Books Don’t Provoke Ego

Books don’t provoke ego;
people provoke ego.

Ego is another word for ‘I’. Every time we say ‘I’, we actually say ‘ego’. Ego is consciousness mistakenly clinging to ideas and calling this ‘me’. If we could see ourselves saying , “Ego think” instead of “I think”, we’d realise that we sound ridiculous.

Once this fixated ‘I’ or self is established, we then defend it and protect it and, as everyone else is doing the same, this self becomes irritated at others through limited understanding. From that position, we make judgements born from memories – limited memories.

This is our perfect teacher, showing us our learned reactions.
This is how we measure our progress – or lack of it. 🙂
This is where courage lies.

When we cannot be easily provoked (or provoked at all),
we then can see our level of realisation.

Ego’s reaction is either our teacher or our jailer. 🙂