Episode 25 – Ego, the Subtle Colonizer

The human mind is unique in that it can observe itself • many buddhist teachings, including the teachings on ego, come from simply looking directly at the mind and taking an interest in what arises • the sense perceptions are one obvious component of mind • the thinking process is considered to be a sixth sense perception • a second aspect of mind is the unconscious, or base consciousness • a third component of mind is a very subtle but ongoing thread of self-consciousness that labels everything that arises in the mind as “my” experience • something colonizes our experience, and that colonizer is ego fixation or ego orientation • the point is to be able to discern the difference between perception that is tainted by this subtle ego acquisition from a more free-flowing or pure awareness