Why Awareness identifies with Ego?
A common question on the origin of the ego
Question:
I see that the ego is a phantom entity like a ghost and does not really exist. Then, is it awareness that makes a mistake of identifying with it? Is there a part of awareness that gets cut off and hence makes the mistake of identifying with form and thoughts, and suffering begins? If yes, how could awareness make a mistake, since it is pure?
Answer:
This is a very common question that takes various forms, essentially asking about the origin of ego and thereby suffering. So it is very important to look at this question itself carefully rather than jumping to any answer. And the key thing to look at is, who is asking this question.
As you said, awareness is pure and untouched. So it has no questions. It simply shines as the light in which all projections come and go. Then who is asking the question? Clearly the ghost itself!
The ego puts up a question as to why the ego was created. A ghost asking a question as to why I exist!
Any answer will only feed the ghost for it to come back with another question soon because the ghost is imbued with a seeming reality by an answer. This is the trap.
Instead, if we see this clearly that the question itself is false because the questioner is a myth, then the question dissolves and the mythical questioner (the ghost) dissolves too.