The ego, in Zen terms, is the habitual tendency to stand apart from experience and say, “This is happening to me .” It’s the narrator, the manager, the one trying to secure control, meaning, and permanence in a world that refuses to provide any of those things.

The problem isn’t that the ego exists. The problem is that we believe it’s who we are .

In Buddhism, what’s annihilated is not you but the deeply ingrained illusion that there’s a solid, independent, permanent “ego” at the center of experience. What’s discovered on the other side of that illusion isn’t nothingness, but a far more intimate, responsive, and alive way of being.

Modern Zen teachers often emphasize how liberating this is. When the ego loosens its grip, there’s no longer a fixed self to defend. Praise and blame lose their sharp edge. Fear softens. Compassion arises naturally, not as a moral project but as a consequence of intimacy.

Shunryu Suzuki put it simply: when we let go of self-centered practice, our... See more