By what rules do you play the games of the world? Who told you that you must play by those rules? Do you suffer through rules that you can change, but fail to do so because you deny you have chosen to play? How would your ego respond if you played by different rules or refused to take the rules you were taught seriously? Do these questions make absolutely no sense to your ego-self? That must mean that you have chosen to play by someone else's rules and, thus, will suffer accordingly.
An ego cannot transcend itself, but it can know itself.
"Awakening" is lost on an ego that's not even aware it’s nothing but an ego. You know you exist, but what do you exist as?
So many minds seeking to transcend the ego, but have yet to make its acquaintance.
Maybe this is why we are a world of strangers to one another. Don’t seek how God defines you until you first fully know how you define "you."
You can’t make that "leap of faith," until you learn what you’re leaping from. Do you even realize the concepts that define your ‘self’? You have lived your life in righteous protection of this ‘self’ you constructed, so are you really ready to give all that up? Do you realize the extent you will go to protect your ‘self’?
People die to protect and preserve a belief. How do you protect and preserve your suffering?
All you know is that you suffer. But if the ego is merely a package of abstract concepts, then what concepts define that package? The "master" would teach that all your concepts hold you prisoner. But how can that be when the master gives you more concepts in the name of freedom?
You could try altering the seriousness of your concepts by realizing everything is a “game” since this tends to make it less of a burden. Feel free to play the games of the world, but never forget that you choose to play. Once you determine that you have no choice, then you will play the game of suffering by the rules someone else made up and the world is defined by such rules ("no pain, no gain") and the contingent suffering. In recognition that you have chosen to play, the rules become less of a burden.
Just yesterday, I became enraged that the new radiator that my car needed was going to cost me 600 dollars. The ego was fit to be tied, because suddenly the rules were not to my liking. This was a threat to my ego, but why?
My ego-self had simply lost control and suffering was the reward as it has been so many times before. Many would say that, at this point I should seek to extinguish all control. But you can’t run from your ego-self. This is like trying to escape the air you breathe. Sooner or later your gonna have to take a big gulp.
Your ego has defined the game of suffering, so learn the rules you play by. The problem is when you play the game of suffering and act like you have no choice but to play by their rules, when in fact the rules are yours. When you understand the rules YOU devised, the game loses its allure because now that you know the rules, you can easily change them at will.
"Awakening” games work this way, only you have the rules delivered to you. This poses a problem because the ego recognizes that the new rules are not yours, but somebody else’s and, although the ego thrives on your insecurity by idolizing other egos, you are its prime directive. Only you can teach the ego your rules. Rules determined by an ego, bigger and better than you, can’t work, only because you’re simply trying to be a big ego too. You have to create your own rulebook. This is the definition of real self-esteem, but you won't find many examples of that in the world. Most require somebody else teach them the 'truth.'
Of course, your ego will resist self-questioning since you tend to believe everything is a 'given.' Yet, the ego will accept the drive-to-question when that is the new religion. Egos' like religions.
Christ and Buddha realized this and they both wrote completely new rulebooks. Yet, what makes you think those rules were for you?
Free your own mind.
Or is that too much of an inconvenience?
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