What is the Ego? What is the Concept of Attachment to the Ego?
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Chapter1. What Is the Ego?
Chapter 2. The Ego Is Merely a NonExistent Idea
Chapter 3. How Is the Ego Formed?
Chapter 4. All Ego Clinging Is Ignorance
Artists, mystics, dreamers, and visionaries get trapped here. They attempt to create a utopian society in this world. The word ‘utopian’ is beautiful, meaning something that never happens. It always looms but never materializes; it’s always there but never here. Yet, there are those moon gazers, eyes fixed on the distant horizon, their minds lost in dreams. Great poets, visionaries their egos are caught in the unformed. There are also those who wish to unite with God; they are the mystics. Remember, ‘formation’ is the key word for the seventh gate, and it’s the final gate of the ego. The ripest ego arrives here. That’s why you’ll find a poet, for instance they might have nothing, might be a beggar, but in their eyes, on their nose, you’ll see a big ego. A mystic might have renounced the world and might be sitting in a cave, in the Himalayan silence. You go there and look at him: He might kiss your feet, but he wants to show off, “Do you see how humble I am?”

There are seven gates. The ego is complete when all these seven gates have been passed through; that ripe ego can fall at any moment. The child stands before these seven egos, while Buddha has left these seven egos behind. It’s a full circle. You might ask, “What’s the difference between the emptiness of a child before the ego forms and the awakened innocence of a Buddha?”
Here’s the difference: Buddha has gone through all these seven egos seen them, examined them, seen that they are all illusions; He has come home, and once again has become a child. This is the meaning of Jesus Christ's words, “Unless you become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of Heaven.”