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Library of Nothing

This publication will explore various angles of the human experience, which may or may not shed light on our unique situation as self-aware mammals dancing on a warm wet rock hurtling through the cosmos.

“Ego Death” In Four Moves

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Silence is victory.

[Caricature, Painting, Silence, Mouth, Speech, Opinion] CDD20, Pixabay

I believe the removal of my ego required a fight: a coordinated struggle.

A metaphysical wrestling match.

An existential showdown.

I believe my ego has tasted death; deluded and mortally wounded.

Snuffed out like a candle flame.

Slain clean as if it were the devil himself.

I believe my ego actually existed, here and now.

Tangible like a window.

Substantial as a mountain.

I believe in attaining enlightenment, a perfect silence of the mind.

How irrational.

Pragmatically suicidal.

Who am I?

I” am ego.

  1. Wrestling against the concept of an ego only reinforces the concept of an ego. Stop struggling.
  2. The idea that an ego is something that can die implies that it was living in the first place. Organisms live, thoughts are dead. Stop animating the dead.
  3. When a bundle of ephemeral thoughts construct a perpetual identity in reference to themselves… that’s enough to transform them into a palpable illusion. Stop confusing thoughts with facts about reality.
  4. An “ego” is the product of a self-aware organism’s “mind”; the “mind” is just a chain of seemingly unbroken thoughts generated by the human brain. If an ego wants enlightenment it only has two options:

Option 1.) It can shut the fuck up long enough for silence to swallow it.

Option 2.) It can realize the fictitious nature of it’s own reality, probably by way of option 1, but not exclusively.

The dissolution of the concept of identity arrives naturally once this one simple fact has been organically understood: “We are born to Exist, not to know, to be, not to assert ourselves.” — Emil Cioran

In other words, to end this egoic charade there’s only one thing “I” need to do.

Stop.

These four “moves” are really just one; more accurately, a lack of movement altogether. A non-movement. Inaction.

Stillness. Silence. Cessation.

No beliefs. No thoughts. No words.

No self.

Zero moves removed from Zen.

This is our natural state.

Checkmate.

Thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for more blasphemy.

Library of Nothing
Library of Nothing

Published in Library of Nothing

This publication will explore various angles of the human experience, which may or may not shed light on our unique situation as self-aware mammals dancing on a warm wet rock hurtling through the cosmos.

Alex Chase
Alex Chase

Written by Alex Chase

I write about philosophy, psychology, deep ecology, mysticism, and beyond. Check out my Substack:

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