Dear Editor,

There are many subtle but easily overlooked forms of ego that you may observe in other people and, more importantly, in yourself. Remember, the moment you become aware of the ego in yourself, that emerging awareness is who you are beyond ego, the deeper "I". The recognition of the false is already the arising of the real.

For example, you are about to tell someone the news of what happened. "Guess what? You don't know yet? Let me tell you."

If you are alert enough, present enough, you may be able to detect a momentary sense of satisfaction within yourself just before imparting the news, even if it is bad news. It is due to the fact that for a brief moment there is, in the eyes of the ego, an imbalance in your favour between you and the other person. For that brief moment, you know more than the other.

The satisfaction that you feel is of the ego, and it is derived from feeling a stronger sense of self relative to the other person. Even if he or she is the president or the Pope, you feel superior in that moment because you know more. Many people are addicted to gossiping partly for this reason.

In addition, gossiping often carries an element of malicious criticism and judgment of others, and so it also strengthens the ego through the implied but imagined moral superiority that is there whenever you apply a negative judgment to anyone. If someone has more, knows more, or can do more than I, the ego feels threatened because the feeling of "less" diminishes its imagined sense of self relative to the other.

It may then try to restore itself by somehow diminishing, criticizing, or belittling the value of the other person's possessions, knowledge, or abilities. Or the ego may shift its strategy, and instead of competing with the other person, it will enhance itself by association with that person, if he or she is important in the eyes of others.

Bernard Marks