fresh
Oct 30, 2008, 3:51 PM
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Registered: Aug 7, 2007
Posts: 1199
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before anything, I think the rock warrior's way is an incredible, insightful book that deserves every bit of praise it gets. however I've been thinking about the section of the book on ego, and I take issue with the notion that the ego is a "dragon" that needs to be "slayed." I'm not a religious scholar so my knowledge is limited. but religious traditions teach us valuable things about living. the hindu tradition teaches that brahma the creator, vishnu the maintainer, and shiva the destroyer are all equally necessary. in taoism, the yin and yang both comprise the whole of life experience. good and evil, light and the dark, courage and cowardice, regardless of their moral standing, are all valuable. I'm not denying that our egos can suck power out of us, and motivate us for the wrong reasons. it can keep us alive, but it causes us to live dishonestly. the identification of the ego as a negative force is not what I'm contesting. what I'm contesting is the way we should deal with it. in my mind, to treat it like a thousand-headed dragon is silly. I think that's no more than naive denial, a reaction based in misunderstanding. we seek to mock/eschew/kill the things we don't understand. you can run away from your ego as long as you want, but it is part of you. I think it's far better to understand that part of ourselves, and learn its place, than to demonize and suppress it. you need to love yourself; ego, the true you, all of it. and once you do that, I think dealing with the power-sinking aspects of the ego becomes easier. it's possible that I'm misunderstanding the rock warrior's way--I know arno has way, way more experience in dealing with this stuff than I do so all this has probably occurred to him (and he may have said it but it went over my head ). but I believe that there is more strength in unity than in division, and that to love the whole is stronger than to love part and eschew the rest. just my thoughts--hope y'all dig.
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