Mike, and Bill,

Rinpoche's use of the word ego correctly describes Bill's incredibly egoistic 
belief that the world of forms is a creation of his personal mind, of Bill's 
solipsism...

Bill needs to understand what Rinpoche is saying here...

Edgar



On May 21, 2013, at 9:06 PM, [email protected] wrote:

> Merle,
> 
> The only thing the Freudian concept of 'ego' shares with the Buddhist concept 
> of the same is the name. They're quite different concepts. Check this out 
> from www.luminousbuddha.com:
> 
> "The Latin term ego was first used in a translation of Freud’s work to refer 
> to his idea of the “I” or the reality principle within the dynamic forces of 
> the psyche. He suggests the functions of the “I” include reasoning, a sense 
> of self-capacity and the mediator between the polarized demands of 
> instinctual drives and societal expectations. While he considered the “I” a 
> mechanism of the self, he did not use the term ego. Nevertheless the word ego 
> entered the mainstream in professional conversations of the analytic 
> understanding of the human being as it began with Freud’s thought.
> 
> As psychology became popularized the word ego entered the common vernacular 
> to describe attitudes and behaviors considered selfish or inflated. The slang 
> use of ego is generally a derogatory term for behaviors considered out of the 
> range of social acceptance. Slang borrows from the inflated side of the 
> psychodynamic description of the unhealthy manifestations of ego yet lacks a 
> deeper understanding of its causes. 
> 
> In the 1970’s Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a Tibetan lama, began utilizing the 
> term ego to describe a neurotic process based on the ignorance of our actual 
> situation (Trungpa, 1978) resulting in a solidified sense of self that is 
> separate and self-referential and as such is the cause of suffering. He saw 
> the projections of the ego as an incorrect understanding of the 
> interdependent nature of reality and the primary obstruction to clear seeing 
> and compassion. He borrowed aspects of the term from both psychology and 
> modern vernacular usage. 
> 
> Buddhists around the world have embraced this usage of the term ego and use 
> it regularly to describe the common illusion of a static separate self that 
> emphasizes it’s self-importance in relation to the world. This Buddhist 
> definition can now be understood as a unique understanding of the word ego as 
> well. The field of transpersonal psychology has borrowed from the Buddhist 
> usage of the term ego in the psychological and spiritual mapping of human 
> development.
> 
> The confusion that has arisen from the different usages of the term ego is 
> significant to those in the field of psychology as well as Buddhist 
> practitioners who have an incomplete understanding of the word in its several 
> contexts. The general public would also benefit from a further understanding 
> of the factors relating to the formation of an aggrandized sense of self to 
> which the slang usage of ego refers."
> 
> 
> Sent from Yahoo! Mail for iPad
> 
> From: Merle Lester <[email protected]>; 
> To: [email protected] <[email protected]>; 
> Subject: Re: [Zen] Re: Id, ego and super-ego - keeping the mind in balance 
> Sent: Wed, May 22, 2013 12:33:42 AM 
> 
>  
> 
> 
>   joe...
> 
> no i do not disagree however you are sweeping his work away with a very large 
> brush..
> 
> and labelling him judging him to be unfit..
> 
> can you point to me where freud deviates from the "self "of buddhadharma
> 
> merle
> 
>  
> Merle,
> 
> Huh? No, Dr. Freud first used the word "ego"; I think he scrounged it from 
> the Latin, to fill in for something in his model of the small mind as he 
> studied neurotic Jewish ladies in his neighborhood who came to him for what 
> he called "analysis".
> 
> Freud had it right for himself and his theories; but the buck stops THERE. 
> 
> It's of no value in Buddhadharma. "Self" has always been the operative word, 
> there. So far so good. Do you disagree somehow?
> 
> --Joe
> 
> > Merle Lester <merlewiitpom@...> wrote:
> >
> > joe..
> > 
> > can you direct me to some relevant web info on this...
> > so are you saying that dr. freud got it all wrong?
> > are we not all buddhas and demons and mixtures of both?
> > so why are you suggesting dr. Freud is a demon and a fraud?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

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