Is that really a good thing? I would argue that this is the only TRUELY good thing within the realm of human experience.
Let's look at what's ACTUALLY going on here and forget all the mumbo jumbo. Here's a model I've created in order to understand consciousness and enlightenment better.
Think of consciousness as merely a 'focusing agent'--The ability to divide things into small bits and analyze them. Think of consciousness as a tremendously focused beam of laser light.
Now take a deep breath, release and notice. What happened? Your brainwaves slowed down just as your light waves slowed down. The result? Your laser beam (or consciousness) now looks something like a halogen floodlight, lighting up the night.
Now do that for 20 years. What happened? The number of degrees of light continued to expand until.... until what? Until finally, your consciousness reaches 360 degrees. When this happens, there is no more 'dark' and 'no dark'. ALL IS LIGHT! The YinYang becomes the empty Zen Circle.
Total awareness. Total knowing. Total goodness. Total bliss. Total power.
From laser beam, to flood light, to sphere of light.
I have but one life to live
And when you refer to 'I', what is that? A collection of tensions? A collections of fears and insecurities and doubts and internal oscillations?
You would be disaccosiating yourself with your own life, and giving control over to someone, or something, you can only hope knows better.
Exactly.
I would argue that those who are driven by Reason and Thinking are driven by the notions of cause and effect and therefore exist within the realm of Karma. Your perception of free will is largely an illusion, in other words. I would further say that one attains a much higher degree of freedom via enlightenment (via letting go) simply because you are using the spontaneity of the subconscious--the source of all creativity--as your guide. Thus, one transcends karma IN THIS LIFE and gains true freedom via the application of God's Grace--aka subconscious spontaneity.
"You've got to let it all go, Neo. Fear, doubt, and disbelief" said Morpheus from The Matrix. Neo runs... and jumps... and falls... But by the end of the movie, he attains that sphere of consciousness--a state far superior to his former self, I think you'll agree. The Matrix is a useful allegory in chronicleing the path to enlightenment.
Further, you are not 'destroying your ego' or 'personality' as some traditions would say. You are simply removing all the 'stop signs' so you can go from stop and go traffic (15mph) to the autobahn (150mph). Think of 'ego' as a synonym for 'fear' or 'limiting beliefs'.
Tim is still tim, just minus all the crap.
At least, this is what the great champions of Intution say. The champions of Reason give an entirely valid argument the other way as well. It's just like I mentioned in the other post on Decisive Action. Do you want to be a laser beam or (ultimately) a sphere of light? It's a very personal matter. And both are entirely valid forms of existence.
Choose wisely. 
I'm of the opinion that it's not a question of one or the other, but of 'when'. 'You've got to know the rigid self-disciplined life, before you can lead a life of liberation.'
To be sure, focusing has its uses...in the begining. For example, you've got to learn how to read first with your laser beam, before you can use your flood lights to photoread.
