Many psychologists talk about how it is healthy to develop a strong ego, a good self-concept, a strong character, etc. Any such image of myself is a fantasy, an idea. To the extent that I am preoccupied with this fixed idea of myself, I lose touch with the flow of my actual present experiencing. At best a strong self-image will cause me to become a rigidly predictable, socially useful automation – a person who identifies with an idea of myself instead with the reality of my actual feelings, experiences, and actions. My living becomes split between image and reality, between what I think I am and what I am.” John O. Stevens “Buddhist philosophy is ethical first and last. Buddhism set itself to analyze and classify mental processes with remarkable insight and sagacity”. Caroline Rhys Davids
‘We do not possess an ‘ego’. We are possessed by the idea of one.’ Wei Wu Wei
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