The Ego as a Strategy

The ego can be like a monster in a dream: the more you try to fight it or escape it, the stronger and faster it gets. Your very focus on it heightens its power. Instead, look at it like an insecure child, screaming for validation and promises of safety and longevity. Care for it as you would any small child, becoming neither attached to it and spoiling it nor so locking it away in a dark room till it screams it terror, scaring the neighbors.

When sages say there is no ego, I think they mean that it doesn't exist inherently. I think of it as a survival strategy nearing its obsolescence. Just because it's built into our genes and strengthened by tradition does not mean it's any more absolute than our propensity to eat greasy hamburgers to satisfy a primal hunger for fat and carbs. Calmly see your ego as a strategy that has served its role and now needs to step aside to allow a new energy to run through you.