Who do you want to be today ?
A few days ago someone asked me ” What exactly is this ego, everyone is talking about” ? Indeed , it seems like we are all on a hunt to track down the elusive trickster, that villain responsible for our moods, suffering and bad hair days ( just to mention the obvious). So while everyone is talking about it and pointing their finger to denote the unconscious action of the one thing that seems to be standing between us and an enlightened life, it still seems to be futile to catch it. So what is ego – and where does it hide, so we can see it when it is rearing it’s ugly face ?
The reason why “ego” is beyond grasping and putting a finger on it is that it is not a thing or a structure – it is a process. What we call “ego” is the diminutive for “egoic conditioning” and this is a lifelong process that is based on a single humane habit : wanting.
When we are born a sense of “self” is developing. This is natural for all sentient beings and it is basically the sense of “this entity” versus “that entity over there”. We can observe how small children are learning to make the distinction and how the sense of a differentiation between the “self” and the world is developing. There has to be an awareness of “self” – a sensory knowledge of the entity that I perceive to be “me”, and over time I will experience the boundaries and limitations that go along with forming the idea of “self” and “other”.
The Living Room 