Enlightenment as the end of ego or egoism?

I still don't understand when someone says "get rid of the ego". Does that mean the destruction of individuality (and thus uniting with the All) or just getting rid of egoism?

In the last interpretation a buddha or bodhisattva would say "I need nothing, I'm fine, so I can help people and I ask nothing in return" (unlike gods who ask for offerings). Somewhat like a rich man with an infinite fortune who can share indefinitely and give any amount of money to anyone who asks for it (the buddha would give light instead of money, but I think you got my point).

From my experience, and from the scriptures I studied, I concluded that our being can be divided into sub-parts. Depending on the situation, some parts are beneficial, and some are not. Buddhism is trying to get ride of those parts, which create dependency and intention. Those can be egoistic, but doesn't have to. So, that's why I think that focusing on ego misses the point.
Buddhism promoted the middle way, which must be understood correctly, on the level of our actual experiences, not as a theory. So, what is the middle way in our being? It is a state in which we let go of intention, while not suppressing ourselves. All this happens in the sphere of thoughts. Normally we know two states, one where we assume that all our thoughts represent our true nature, and we accept them as truth, and the other one in which we suppress our thoughts, trying to silence our inner voice. Both are incorrect. In don't want to go into details about how it works, but I will briefly explain where the problem lies. Our thinking mind constitutes of two thoughts generators, which are indistinguishable for us. We hear one voice, without noticing that there are two sources of it. The trick is to eliminate one, leaving the other intact. Some people call this first one "ego", but without precisely explaining what it is, and giving a method to differentiate it from the second one, just creates confusion.
Sadly, although I was searching for years, I haven't been able to find a direct explanation of this phenomena. Just indirect talk, which is useless.

agorman said:

I still don't understand when someone says "get rid of the ego". Does that mean the destruction of individuality (and thus uniting with the All) or just getting rid of egoism?

In the last interpretation a buddha or bodhisattva would say "I need nothing, I'm fine, so I can help people and I ask nothing in return" (unlike gods who ask for offerings). Somewhat like a rich man with an infinite fortune who can share indefinitely and give any amount of money to anyone who asks for it (the buddha would give light instead of money, but I think you got my point).

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My take on this is that it is about becoming less egotistical. Ego is an inherent part of a healthy personality and to try to eradicate it can cause quite serious problems for the individual. It's sort of like chopping off your feet.

Most of the stuff regarding what is called ego in connection with Buddhism actually refers to id functions, not ego functions.

The goal is to do soul-searching in order to identify and resolve dukkha/mental hang-ups.

agorman said:

Does that mean the destruction of individuality (and thus uniting with the All)

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If everything is already united, then there is no point saying it. One and saying so makes two.

agorman said:

or just getting rid of egoism?

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Blaming the ego for dissatisfaction is too simplistic, although any extreme egoism may warrant some criticism. If we walk around all day thinking, "Okay, I need to get rid of my ego. I must cultivate a mindset without ego," then we'll only be chasing our tails. Just walk!

Everybody has a valid sense of self. This is different from grasping at a concrete conceptualization. We tend to fixate upon instances as if they represented our essential identity. These instances may be memories or gaining ideas. The spider mind spins this web of confusion. The deeper, original sense of self is more open and creative. Let yourself flow rather than freeze to death.

For me there is no ego to get rid of, its an illusion, and to live through the ego is also illusion.

psychoslice said:

For me there is no ego to get rid of, its an illusion, and to live through the ego is also illusion.

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But... are you Buddhist or do you base your path in Buddhism?

agorman said:

But... are you Buddhist or do you base your path in Buddhism?

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I Am a Buddha, not a Buddhist, and I'm sure Gautama would have agreed with me, and even if he didn't, its doesn't matter because whatever we come up with is nothing more than a concept, the truth is beyond any words of teachings, these can only point you to truth.

Excellent posts. Inner voice, outer voice. I appreciate.

Suffering is caused by clinging, which is itself caused by ignorance. Ignorance of what? The constituents of right view. These constituents are the four noble truths, the three marks of existence, and karma. So what does this mean? Anything else is just concepts, with no real existence. Everything is dependent on everything else. Ego is just an effect of the five aggregates, and in turn is a cause itself. So ego both does and does not exist. It doesn't exist in the sense that it have no independent existence of it's own, and is subject to changing; it does exist in that it is a cause and condition. Let go of the concept to see the reality.

agorman said:

I still don't understand when someone says "get rid of the ego". Does that mean the destruction of individuality (and thus uniting with the All) or just getting rid of egoism?

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According to the suttas it's about getting rid of self-view, the sense of "I am".
So for example in the Bahiya Sutta we find: "When for you there will be only the seen in reference to the seen, only the heard in reference to the heard, only the sensed in reference to the sensed, only the cognized in reference to the cognized, then, Bāhiya, there is no you in connection with that. When there is no you in connection with that, there is no you there. When there is no you there, you are neither here nor yonder nor between the two. This, just this, is the end of stress."
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/ud/ud.1.10.than.html