Ego is not simply fear, although there's a relationship. The organism is naturally "wired for fear" by its structure -- we have fight-or-flight instincts which help us survive in dangerous situations, and a completely egoless person (should such a mutation ever occur!:) would be well advised to let fear have its say when a bear is chasing them. Ego is the mind's self-generated ideas of personal identity. These are produced in ignorance, which is simply to say that there is no such thing as fixed personal identity, so to create one and attempt to make it persist is a kind of ignorance. Without ego, the mind must contend with a disturbing sense of vertigo... a lack of a fixed identity to serve as a reference point and central 'hub' to organize its thoughts and perceptions. So in a sense, ego solves the problem of the anxiety generated by this wide-open lack of focus, by giving the mind something to turn into priority #1. Once the ego comes into being, new kinds of fears come into being as well -- those things which potentially threaten the ego. Interestingly, the mind/body system will react to ego-threats with pretty much the same physiological and psychological reactions that are used for physical threats, even though a threat to the ego cannot be truly considered life-threatening. Thus it is that the ego comes to dominate the mind's resources... eventually restricting the creative power of the mind, its ability to extend compassion widely, and its capacity to merge its various sources of information and experience into a coherent whole.

say no to pleasuring yourself, with sugar, caffeen, recreational drugs, masturbation, alcohol...and what ever else you do to have fun...like this site. commit yourself to learn a new skill, like cooking, or carpentry, or running a marathon. focus. focusing is the way to conqueor the ego.

Kafke thought that the meaning of life was that it ended. Camus argued that the first question of philosophy was whether or not to commit suicide... The best way to subdue the ego is to assassinate it! However, as an Industrial Designer of long standing, I have learned that if one can't hide something, one ought to make a feature of it! The egregious subduction of ego is socially chilling, and leads to a death-like pallor. Ironically, publicly asking for advice about the best way to "subdue the ego" seems, to me anyway, to be tragically egocentric. Just me maybe...