuch. The way I explain it to others now is by way of the examples you've used here -- it's not that you lose your ego, you just realize that it's a "useful fiction" (I love that term), and you entertain an entirely different and more constructive relationship towards yourself. You stop seeing yourself as this inviolable thing that has to be defended at all costs, and more something that exists only because of and in conjunction to everything else. But you still have your personality and your self, and you don't turn into an egoless wimp. As I like to put it, the Buddha never told anyone they had to be a doormat. This stuff all has a personal relevance, too. I'm a novelist (in addition to my fulltime job), and after I started zazen practice I didn't experience any creative decline. If anything, the opposite, because I was seeing all the more clearly what I really did want to do, and what was just stuff I wanted to say I liked to do. Things like that become far more self-evident with a lot of zazen. Maybe the best way to put it to laypeople is, with zazen, you realize all the more quickly when you're kidding yourself.

[@sleepyslop]

Dear brad, thanks for the video. A highly important theme and very well explained. Yet, rather than losing my talents/interests/personality etc. what frightens me most about this "non-self" business actually is losing my mind - losing a grip on reality or something. As Charlotte Joko Beck writes in her "Everyday Zen": "Great care must be exercised; a premature enlightenment experience is not necessarily good. To have such an experience is to realize that we are nothing (no-self), and that there is nothing in the universe but change. We encounter this enormous elemental power which we are. To realize this when ready is liberating. But for a person who’s not ready, it’s annihilation". Would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

[@HardcoreZen]

I can try to do a video about that. But I think it's not a serious danger unless you really push yourself in that direction. You might encounter a bit of odd stuff, but you won't lose your grip on reality.

[@sleepyslop]

thx for the reply!

[@hoogreg]

My ego is mostly a collection of bad habits.

[@briansprenger5578]

Thank you, stay cool in that heat!

[@blorkpovud1576]

I've always suspected that I had an "egolessness" experience years ago. I've never been certain as to whether it was "authentic" or not, but it seems to fit the description in this video. From MY definition of self and ego, it seemed that my "self" continued as before, as in it is a biological machine consisting of cells, organs etc, a system carrying thoughts and consciousness. But the "person" who had a name and identity was seen as more illusory, as if there was some kind of software program in my brain designed to trick my body into thinking it had a "solid" ego with a name. Rather than "annihilating" it, it seemed as if I simply "decoded" it, and just saw it for what it was. Or maybe I'm full of crap. Either way, it brought a sense of clarity and euphoria for a few hours. So that was nice at least.

[@HardcoreZen]

I can't "authenticate" someone else's experience - especially not based on a KZbin comment. But what you're describing sounds like what we're talking about in Zen when we talk about seeing the self for what it really is. The euphoria associated with noticing such things always goes away. But that's fine. Too much euphoria is a problem.

[@peterreyes9919]

This makes me think of the other video you did on dissatisfaction, in that it reminds me of Shunryu Suzuki’s advice to keep the practice simple. The trouble with people who think that annihilating the ego is the goal is that they don’t understand that they’re still approaching zen with a gaining mindset, or the idea that the practice is supposed to somehow change them. I guess this is where the advice to “sit down and shut up” applies?

[@HardcoreZen]

Yup! Thanks!

[@buddhistslacker]

LOL great answer you could have stopped after "Do I look like..." :-)

[@HardcoreZen]

Thanks! (I think) Didn't my band play a show at your house once?

[@flashrobbie]

Amala-sensei spoke about shifting piles of stuff and emphasised the shifting

[@ghy518]

thanks for addressing this man

[@paulb7875]

I know this a few months old now, but I felt I needed to comment, in hope you might see it. I am so lost right now, and scared. I feel like my entire world has been shattered. I read the Power of Now by Tolle, and it's just got the most intense grip on me. The idea that I am not me and I never have been me is frightening. The idea that the love I feel for other people is just an illusion, as emotions are thoughts, and thoughts are not real, as they are your ego, which is not you. That is at the heart of what Tolle is saying, he just doesn't say it in as many words. Essentially, the real you is when you are in the present, and you have no thoughts. So I don't love my parents, and they don't love me. My parents are, basically, zombies being ruled by another mind. Can people not see how frightening this is? In a way, I wish I'd never read it (my ego talking, isn't it?). What he also says is that people choose to suffer. If someone comes into my room now and relieves me of my arms and legs, I have not been done an injustice. Only the social construction of the morals of the world would say so. But these are not real. I don't know if I want to live in a thoughtless state. I think what he's saying is dangerous. Perhaps it is better to leave people in a world of ignorance. Perhaps ignorance is the real bliss. Only I fear there is no going back for me. I only started reading it as I was interested in a bit of self improvement.

[@HardcoreZen]

I have never read The Power of Now. So I can't comment about whether it actually says this stuff. But if it does, then it's mistaken. You are real. Your love for other people is real. No one is a zombie being ruled by another mind. What we actually are is not quite what we imagine ourselves to be. That's all. So if someone says "you are not you" they are (probably) trying to get you to notice that your idea of yourself is not the reality of yourself. You can write to me directly at [e-mail]. I answer everyone who writes to me. At the moment I have a large backlog of emails I haven't answered yet. So don't expect a quick response. But once I get to you, I'll respond.

[@paulb7875]

@@HardcoreZen Thank you so much. I will email you later today. I am in a serious state of despair. I'll try and keep my email as succinct as possible. Have you ever come across Leo's videos on here for his site Actualized.org? It's that sort of stuff I'm getting at.. Thanks again. Hope you're well (Do I? What is I?!)

[@PeterParsleyOfficial]

Would you be able to expand on how our opinions, preferences, and thoughts don't matter? How it ties into the ego and separation of ego? I would love to get your perspective on this in a followup video! Love this one

[@HardcoreZen]

I'll see what I can do.

[@wadecleveland9001]

RU expresses: the selflessness of the person free from the identity built up by the net of conceptions which grasps to the personality.

[@jonashjerpe7421]

The illusion of control may be lost entirely. That is not a small thing. You can hardly predict what kind of impact such a loss will have on your life. You are leaving safe spaces behind. Welcome to uncertainty. Welcome to reality. And yes, there is really notjing to fear. But yes, you will anyway.

[@umeahalla]

A welcome to part2 here aswell!

[@FRED-gx2qk]

noble silence

[@ou-rb2gv]

I think where the confusion lays, is in the concept of anatman. A soul. I think through centuries of Buddhist philosophical POV, the idea of a no-self, verses a self, verses a soul, gets confused......If you look at the Jains, their concept of a Buddha, is a Bodhisattva soul that gets reincarnated, and bestowed upon certain Jinas. Dharma King type. They all have the same reincarnated soul. It's a manner of thought. Parameters....Buddhists don't believe in this reincarnated soul. They believe in Buddha, IE Nirvana, but not in that there is this thing that is attained. But, of course there is this attainment. but it's an empty attainment that is full of wisdom. In emptiness, voidness; full of enlightenment, full of Buddha, full of wisdom. But to blur the line to the point that we talk about it as a reincarnated soul bestowed upon a Jina, or that there really is no self; not logical. not a healthy thing to promote.

[@lobintool]

Nothing makes sense to me but thanks for trying!

[@maxomnicast6010]

I would say the presence of an ego is proof that you are aware and free. It only gets tricky when you start to mess around with things. That also doesnt matter tho since getting lost and becoming all weird is part of beeing free. No matter what you do you just cant stop beeing buddha - how fucked up is that!?

[@czitek1]

great

[@swaqmv]

it is hot af in north germany

[@garyrutland1119]

Hot as Hades in Thailand too. Feels like the end of days hot. But probably not eh? Silly question Brad, any idea why I've stopped getting these flagged. I thought I hadn't seen anything for a while and when I checked...I've missed 5 vids. Apologies if this is the wrong place for this question but not sure where else to ask it.

[@HardcoreZen]

I don't know why you're not getting flagged. I haven't changed anything other than eliminating ads on my videos. I'm pretty clueless when it comes to the technical stuff.

[@garyrutland1119]

No worries Brad thanks for the quick reply, I'll try and sori it my end. I'm with you on the tech stuff hahaha.

[@czitek1]

can u make a movie about yours teacher ? a your relatinos with them ?

[@HardcoreZen]

Hmmmm... That could be interesting.

[@mariedominguez9555]

What is the difference between ego and self?.

[@HardcoreZen]

It depends what you mean. In some cases they're just synonyms for the same thing. In other cases people are trying to indicate two different things. This is why sometimes some people say "no self" while others (or even the same people) talk about a "true self." There is something that exists and that people call "self." The problem is, what is that thing? Is it a thing at all?

[@mariedominguez9555]

Hardcore Zen : I don’t know. It feels as if the self was the whole package and the ego the proud defender of the package. But strange enough it doesn’t feel in this way when one sits down, or walking by the sea or even when I relate myself with cat. Thanks Bratt. Really like with the simplicity you explain things.

[@markcaselius5993]

Losing some ego is not necessarily a bad thing but, losing too much could land you in a cult. You need to have some sense of self and self worth.

[@ou-rb2gv]

This is so frustrating to watch. Buddhism talks about how there is no self, and ppl cling to it like Christians clinging to the Bible. It's ridiculous. Of course there is a self. Who the fuck is the observer? Who is it that observes Nirvana? Doesn't this person have memories, preferences? Genetic differences? It's almost like ppl don't actually do zazen. Obviously , anyone who does zazen realises that you're kind've juicing up the brain and you naturally become contemplative, observant, and creative as well. Even food, food gains more taste, Buddhism gains more taste, it's like being alive versus being half dead.....Anyone who thinks that you lose the self, and turn into a robot, is obviously just reading books instead of doing zazen....Its a dialect. It's a way of speaking to explain something. Doing zazen, you naturally become less self-ish. You entre into the nature of various situations, into the nature of suffering, and it origination; you see into the nature of greed. You see the self. You realise , "Oh wow, they're greedy like me. Part of being a person is partly being a geedy primate. But at the same time, I'm also not a geedy primate. May be even having a little greed, like being greedy for enlightenment, if I keep it in check, that might not be a bad thing. In fact, encountering some delusion within myself, this isn't a bad thing because it helps me transcend being a greedy primate. Some greedy,clinging, delusional adversity, if I see my way through these things, it not only helps me, it helps other people too." But how the hell do you explain that to someone who refuses to do zazen of their own free accord? " Then we start promoting dogma like "no self." "No mind." "No Dharma" "No Buddha" etc etc etc... even to the point that we start laughing at the means, the template, as stupid or pointless....Of course there is self. The self wakes up, uses the toilet, takes a shower, stuffs a banana in its face, and then heads out the door to conform itself into someone else's slave, to either make money, or spend it. Never escaping the wheel of suffering. So It decides to become a traditional bhikkshu, and realises that the reason why these guys are such assholes is because their lives are so miserable, they need to make other ppls lives miserable too, just to ease their own suffering.....All the while, the real Self turns it back on the world in order to escape suffering....What a fucking merry-go-round. Of course there's a self. Who else experiences "No Buddha." Obviously you have to have a self to comprehend selflessness/no-self.....Seriously, something got lost in translation.

[@ou-rb2gv]

it's not like I'm a crack smoking baby eater. I have a self. it's very real.