The language we use can be less than helpful when it comes to the ego. Expressions like ‘transcending the ego’ create a lot of confusion by apparently fixing something non-existent in the form of an apparent object of knowledge. The result is nonsensical: we talk of getting rid of something that never existed or even denying this object of intense interest and concern any reality at all. ‘The ego’, we say, ‘is not real.’ If we’re not careful, we can spend a lot of time talking about something that does not exist in such a way that it becomes more real to us than it was before we started making
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