“Ego is just a concept that your mind creates...”

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

18 September 2024

“Ego is just a concept that your mind creates...”

Question:  Do you still have challenges with your ego?

Than Ajahn: If you understand that your ego is just an illusion, then you don’t have challenges anymore. You get rid of your ego. There is no ego. Ego is just a concept that your mind creates and becomes attached to that concept until it becomes real.

Question:  Is there a moment that you experience that ego and then you shift it or you don’t experience it at all, this force that makes you suffer?

Than Ajahn: No.

Layperson: Not even there?

Than Ajahn: No. Once you understand it, you can control it.

Layperson: Do you feel it coming?

Than Ajahn: You use it. You can still use your ego. When I’m talking to you right now, I’m using ego but this ego is tamed.

It doesn’t react. It doesn’t get angry because it doesn’t expect anything from anybody.

The problem is your expectation from things and from people. 

And when you don’t get it, you become angry or sad. If you get it, you become over-confident. 

You want more of it. One day, you’re gonna end up not getting it, then you become sad again. 

You’re chasing after your shadow. Can you catch it? It’s always one step ahead of you. 

So, stop. Once you stop, then you’ll find yourself fulfilled without having to have anything.

Layperson: How do you stop?

Than Ajahn: Using mantra, keep chanting. Don’t think. Teach your mind that everything you go after is not real. It’s like a mirage. Whatever you get, as soon as you get it, it doesn’t mean anything to you anymore. 

The happiness that you get from things is temporary. Once you get what you want, you’ll think that what you’ve gotten is no longer makes you happy, and you need something else to make you happy.

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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