Quotes taken from http://www.tricycle.com/special-section/what-does-being-a-buddhist-mean-you?offer=dharma
RE: When
you speak of letting go of the Ego, What is the “EGO” that you are
talking about letting go of?
Sharon
Salzberg
Vipassana
Teacher and Co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre,
Massachusetts
"There
is no 'thing' to let go of, but a concept, an idea of an ego that
burdens us. As soon as we posit a 'thing' to let go of, we're in
trouble. We need to change our view of reality, not attack a
nonexistent entity."
Surya
Das
Author,
Lama in the Nyingma and Kagyu lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, and
Founder of the Dzochen Foundation in Bloomfield, New
York
"Letting
go in the present moment of the present moment, not to mention the
past and future. Letting go of whatever is holding on. Total
openness, naturalness, relaxation implies letting go of everything,
totally, at once-in the now, in each instant, now and forever. A
surrender to the ultimate simplicity of just being, which is prior
to and more fundamental than all forms of doing. So let go of all
concepts, including those of clinging and letting go."
Joseph
Goldstein
Vipassana Teacher,
Author, and Cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre,
Massachusetts
"It's
really not a question of letting go of the ego. We simply need to
stop creating it, stop identifying with passing phenomena. As Wei
Wu Wei said, 'We're like a dog barking up a tree that isn't there.'
When we see there's no tree, we can finally stop
barking."
Robert
Thurman
Jey
Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo- Tibetan Studies at Columbia
University, New York City
"The
habitual assumption of the individual, self-sufficient,
intrinsically identifiable'I' which we have assumed to exist from
beginningless time. The key to the meditations on selflessness,
emptiness, and so on, however, is not to jump into them right away,
but to look carefully at what is this 'assumed I.' What is the self
that the self-habit holds? Observe the self for a long time before
trying to negate it. In the Tibetan tradition, they speak of
developing a fragment of consciousness, a spy consciousness, that
observes the self from the corner, as it were. The best time to see
this'!, is said to be in a state of injured innocence, when you are
indignant, when you feel that you have been wronged. The thought:
'I am right. . . this has been done to me!' contains the firm
feeling, the hard nut of the self. "The key, again, in the Buddhist
sense, is not dissolving but developing the ego into a more
flexible and permeable ego. This is considered a strong ego,
capable of both surrender and function. The weak ego is the rigid,
defensive one."
Dai-En
Bennage
Head
Teacher, Mt. Equity Zendo Muncy, Pennsylvania
"Ouch."
Susan
Augenstein
Meditation Teacher in the
Zen and Vipassana traditions New York City
"I don't talk about letting go of the ego. I feel that along with
everything else, there is nothing to let go of. The one who lets go
is the one who holds on. The idea that it is better to let go than
to hold on is wrong. In that sense there is no ego, no self. On the
absolute level nothing exists: it is holding everything always in
potentiality, but these potentialities keep manifesting in many
different vibrations. On that relative level where we are that
manifestation or appearance, there is this feeling of cohesion or
continuity. On that level, this could be seen as the ego, a
commitment to that form expressing itself fully until its
disappearance, which is our dedication to being the expression of
absolute reality that we are, and then there is no problem. If
anyone asks you who you are, you have to say this absolute reality
and 'Jane' or whoever; if you forget the absolute reality or if you
forget the 'Jane,' you've missed the point."
Sunyana
Graef
Head
Teacher, Vermont Zen Center, Shelburne, Vermont
"In a
sense nothing, since ego doesn't really exist; but in another sense
it means letting go of all those small self-centered thoughts,
actions, desires, attachments, and so forth that cause pain to
others and ourselves. For example, letting go of negative feelings
before they have a chance to pollute the body-mind. Practice in
this sense is a constant process of letting go."
Shinzen
Young
Vipassana
Teacher and Co-founder of the Vipassana Support Institute, Los
Angeles, California
"Through
consistent practice we develop the skill of mindfulness, which
allows us to detect with great precision the often subtle
self-referential ideas and body sensations as they arise in each
act of perception. We also develop equanimity so that we can allow
these ideas and body sensations to expand and contract without
suppression, interference, or clinging. Eventually, contact with
the sense of self becomes so continuous that there is no time left
to congeal or fixate it. The self then becomes clarified in the
sense that it is no longer experienced as an opaque, rigid,
ever-present entity, but rather as a transparent, elastic,
vibratory activity. It loses 'thingness.' We realize that it is a
verb, not a noun; a wave, not a particle. According to this
paradigm, what is let go of is the unconsciousness and 'holding'
associated with those ideas and body sensations which produce a
sense of self. The sense of self becomes a home rather than a
prison. You can come and go freely."
