What Is the Ego?

Suppose all throughout your childhood you were told this fantasy story that you are the king of Egypt or something like that. [Chuckles] But when you grow out of it, somebody comes and tells you, who knew you as a kid, ‘Oh, hello, my king of Egypt, how are you?’ You will not take it to be true, will you? Because you’ve seen that you’re not that; that story is over. In the same way, the mind will come to you and say, ‘Oooh, [cooing like a baby] welcome, my limited being, so nice to see you again.’ [Shrugs] Who are you talking about? It just goes. That’s all that changes. So, this instant, not even instant, beyond instant, Self-recogniHon—which is always always apparent to us really but the journey seems to be confusing because we were expecHng it to be something else, or we were expecHng some benefit out of that, or something—that story also has to be let go of now. Any story which has you as the central protagonist, as the hero or heroine of that story, has to be let go of. Many Hmes people come to me and say—especially if they are new they have the honesty to admit that; once we are more progressed we don’t have the honesty to admit that—they will say, ‘But what is the ego? I don’t know if I have ego, I don’t know.’ And I may start saying to them, ‘Who is the main character in this movie? [Silence] Who is the main character in this movie, this movie [waves his hands around]?’ That is the ego. Everybody is clear about that, actually. Because that is the one we are trying to help, that is the one we are trying to make free. That one can never become free. So, the le^ng go of ignorance is the same as coming to the Truth. In the coming to the Truth, you noHce what you are and you let go of ignorance. As you let go of ignorance, as you let go of this hero or heroine of your movie, is it not clear to you what you are? So, the le^ng go of ignorance equals coming to this apparent Truth which is always there. Now, your ‘but’ will have a central protagonist. NoHce that any doubt, the ‘but’ which is coming, will have something for that which you think you are but you never really are.