Buddhism and the Ego
What stands in the way of our "enlightenment" is our own ego.
It is constantly chattering away, this and that are going through our mind, and the ego paints us in all kinds of situations.
Basically, there are two kinds of thoughts, "good" and "bad" ones.
Good thoughts pop into our heads when we have something to do, we have to make a plan, for how the sequence of our actions should be.
Bad thoughts occur differently. We constantly jump "mentally" from one topic to the next.
Is my girlfriend cheating on me? Is my son doing drugs? Am I doing everything right?
None of these thoughts are or were ever purposeful, how the situation really was later, we could not even begin to imagine. We only thought useless thoughts, we burdened ourselves senselessly, and the ego stood in our way (as always), and harmed us.
If we seek "enlightenment", we should deal with the ego, look at it closely and keep it under control more and more often. Because the ego feeds us with bad thoughts.
Only those who can keep the ego under control will at least come close to "enlightenment". There are certainly more steps, processes and transitions needed here; the right path also starts with just one small step.
Observe your thoughts, follow up on every single train of thought, check it for meaningfulness. And if the thought doesn't make sense, put it in a special (mental) drawer.
If this thought (or a similar one) appears again in your "thought palace", then immediately push it away into said drawer.
In the course of time you will get more and more practice in examining and classifying your thoughts.
Only pursue the thoughts that bring something, "would-have-had" or "if-if-if" brings nothing and can go away.
ONCE YOU HAVE FOUND YOURSELF, THERE IS NOTHING LEFT IN THIS WORLD TO LOSE.
- STEFAN ZWEIG - AUSTRIAN WRITER - 1881 TO 1942
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