Understanding the Ego and Self-Perception

The ego is the worst confidence trickster

we could ever figure, we could ever imagine,

'cause

you don't see it.

The problem is that the ego hides in the last place that you'd

ever look, within itself.

It disguises its thoughts as your thoughts, its feelings as your feelings.

It, y- you think it's you.

People's need to protect their own egos knows no bounds.

They will lie, cheat, steal, kill, do whatever it

takes to maintain what we call ego boundaries.

People have no clue that they're in prison.

They don't know that there is an ego. They don't know the distinction.

At first, it's difficult for the mind to accept

that there's some- something

beyond itself, that there's something, uh, of, of

greater value and greater capacity for discerning truth than itself.

In religion, the ego manifests as the devil.

And of course, no one realizes how smart the ego is

because it created the devil so you could blame someone else.

In creating, uh, this imaginary external enemy, we usually,

usually made a,

a real enemy for ourselves, and that becomes a real danger for the ego,

but that's

also the ego's creation.

There is no such thing as an external enemy, no matter what

that voice in your head

is telling you. All perception of an

enemy is a projection of the ego as the

enemy.

In that sense, you could say that 100% of our external enemies

are of our own creation.

Your greatest enemy is your

own inner perception, is your own ignorance, is your own ego.