Wed, 30 Aug 2006
Ego Is Good
During the Spring Retreat at TMC Khenpo Tsultrim said that ego is good. He said that we need ego or else we wouldn't practice. The sense of his remarks was that wanting happiness and wanting to avoid suffering is what motivates our practice. Trangu Rinpoche once said the best way to approach practice is as if we are seek, the dharma is medicine, and the teacher the doctor. Getting well starts with admitting we're sick, and wanting to get well. The wanting is an essential part of the cure. If we pretend that we're well or that it's wrong to want to get well, there's no way to be cured. So, yes, I think that ego is important at the start of our practice.
But then at a certain point in our practice ego becomes a hindrance, There's a sense that we're fake or that our practice is false. This is the scab of ego beginning to come loose. There's several wrong turns we can take at this point. The first is to redouble our efforts and become very strict with ourselves. This is the fanatic's approach to practice and yields the results that fanaticism usually yields. The second is to turn our attention in a different direction and become an intellectual authority on Buddhism. The third is to give up and be satisfied with what we've got. I don't believe any of these approaches are correct. What we need to do is to sit with this sense of falsity, feel the frustration of it, chew it and savor it. The question is, where does our allegiance lie, with the truth or with being comfortable? So that's how we deal with ego as we progress on the path.
