Ego vs Egolessness

An aspiring monk has been meditating for years to get rid of his ego, but he did not seem to succeed. He finally decided to approach a wise Master in a faraway temple to learn the secret.

Upon hearing the wish of this monk, the Master said to his three bystanding disciples, “Now, you three, please take this monk to the cliff and throw him down.”

The monk was shocked, “Why?” 

To which the Master replied, “Your ego will always be with you, so that’s the only way to get rid of your ego.”

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Ego is never your enemy. There is no need to relinquish or fight against it. Part of your path of ‘growing up’ is to make your ego whole again, by maximising until you transcend it. 

What do we mean by the phrase 'by maximising until you transcend it'? Imagine that you firmly believe that the Earth is flat. And the only way to prove this is to 'maximise' the belief, by travelling to the world's end and expecting yourself to suddenly fall off a cliff. But when you realise that you actually return to the original point at the extreme (maximum), you would finally understand that the Earth is round instead of flat, thus you will 'transcend' with a new found understanding. Ego works pretty much in the same way.

Ego can be a life-force that directs us to contribute positively to the world; this desire will keep us wanting to be better. The key thing is not to let your ego becomes bigger than your impact, that you succumb to self-aggrandizing. So, don't make ego wrong. Your ego is the working basis for every discovery you will ever make. Otherwise, what else do you have?

This blog is adapted from the book How Are You Doing Today?