Ego by Gelek Rinpoche

"If you search for Ego, where is that "I, the most precious one," "i, the dictator?" You won't be able to find it. People might say: "Well, of course I'm here. I exist." But where? Where does the queen bee permanently reside? Is it one with the body? Or seperate from the body? One with the mind? Or seperate from the mind? Is it my identity? Or seperate from my identity? Is my body me, or is my mind me? If my body is me, then which part? My blood? My heart? My ribs? My brain? And if my mind is me, which part of my mind is it? My thoughts? My emotions? My perceptions? My senses? You can take the whole body part, but you won't find any one point where you can say, "this is me." You can take the whole mind apart, and you still won't find it. That is the absolute truth. That doesn't mean you don't exist. that doesn't mean you don't have thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. That doesn't mean you don't have relationships or that you don't form judgments, because there is a relative truth, too. You do exist: That is the "I" that gets you through everyday life. But "I, the dictator" is another thing altogether, a thing we don't need at all.

~ Gehlek Rinpoche ~