ego

...but with my clamoring ego solidly in place, I considered the title, 'Memories of a Failed Nobody'.

To the ego, the present moment hardly exists. Only past and future are considered important. This total reversal of the truth accounts for the fact that in the ego mode the mind is so dysfunctional. It is always concerned with keeping the past alive, because without it - who are you?

The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often also political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications.

None of these is you.

Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to "die before you die" — and find that there is no death.

When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is without getting entangled in it. The mind in itself is a wonderful tool. Dysfunction sets in when you seek your self in it and mistake it for who you are.

To be identified with your mind is to be trapped in time: the compulsion to live almost exclusively through memory and anticipation.

The pain that you create now is always some form of nonacceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is. On the level of thought, the resistance is some form of judgment. On the emotional level, it is some form of negativity. The intensity of the pain depends on the degree of resistance to the present moment, and this in turn depends on how strongly you are identified with your mind.

Personalities don't love. They want something.

The mind's job is to validate what it thinks.

The ultimate freedom from the nonexistent ego is to see that it is actually irrelevant.