This is actually a well known thing in Buddhism and other meditative practices. Most of the old beliefs about yourself fall away (losing that ego), and then you just replace them with new beliefs (develop a new spiritual ego that usually feels nicer). And you have no idea how insidious and subtle it can be. You of course hear about he most extreme examples but it can also be very inward turned spiritual ego that’s mostly damaging to oneself. There’s a whole new level of practice in dissolving that too (which is actually why having a teacher and being a member of a spiritual community is useful because if it’s a healthy community, they will bring it to surface one way or another). There’s a vicious cycle where the unhealthy communities (cults) led by people who are in this god realm delusion are the ones that get the press, so people start avoiding communities because they think that they’re all cults anyway, and then they do practice by themselves and might gain some realization, and then develop a spiritual ego… and decide they should become teachers and then create an unhealthy community.
A virtuous man or woman who is determined to develop the Supreme Enlightened Mind, should thus develop it: I have to lead all living beings to put a stop to (reincarnation) and escape (suffering), and when they have been so led, not one of them in fact stops (reincarnating) or escapes suffering. Why? Because, if a Bodhisattva believes in the notion of an ego, a personality, or a living being, he is not a true Bodhisattva.
This is actually a well known thing in Buddhism and other meditative practices. Most of the old beliefs about yourself fall away (losing that ego), and then you just replace them with new beliefs (develop a new spiritual ego that usually feels nicer). And you have no idea how insidious and subtle it can be. You of course hear about he most extreme examples but it can also be very inward turned spiritual ego that’s mostly damaging to oneself. There’s a whole new level of practice in dissolving that too (which is actually why having a teacher and being a member of a spiritual community is useful because if it’s a healthy community, they will bring it to surface one way or another). There’s a vicious cycle where the unhealthy communities (cults) led by people who are in this god realm delusion are the ones that get the press, so people start avoiding communities because they think that they’re all cults anyway, and then they do practice by themselves and might gain some realization, and then develop a spiritual ego… and decide they should become teachers and then create an unhealthy community.