You need an ego,
if you didn’t have an ego
you wouldn’t know whose mouth to put food in
when eating in a restaurant.
– Terence McKenna

On the Importance of the Ego

There seems to be this very loud notion that the ego is a bad thing.  Everyone wants you to dissolve your ego or go through some kind of an ego death.  Entire religions and philosophies are centered on the notion that the ego is the enemy and the primary obstacle to enlightenment.  Some, however, realize that the ego exists for a solid reason – it helps ground us in this planet Earth existence.  The ego, like every other facet of creation, isn’t good or bad…it just is.  It’s a tool, a concept, and a property found in our lives.  Reality should be experienced across many domains, including the domains where our egos are front and center.  To simply discount the ego is to discount a vital part of creation itself.  Embrace the ego, but acknowledge there’s more to reality.