ego
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.
The Death of Ego and the Persistence of Self
Under those conditions, the ego is primarily concerned with predicting every outcome of every situation, because it is overfocused on the outer world and feels completely separated from the 99.99999 percent of reality. In fact, the more we define reality through our senses, the more this reality becomes our law.
Joe Dispenza • Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One
Our ego spends so much energy creating a fragmented identity—constantly categorizing, dividing, and keeping us trapped in dualistic thinking. Jung called this “directed thinking” (CW 7, para. 483), where the mind separates everything into binaries: self and other, good and bad, light and dark. This way of seeing the world reinforces our sense of... See more
Jennifer Leela • Carl Jung’s Path to Spiritual Awakening: A Journey Toward Wholeness
The ego is a “subject” to whom psychic contents are “represented.” It is like a mirror. Moreover, a connection to the ego is the necessary condition for making anything conscious—a feeling, a thought, a perception, or a fantasy. The ego is a kind of mirror in which the psyche can see itself and can become aware.
Murray Stein • Jung's Map of the Soul: An Introduction
After formulating the second phase of the transcendent function, the bringing together of the opposites for the production of the third (the first being the emergence of the unconscious material), Jung adds another critical component. Though it may seem somewhat counterintuitive given the importance of the unconscious in Jung’s psychology, he
... See moreJoan Chodorow • The Transcendent Function
The ego, like consciousness, also transcends and outlasts the particular contents that occupy the room of consciousness at any particular moment. The ego is a focal point within consciousness, its most central and perhaps most permanent feature. Against the opinion of the East, Jung argues that without an ego, consciousness itself becomes
... See moreMurray Stein • Jung's Map of the Soul: An Introduction
“Against the opinion of the East, Jung argues that without an ego, consciousness itself becomes questionable.”
In the classical and developmental psychologies, the unity of the healthy ego is the essential structure of the psyche. The question of the dissolution of the ego or Self is almost always seen as regressive and detrimental, a fusion, or a return to the mother. Some analysts, however, have raised a different perspective, one that has challenged ego
... See moreDr. Stanton Marlan • The Black Sun: The Alchemy and Art of Darkness (Carolyn and Ernest Fay Series in Analytical Psychology Book 10)
EGO: The Ultimate Deity: Reflections of the Formation of the Self, its Madness, its Genius
jungian.directory
The ego is like an overprotective mother in the extreme. Just as this hypervigilant mother will not let her child explore and have fun playing on the jungle gym for fear of getting hurt, your ego will not let you explore and have fun with life because of the perceived danger.