Falsity of the Ego

Falsity of the Ego

Every event is, and should be, realized as a happening in this vast, infinite spread of awareness.

But we keep on putting “I” to every event, from birth to death.

And then we connect these dots of “I”s, and create an illusory “existence “ of the total Ego.

That is the story of the Ego that everyone writes in their own lives.

Everyone’s story differs, naturally, as everyone gets exposed to different situations.

But stories are superficial.

No one cares to go deeper and realize the medium in which this story is being written.

That medium is non-differentiated awareness, the same in all.

What is written on a blackboard may change, but the blackboard remains the same.

In a waking state, we all differ.

In the dream state, we all differ.

In a deep sleep state, no Sansar and no dreams; we are all the same, but we are asleep ( we are UNDER the mind )

The ego does not exist when reality is realized. ( we are ABOVE the mind ), And the whole life becomes awareness.

How this knowledge manifests in your life is individual, but knowledge of the supreme is the same.

What we call “Self” is only a collection of processes, not a fixed identity.

Thích Nhất Hạnh’s teachings invite us to gently unlearn the habit of taking ourselves to be a fixed “me.”

When we say, “What you believe to be ‘you’ is just the mind naming itself,” we are echoing the heart of Buddhist insight: the self is not a thing—it is a thought. A name. A habit of perception.

Like a mirage, the idea of “I” appears real from a distance.

But when we look with mindfulness, we see that it’s just a story made of memories, labels, feelings, and roles—all changing, all empty of solidity.

Thầy (as his students lovingly call him) reminds us that we are not the story we tell ourselves, but the awareness that sees it. When we touch that space of clarity—even briefly—we find peace, not by fixing who we are, but by letting go of needing to be anyone at all.

We don’t need to erase the self; we need to stop clinging to it. And in that simple release, we return to life as it is: open, fluid, and beautifully free.

-Thich Nhat Hanh