What is an Ego?

Although there are many definitions of the abstract concept referred to as “ego,” I tend to consider it EVERYTHING.

This is often why I refer to it as an “ego-self” rather than just ego.

The ego is your belief in a ‘self’ in a 'body,' in a 'world.' Whether or not these beliefs are true is beside the point. The fact is that for most of us, we conduct our lives as if these beliefs were absolutely true.

The definition I employ is more a Buddhist/Freudian composite in that your 'ego-self' comprises everything you know, because it is everything you know that determines your identity based on how you associate to this 'knowledge.' Associating to knowledge means asserting it as true or false. Dogs are asserted as true and you do perceive dogs. But flying dogs are asserted as false and thus, you would never perceive that which is declared as false, except in your imagination. But if even you imagined flying dogs you would assert it as false or not "real." We can think or imagine anything we choose, but we decide what is real or not real.

Therefore, we could also say, as did Freud, that the ego is the “package of beliefs” that determines who and what you ARE (yet, Freud believed the 'body' and 'world' were real and unquestionable). Since you believe you know who you ARE, you have thus established a belief system to emphasize that 'you-ness' and that belief system is chock full of concepts you believe in as true or false. It's through these true and false concepts that you conduct the project of 'living.' Many actually tend to deny awareness of the concepts that they employ to determine actions. However, the actions exhibit what is believed.

Many claim that this belief system was taught you. However, you were not taught that you had a 'self' within a 'mind' contained in a 'body,' which exists in a 'world.' However, you were taught to reinforce and support your belief in all this through a bodily sensation system that provided an 'experience' of you as a 'self,' in a 'body' in a 'world,' thereby proving to your 'self' that you are what you say you are, but really nothing more than that.

Nevertheless, everything you believe is experiential and restricted to a 'mind' that you can't even prove exists. Contrary to the Cartesian method, which has been refuted as proving nothing, you really have absolutely no proof that any of the beliefs you rigidly subscribe to are true. You believe you are a 'self’ with a 'mind,' but how can you prove it. In addition, you believe your 'self' in a 'mind' is contained by a 'body,' but sensation of your body is evaluated in your mind, so how can you prove your 'body' even really exists, since you can't even prove that you have a 'mind.'

You could ask 'others,' but if you experience 'others' in your 'mind,' how can you prove that 'they' exist since "you" can't even prove you have a 'mind.' Maybe you conjured “others” up out of nowhere to simply prove that “you” exist and 'they’ have no reason for being other than that.

This is referred to as "solipsism" which is “the belief that all reality is just one's own imagining of reality, and that one's self is the only thing that exists”(American Heritage). HA! Simply ridiculous.

Yet, many ancient eastern, spiritual, non-dualist, traditions propose just that, only they also assert that the ‘self’ is imaginary as well, although many assert a timeless Self (Cap ‘S’) that the little self, in time, seeks to aspire to.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that any definition that ‘I’ assert as true, is an ‘I’ attempting to define it 'self', which thereby merely cancels it 'self' out. Therefore, 'I' do may NOT even exist, but then, nor do 'you.'

Hope this helps! LOL