What exactly is ego? How does it feel to have an ego? How do I get rid of it?

Ego manifests in many ways but the way I have been talking about it over the past year is that ego is the defender of our knowledge. This knowledge includes all our concepts about who we are.

Intellect is the processor, storer, and retriever of information and ego is the protector of that knowledge.

Stop and think about it - any time someone questions you, questions what you think is right, a feeling starts coming up from inside like a wall. We begin to get defensive, whether we show it or not.

The ego can also exhibit pride or arrogance about the information it defends. Even to the point of thinking that 'no one is as good as I am.'

All this seems to spring from our primal defense network. Perhaps ego is the further evolution of the fight-or-flight response.

In prehistoric times we were constantly aware of physical threats to our body and were always on alert to protect it. This defense has now shifted to our thoughts and feelings. We are a world of intellect. Fear for the body is less but defending our thoughts and ideas is more!

Our ego is stubborn, persistent, we can't outsmart it in a head-on attempt to surrender it.

But the ntellect is even more tricky. Someone who tends towards being intellectual in nature is skeptical of accepting new knowledge until their intellect has performed its due diligence. They will generally keep returning to their verified knowledge base to arrive at conclusions.

Ego is all about SELF-PRESERVATION.

I am afraid of not existing because I am my thoughts, my opinions, my emotions, they need to live because they ARE me. I must protect my identity.

In spirituality, awareness that "I Am" is the beginning of the sense of self.

In my observation, life continues a complicated trend because we engage with everything that is “other than I.” The more we see everything as other than myself the more separate, the more isolated, the more protective, I become. Thus my own sense of I-ness increases.

So is there a way out?

Yes. It is to meditate and make a choice to go deep in samadhi–profound inner absorption. This is the tool.