○Ego [16]

     The ego is always seeking some kind of stimulation. If you get used to it, becoming no-minded feels boring. Then, the seriousness towards no-mindedness decreases, and you forget about it in three days. The commitment to no-mindedness tends to end in a three-day monk. Serious determination and long-term continuity are required.

    When you see something and it stays in your memory, you remember it at unexpected times. Even more so if it's easy to understand, easy to remember, or addictive. If you're always looking at it, you feel a sense of familiarity. If you are unconscious in a sudden thought, your body responds to that thought. Then you take actions like buying something or going somewhere. Advertising is an easy example.

    The ego develops science and technology to win competitions and gain profits. However, even if science advances, if human commitment to no-mindedness does not develop, it will lead to self-destruction.

    People suffer for fear of death, but they would still suffer from aging even if there was no death. When you think about it, your perspective on death changes.

    Material things will inevitably collapse someday. Houses, plants, bodies, the sun. The only thing that lasts forever in this world is consciousness.

    Leaves start off juicy and soft, then eventually dry up, harden, and fall. The human body is also juicy and soft when young, hardens and loses moisture as it ages, and finally dies. People who are honest, flexible, and positive have less influence from the ego and appear young, while those who are stubborn, unwilling to listen, and bound by fixed ideas have a strong ego. There are people who remain young at heart even in old age, and people who seem already old even when they're young.

    Babies, not knowing that a bee can sting, do not fear when a bee flies around them. Adults, knowing that bees can sting, which is painful and frightening, react defensively in an instant. This is a defensive reaction of the ego, a thought and behavior stemming from past memories. When a bee threatens to sting a baby, a mother will selflessly chase it away. This is an intuitive action arising from consciousness, from love.