Giving up The Ego to become a slave?

[arpee]

Many religions teach that it's bad to focus on the self and material too much and that you are inferior and should worship some being higher than you. This is a trap to take away your self worth and to turn you into a mindless slave. The Bible is a book for enslavement, give up the Ego and you'll be lost and then they'll pretend to give you the cure but really control you with religion. Animals already know better than this, animals have the Ego and are proud of it. The Ego gives you power. The natural state of being is happiness, it's unnatural to find reasons to be unhappy and keep thinking about it instead of finding what makes you happy and going after that. The Ego is your connection with the flow of life. The universe is one huge energy and we are moving along with it and when you go for what makes you happy, you are in tune with the movement of the universe. So don't be a slave. Don't give up your self worth. Don't be offended when someone says "That's the Ego talking", because YOU know YOUR self worth and that's something to be proud about.

Here is a website on Spiritual Egoism:

Egoism

[Nimue]

There are also religions that claim that whatever bad happens to you is your fault because you carry bad carma, or that the social place of someone isn't right to change during lifetime...
Religions begin as a try to understand the supernatural and a call to a better social behaviour, yet end up to be twisted into tools of crowd manipulation...

Bible is only 4 of the most "politically acceptable" christian religious books, they don't represent all of what the religion was at its beginning. It used to be quite anarchic, as a matter of fact. Most people of power try to emphasize in how Jesus taught people to give their riches, and generally themselves, forgetting their ego (and to give everything is something he asked mainly from the saints, he taught mostly compassion/belief to common people, and remorse to the "sinners")-who ever reminds of his fiery behavior against the people who held all religious and political life in their hands and used it to oppress people?

[wstein]

Religions have numerous ways of suppressing the masses. Do not confuse this with giving up your ego.

The purpose of the ego is promote your continued survival. In that sense animals display it prominently. Unless you are suicidal, you should too.

However, most people have left their ego in charge of living their entire lives, not just their survival. This is just as much a trap as the one most organized religions are trying to snare you in. Further it doesn’t work very well as the ego is ill-equipped to be you.

Stop being a slave to anything or anyone including your religion and your ego. Give your ego a rest by allowing it to do what it was meant to do and don’t try to make it responsible for living your life.

[Darren]

I'm not sure if "giving up your ego" is the correct term here either. More like recognizing the functions of the ego, its origins and being aware of its illusory nature. Your ego is not your enemy it is more like a pet to be tamed.

Many religions teach that it's bad to focus on the self and material too much and that you are inferior and should worship some being higher than you. This is a trap to take away your self worth and to turn you into a mindless slave. The Bible is a book for enslavement, give up the Ego and you'll be lost and then they'll pretend to give you the cure but really control you with religion. Animals already know better than this, animals have the Ego and are proud of it. The Ego gives you power. The natural state of being is happiness, it's unnatural to find reasons to be unhappy and keep thinking about it instead of finding what makes you happy and going after that. The Ego is your connection with the flow of life. The universe is one huge energy and we are moving along with it and when you go for what makes you happy, you are in tune with the movement of the universe. So don't be a slave. Don't give up your self worth. Don't be offended when someone says "That's the Ego talking", because YOU know YOUR self worth and that's something to be proud about.

Here is a website on Spiritual Egoism:

Egoism

It sounds to me like you're projecting your own "Spiritual Egoism" onto others. To say that "The Bible is a book for enslavement" just sounds like nonsense to me. It's clearly been of great value to millions of people throughout the centuries without "enslaving" them.

Also, I'm not entirely sure if your correct with this statement (amongst others) "Animals already know better than this, animals have the Ego and are proud of it." Do animals really KNOW better? By what means. Animals are PROUD of their ego? How do you come to this conclusion? Has your dog communicated this with you verbally?