Is the"ego" counter-productive to developing "self awareness"? explain your point of view.....?

The ego IS counter-productive to developing self awareness. For as long as the ego is in control of all we say, do, and think, it sucks the energy that would otherwise feed our self awareness. I view the ego the same way I would an ignorant or unruly child--as something requiring constant vigilance and education.

We can go through life--and I have seen educated adults who do this--believing in our self-importance. They claim to be aware or enlightened, but are so full of their ego and "me-first" way of thinking and being that they do not see how truly underdeveloped they are. Young children have little Baby Egos that are first fed with constant attention to the point where they must be taught the world does not revolve around them. We send them off to school so that by the time they are teenagers, their Teen Ego learns how much more there really is and starts to experiment and think for themselves. If parents and educators have not done their job wisely, those teens may never grow into Adult Egos, or may take a very long time to get there. As adults, the Adult Ego says they have learned or know it all, so that there is no point in learning any more. They do not see that each and every day is full of opportunity to learn, grow or change. Thanks to that Adult Ego, they can get "stuck" in the monotony of life, never fully realizing or enjoying the wisdom they have achieved.

And, of course, there is the whole altruistic effort of giving back to others once you have achieve some measure of self-awareness. The ego will step in and talk you out of freely giving of yourself or your talents to the rest of the world. We have placed a cost or price on things by this time, and our entrenched way of life would be thrown too off track by just being of service to others--or so our ego would lead us to believe.

It takes constant, vigilant awareness of the present moment to get beyond our ego, at any stage, and realize who we truly are and our unique place in this existence. We need to grow and learn each and every day in order to make our lives, and our self-awareness, all it is meant to be.

Blessings!

I think this would be true Sir Hector C if the ego is soooo big and inflated that he cannot see anyone else at all but himself. And from this selfish premise he is incapable of seeing whether he exist as having strengths or weaknesses. That is not the way he can perceive his world. So self awareness is not an issue for him and as a real consequence counter productive to his ego.

That's what I think.

Yes, false ego is definitely counter-productive to developing self awareness or the self.

False ego limits the being by drawing false boundaries and illusions thus prevent it from knowing it's ultimate reality,

whereas 'developing self awareness' is an attempt of the being to know it's reality of limitless by becoming aware of the mental illusions that also include the false ego.

So awareness breaks illusions created by the false ego, which makes both of them counter-productive to each other.

Though I believe the permanent ego or the sense of the self and the self awareness are one and the same.

It is due to the mistaken idea that arises when people ignore the basic economic truths. Proponents of the various schemes to punish the use of energy, believe that the resulting pressures on industry to come up with the new energy technologies will actually stimulate the economy; ie, California and the energy restrictions on TV's (dumb). While such policies will, no doubt, lead to some new job opportunities, for a few people, it will be to the great expense of everyone else. If such a technique really works, why not spur economic activity in the construction industry by destroying all of our cities? why not spur growth in the medical community by purposely giving everyone a disease? You cannot punish something people do as a necessary part of daily commerce, and then expect the economy to benefit from it. Just think if anytime an economically useful activity is thwarted or punished,the economy suffers. For every Nobel Prize laureate in economics that advocates any such position, there are ten more who know that it is foolishness. MR

doesn't there has to be an i with the desire to develop self awareness? ego is essential? i know that i am not aware and i want to be more self aware? maybe there are a handful of human beings born who simply have the wisdom without much ego to want to be self aware.doesn't self in self awareness imply ego anyway? most people who can mentally negate the ego as actually existing independently still have a ego because they haven't experientially experienced it's non existence.the ego has to been seen for what it is thru (self?) awareness.

Yes, our sense of self gets in the way of things all the time. Its sort of a superficial shallow form of self awareness, but true awareness, of the "higher self" is a spiritual pursuit. First you must be humbled and the ego cut down to make any real progress in learning the higher self.

Everyone has an ego, "I this, I that", but does everyone have selfe awareness?

being that the ego manifest as the result of the basic needs of self being met

it is rational to claim that self awareness is productive to more enlightened awareness of self

how ever ethical egoism must be tempered by the fact that as a race humans rely and thrive upon society and the dynamics of cultural behaviors.

It depends on what your definition of self is Hector.

The ego does a pretty good job of convincing most people that it is the self. Many never question this charade the ego is playing on them.

Love and blessings Don

Ego is necessary to reinforce the drive to survive. Is the failure of the species helpful in developing self-awareness? Given the current nonchalance about global warming I suspect not.

No, I think they're close to the same thing! They are both what "self" is.

Though I guess it depends how you define the words. I'm not using 'ego' meaning 'arrogant' and I'm not using 'self-aware' in the colloquial sense of 'introspective'.