Or the mind numbingly bored people. I now present to you a link presenting a man presenting an air brick. http://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/chinese-artist-brick-of-pollution/
Ego loss is my understanding of what it equates to. Wonderful radical shifts of existing occur when the ego is no longer a burden or burdened. There is no more questing, for this or that. Everything just happens. People usually experience ego loss with drugs anymore.
Everything just happens.... including the ego. Badum tss! The aim isn't necessarily to eradicate yourself, as that doesn't make you very compatible in the world(I tried, and I'm working through the consequences), but to eradicate the bits that aren't yourself. So a detachment from ego is necessary in order to step back and dust off the shit, but ego is always more or less there. Attachment to the detachment is the interesting bit. Well it's all interesting, but I think that in particular could be an iconic "oh fuck!" bit, which makes it mildly more interesting than the rest.
'Ego' can be used in different ways. It can mean a sense of a self separate from other beings and the universe, or an excessive sense of oneself, as in 'ego-mania'. To lessen the second of these is no doubt a worthwhile goal. To get rid of the first seems extremely problematic. Especially if one accepts the Buddhist view that behind the ego, which is only a bundle of tendencies, is only the void.
If the ego is the operator there will always be an operator. Being able to go beyond the ego, beyond the body, that is what I find interesting. I have met beings in other realms that speak, so there must be realms that require an operator, a self. Egoloss is usually bliss and highly visionary.
In an egoless state, what enjoys the bliss? How can 'I' experience bliss if 'I' no longer exist? Unless we say that behind the ego is some deeper self, it's hard to see.
The ego is a form of consciousness, an operator. It is possible to experience other forms of operating. Consciousness experiences itself with or without an ego/subconscious. I think the more we experience going beyond the ego the easier it gets to do that. There is a power inside and it's hard to tap into without drugs. With this power it's easier to go beyond the ego. That's why I meditate. Trying to feel for that power which usually isn't there or is holding me down. That power can rewire the brain to make quicker connections. The ego is meant to slow us down so we can make a choice. That choice is usually fight or flight or get fucked. There are lot's of powers around. The ego isn't evolved generally to perceive these powers or interact with them. I think we have many "ego's". We belong to many lifetimes, dimensions, societies, destinies. To lose attachment to this one seems impossible, or any other. Breaking from this reality can draw us into other realities. But we shouldn't completely break from any of those realities. We just forget about them while we serve this one or that one. I can meditate without change for years. Then something starts to shake loose. Something small changes and I hope I can change more connections.
If we say ego is a form of consciousness, is there a deeper form of consciousness, a more essential 'self' behind these many egos? Hindu yoga philosophy says there is, Buddhism seems to say there isn't. I incline towards the view that there is.
I think there are higher and lower levels. The destinies we live in other realms. I don't know enough as of now to say which is more important. Probably depends on what we accomplish in them. And there is also overcoming many lower forms of energy. Mastering the mind body relationship. People work on different disciplines. To do nothing would surely become negative. There are just so many ways to look at improvements. It could be totally spiritual or not at all. Maybe what is subconscious is th deeper form of the self. Really powerful energies that are dormant due to the ego not able to withstand those energies. Maybe the brain can't handle them all the same. Resist certain energies and burn out those pathways while allowing energy to flow in my uplifting directions. There is neurology behind all of it. I wish I could read about the neurology of states of ecstasies.
When there is no "i", there is no "i" to enjoy the bliss; there is only bliss being enjoyed. By whom? At this point language is the barrier to understanding, because our vocabulary is built upon egoic actors. There is a witnessing, but the witness has no properties itself. It's very strange and paradoxical and counterintuitive and beyond words. I've experienced it firsthand and it's really difficult to bring it back to the world of Selfs to look it over, even by my own self. I think our neurology is not equipped to create memories well in that state, or to afterwards interpret those memories in an egoic state. It's literally like trying to remember something that you yourself did not create the memory for.
Options implies a conscious decision process with a view toward certain outcomes or results from those decisions. Toward what end?
You don't need an ego to be conscious. That is what is being discussed. I'm sure lots of animals don't have much of a thinking brain. More like reactions. Critters out there that just exist as nerve impulses.
True, but I was talking about the ego, not consciousness as you are correct there are multiple types of consciousness. Reflective reactions are certainly a form of consciousness as my body is aware of contacting a hot stove and moves away, but it does so with out my being aware of the option to do so.