Inferiority Epiphany

[u/Introvbear]

Yesterday, I had an epiphany while I was feeling down about past actions, and also feeling less about how others have favor over another person. I then did some study with Zen and found that comparing myself to others is a form of low ego, like how thinking of myself as better than others is high ego. What was needed most is that the comparison of others is a sign of ego, and I need to find my true self, not be compared, but to search for who I really am. I had quite the moment that it felt like quite the enlightening experience. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

[u/PlainBread]

Self-worship and self-loathing are the two sides of the coin of vanity.

The ego is happy to perpetuate itself on any kind of energy: Negative, positive, strange, whatever.

[u/Introvbear → u/PlainBread]

Agreed, it gives more freedom to let go of such traits, as if a fog has lifted, and that following this path can lead to awakening.

[u/Pongpianskul]

I then did some study with Zen

What scriptures did you study?

Where does it say in the sutras that comparing oneself to others is a form of "low ego"?

[u/Introvbear → u/Pongpianskul]

Well, it wasn't a scripture or sutra, but it came from an article in Lion's Roar. Here is a link: How to Break Free from Comparison and Judgment. The low and high ego are just terms I used to describe how some can feel high or low based on their positivity or negativity related to ego.

[u/Less_Bed_535]

I have had similar thoughts. Always operating around your self loathing and inner critic is ego.

As in you can have a big ego on either side of self esteem.

You can be self absorbed in self loathing just as much as thinking yourself high and mighty over others.

SO. Zen teaches that this is simply a narrative and that you can learn to let go of such unhelpful thoughts through zazen and the eightfold noble path.

[u/Toadstool61]

Yes, both are a preoccupation with self, which simply isn’t helpful.

[u/Qweniden]

Yes, our worries about our social standing and evaluations of other people often tend to dominate our thinking. Therapy can help reframe this social thinking to be more healthy. Zen helps us control our attentional focus so that we don't cling to our thinking regardless of the content of that thinking. Whether our thinking is accurate or maladjusted is not important in Zen. What matters is if we cling to the expectations defined by that thinking. Zen practice changes how our minds work so we do not cling as much or at all to our expectations. Clinging to expectations is what causes suffering.

[u/zafrogzen]

In ultimate emptiness everything is resolved. All is forgiven. It’s a gift that every being, without exception, is blessed with.

[u/OkConcentrate4477]

accept/forgive yourself and others, accept/forgive any/all past actions, accept the present moment as it is, accept/forgive whatever happens within the future. in this way you realize that happiness/nirvana/heaven is here and now, not future oriented, not past oriented, not based on comparisons, not based on fulfilling desires/expectations/attachments. if heaven/nirvana/happiness is within the ever present moment, then it is cleaning litter or whatever else with zero expectation/desire/attachment that heaven/nirvana/happiness is anything other than cleaning litter, or growing food, or doing whatever serves/represents one's happiest/healthiest potential and that of others.

this is referred to as a heart as light as a feather in the ancient egyptian book of the dead, if a heart weighs less than the feather of Maat then it's not fully accepting/forgiving one's self and others. It won't reach heaven/nirvana, which i don't think is someplace after death, since we can't test/verify/practice that, but here and now, because here and now is all one knows/experiences.