The two sides of Ego

The ego — the sense of “I” and “mine” — often presents itself in two seemingly opposite forms: inflation and diminishment. Both are rooted in the same fundamental misunderstanding: the belief in a fixed, separate self that must either be elevated or devalued.

On one side, the ego inflates itself through pride, superiority, achievement, or spiritual attainment. It asserts control, seeks recognition, and constructs elaborate narratives of personal significance. This grandiosity serves to defend against the underlying fragility of the self-image, creating a constant need for validation and accomplishment.

On the other side, the ego diminishes itself through self-criticism, unworthiness, guilt, or inferiority. Here, the self-concept contracts rather than expands, but still revolves around the same fixation on identity. Even self-hatred maintains the illusion of a solid self at its center — one that fails, falls short, or is fundamentally flawed.

Both expressions are forms of grasping. Both perpetuate suffering by reinforcing identification with mental constructs. The spiritual path does not involve strengthening the positive side or eliminating the negative, but transcending both through insight into the emptiness of selfhood itself.

When seen clearly, the ego’s two faces dissolve together. What remains is not a superior or inferior self, but the spacious freedom of non-identification — a mind no longer fixated on itself, open to reality as it is.

“Both pride and self-loathing are but two masks worn by the same delusion.”
— Chögyam Trungpa