Can I let go of my Ego?

I am at that stage where i am beginning to examine my ego as a means for progress. I have written more ramblings on the subject at my blog. It is kind of a therapy for me to write and read all comments good or bad. So in the spirit of sharing and exchange of ideas, please leave some of your own thoughts.
http://aikidohombu.com/can-get-past-ego/

My ego was crushed the moment I was introduced to this IP stuff.

aikidô hombu?

hello

I wondered ...

Carsten Möllering wrote: aikidô hombu?

... of what line/organization/ryû?

Hi Carsten,

The site is just a collection of videos I like and ramblings from me. I guess a kind of therapy. The site has no relation to the Aikido Hombu just thought it was a cool name for the site. I am a web designer who builds a lot of sites, so my interest in Aikido and the web is the inspiration for this.

Aikido: Yoseikan/Aikibudo/Aikikai

Russell Bentley wrote: ... just thought it was a cool name for the site. ...

Well, I thought so. Maybe using a less pretentious name could be one step towards letting go of your ego?

Perhaps the question isn't can you let go but are you willing to and what do you really think you are holding on to?
Perhaps the learned ego identity is the the end result of identifying with others, meanings its their limits you are letting go of.
Perhaps from a Buddhist perspective we see the ego is a myth or illusion, a mental contruct with no real substance of its own.
While useful if molded correctly, don't take it (yourself) too seriously or too personally.
Your training will improve dramatically.

Here's an interesting and illuminating take on the ego and its role.

Bashar- Ego Negotiation101 p1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvF3pOlx3Qg

Bashar- Ego Negotiation101 p2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JwgJaLVaL8

I have been developing an aikido training model I call Aiki-Lab for the past ten years that is designed to eradicate the influence of "ego" during a conflict engagement.

Instead of attackers providing collusive ukemi, which is necessary for the learning of "techniques" which are really just complex chains of elemental movements, in Aiki-Lab attackers provide authentic attack intention (without the intensity of a real attack to avoid injury during the learning process). This allows the attack to remain realistic in regards to the effects attack has on the central nervous system while the aikido partner learns to recognize the automatic hard-wired and conditioned defense responses that his body implements in reaction to the perception of threat. Through recognition of these involuntary reactions and the states of being that precipitate them, the state can be transcended to one of "beneficent intention" or compassion - really any state of love.

If you think of ego as the part of the psyche that is charged with keeping the body (self) intact as long as possible while maximizing satisfaction and minimizing pain, it can be relegated to the background in order to express higher consciousness states like compassion, forgiveness, acceptance, etc.

Aiki-Lab training reprograms the conditioned responses to perception of threat to come from a place where ego can still exist but not be calling the shots.

When practicing this way, one soon becomes aware of how this training modality's operating principle is masakatsu agatsu (when translated as "true victory is victory over oneself") because the only time a "throw" or "fall" takes place is when that state of transcendence has been reached. The works throw and fall are in quotes because in Aiki-Lab practice ukes will never go to the mat unless the transcendent state is maintained throughout the engagement.

We have seen that this practice method is actually conditioning the "letting go of ego." It permits the manifestation of spontaneous aikido without any set form or "technique." In fact beginners never learn any techniques, but over time start seeing the ones practiced in technique emulation models showing up out of the blue without any instruction or drilling of them. This practice mode also creates the embodiment of transcendent states in non-physical conflict as well as physical attacks.

Russell Bentley wrote: I am at that stage where i am beginning to examine my ego as a means for progress. I have written more ramblings on the subject at my blog. It is kind of a therapy for me to write and read all comments good or bad. So in the spirit of sharing and exchange of ideas, please leave some of your own thoughts. http://aikidohombu.com/can-get-past-ego/

Dear Russell,
Take up knitting.Much better use of your time than introspective self analysis.The bonus in knitting is this.You can knit a scarf, socks etc which are useful especially on a winters day.Better than gazing at ones navel. Cheers, Joe

Corky Quakenbush wrote: I have been developing an aikido training model I call Aiki-Lab for the past ten years that is designed to eradicate the influence of "ego" during a conflict engagement.

I have two inter-connected models: Aiki-Solutions and Identity-Therapy.

When you come across a guy that sells himself at every opportunity, who boasts of all his good points while hiding the bad, who puts others down, who tests others more intensely than he ever tested, who never admits he is wrong, and so on and so forth, you have a guy who is full of Ego, or rather, full of $4hite. So, what you have to do is identify such traits in the self (few, if any, bother to do this). Only then can you start to eradicate such traits (even fewer can really achieve this - suppress it a little maybe -we are who we are). And if changing the self is hard, changing others will be almost impossible. It has nothing to do specifically with Aikido. A jerk is a jerk no matter what business or sport he does.

Lynn Seiser wrote: I have two inter-connected models: Aiki-Solutions and Identity-Therapy.

Awesome, Lynn! Where can I learn more?

Corky Quakenbush wrote: Awesome, Lynn! Where can I learn more?

ask folks to slap you in the face out of the blue?

Corky Quakenbush wrote: Where can I learn more?

Thanks for asking.
There is some articles/columns on the internet.
I am working in the manuscripts.
Would enjoy sharing notes someday.
Ellis Admur's work is like minded too.

Russell Bentley wrote: I am at that stage where i am beginning to examine my ego as a means for progress. I have written more ramblings on the subject at my blog. It is kind of a therapy for me to write and read all comments good or bad. So in the spirit of sharing and exchange of ideas, please leave some of your own thoughts. http://aikidohombu.com/can-get-past-ego/

Any update available on the level your ego has risen?

Lynn Seiser wrote: I have two inter-connected models: Aiki-Solutions and Identity-Therapy.

Dear Lynn , I have one interconnected model. Its made of Lego.Given to me by my grandson.I also have somewhere in my junk filled house a interconnected model of a samurai on horseback made up by my own fair hand.Doe your models come supplied partly made up and do they have enough epoxy resin to join the parts? Cheers, Joe

Try a stroopwafel and you'll never touch an eggo again.

An Ego is like a Gremlin,

"First of all, keep him out of the light, he hates bright light, especially sunlight, it'll kill him. Second, don't give him any water, not even to drink. But the most important rule, the rule you can never forget, no matter how much he cries, no matter how much he begs, never feed him after midnight."

The Movie "Gremlins".




dps

According to Freud, you don't get rid of ego, you simply learn to control it [better]. Sometimes, I think we use the whole "remove your ego" thing to occlude larger problems." "Letting go of one's ego" should not be code for poor behavior or the inability to establish one's position relative to others.

That shihan that is abusing students? That jerk instructor who tests someone more rigorously to prove a point? That black belt in the corner who bullies everyone on the mat? Are you communicating those offenses to the offender? I think sometimes we also forget the ego is about our self-interest - sometimes our self-interest means that a political connection, or pseudo-friendship is more important than the consequences of telling things like they are.

I think you could make a good argument to support the claim that our waza is about appealing to the ego as a method of satisfying a basic need - comfort and safety.

I tend to stick with ego as something that we manage in all but to most rare occasions. And I think that if you did achieve selflessness, you probably wouldn't blog about it...

Leave it at the dojo door

too much Yoga makes you soft
too much Karate makes you hard
too much Aikido makes you arrogant
stay centered!

Who?

Russell Bentley wrote: So in the spirit of sharing and exchange of ideas, please leave some of your own thoughts. http://aikidohombu.com/can-get-past-ego/

First impressions : There's a bloke having a nap in orange clothes.
He's neither at Aikido Hombu nor Guantanamo bay,
I reckon that front page needs a rethink
before ... y'know ... the real Aikido hombu sues yer arse off.

I'll go read some more stuff but seriously Russell : ASAP rejig the webpage title and stuff.