Your Thoughts Do Not Create Your Reality, Stupid.

[zenmaster]

Ego used as a pejorative is simply one unaware of the all-self. Used in the universal sense of the single "I", the single awareness... Ego is not so bad when it doesn't deny parts of itself.

"ego" as the common pejorative connotation suggests is the direct byproduct of an unfortunate mistranslation from eastern teachings about the nature of the self. But westerns just took it for granted and ran with it, and still do.

The idea of imbalance is not "ego" as itself, but rather the dysfunctional relationship of self and ego. That is, that which the ego does (or can, or must do), not the ego itself is what we pathologize. If we saw a healthy ego, many would not tend to point out this ego (or I-ness), yet this would be a stronger, more developed, and more aware ego - go figure.