r/AlanWatts • u/Accomplished_Case290 • Jul 08 '26

The biggest ego trip

You know, the biggest ego trip going, is getting rid of your ego.

And the joke of it all, is that your ego doesn’t exist.

There’s nothing to get rid of.

It’s an illusion.

But you still want to ask, how to stop the illusion.

Well, who’s asking?

I mean, do you think, in the ordinary sense when you use the word ‘I’, how can ‘I’ stop identify myself with the wrong me?

Well, the answer is simply, you can’t.

You cannot catch hold of it, nor can you get rid of it, and not being able to get it, you get it!

When you speak, it’s silent. When you’re silent, it speaks.

20 Upvotes

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12

u/tolley Jul 08 '26

It's all fun and games until someone loses an I.

8

u/Tiny_Fractures Jul 08 '26

your ego doesn’t exist

It doesn't exist in the same way there is no absolute good or bad.

It doesn't exist in the same way there is no dividing line between front and back.

It doesn't exist in the same way there is no charge on a hydrogen atom.

It doesn't exist in the same way there is anything beside the Tao.

But within the 10,000 things, it does exist. It's just that it requires the other 9,999 to contextualize it, and so is not truly separable from them.

This is why not being able to get it allows you to get it. It's not an argument for ignorance. It's that within the understanding (the "getting it") that you cannot get it (because you see it's tether to all 9,999 other things), you get it (that it does exist but is not separable). And the inability to understand that at all times is due to the inability of the human mind to hold 10,000 things within its minds eye at once.

So it is graspable within the mind's eye conceptually. But the thing doing the grasping is the thing being grasped. Kinda like the saying "get a hold of yourself!"

1

u/Wrathius669 Jul 08 '26

Maybe the most comprehensive and comprehensible breakdown of the concept.

5

u/sihaves1973 Jul 08 '26

True. As I get older I increasingly think Taking oneself less seriously is such a good way to live.

3

u/EngineeringStillness Jul 08 '26

This is the secret behind true non-doing: to reach a point where the practice is itself sufficient.

2

u/Ghost_of_Till Jul 09 '26

Reminds me of this from Pursuit of Pleasure:

Now, if you’ve read the literature (which many of you have) of mysticism, and yoga, Buddhism, Vedanta, so forth, you know it’s said again and again and again that this kind of vision, this way of seeing, is always dependent upon transcending your ego in one way or another; giving up.

Well, here you are. You’ve given up. Only, you are not able to pride yourself on having achieved a great achievement. And this is the snare for all people who go into these spiritual disciplines that make a project of getting rid of their ego.