UnbornTao

Ego is the latin word for "I." I though that's interesting.

Also notice, although we don't grasp this (but we talk about it), the truth or condition of being is what's true now, so there's nowhere to go.

Could be. Yet, on the other hand, you seem to be implying that the self is based on suffering, which, if true, isn’t far from asserting that ‘you’ create suffering (as we confuse us with our selves). That’s an interesting perspective. I’d add that we might have made this decision unconsciously. It’s tricky not to position oneself in a reactive or victimizing stance about things we have more control over than we think. If it turns out that it is in fact generated by us, then what does it take to experience that as a reality?

Wikipedia entry on Self-pity Sometimes it might be valid and needed, while other times it might not be, and can actually prevent oneself from correcting (as in learning to see) their actions.

No, it is intellectual on my part, hence the use of "we" on my post above.

The mind is a terrible thing in how it can be used. See how one can completely make up worlds to inhabit.

My take is that he's saying that suffering itself is an activity you generate--it's like a mirage--and so it can be not done. He may be pointing to the central role we play in our experience of suffering. Currently we think we just encounter suffering somewhere out there, and that our only option is to endure it, manage it, ignore it.

A student, filled with emotion and crying, implored, “Why is there so much suffering?” The Zen Roshi replied, “No reason.” —Shunryu Suzuki

Does it? Might largely be a function of how one sees the world. Aren't there things being born and flowering all the time, too? Negative bias seems to have an evolutionary root--what needs to be managed takes precedence over what is present, as the latter quickly gets taken for granted. But we don't have to be stuck with it.

But what is it? What do we take the ego to be? What's our experience of it? Is it part of self? What is self?

Sounds good. Do you mean that ego is in your felt experience, though? To be clear, I do consider the truth as graspable. Faith can be useful for certain things but it might not have anything to do with finding out what's true. Do you mean faith that getting your nature is possible?

Jesus Christ, read 10 books in a day or something

Other animals seem to be doing fine without ego, so what is it? Trying to challenge the assumption that there is something to be found that is our real selves. Perhaps there is--after all, we exist-- however, by nature it must be different from what we think it is.

A book of Rumi's poetry. Last few years, probably one of the M1 Apple laptops.

I'd say beyond intellectually concluding something, we have yet to experience what this real and false self is all about. Seems to me ego is an aspect of self, although it depends on how each thing is held by you. Anyway, we take ourselves to be something-maybe that itself, our whole sense of self, is not true--but for us it certainly appears to be that way--what's more real to us than our selves? Regarding the true self, that's up for grabs, really. It might not even be a self to begin with. Something to consider.