Ego, Latin for “I”, names the self-centred identity built from memory, desire and fear. Psychology treats a healthy ego as necessary; the contemplative traditions add that it is not ultimate and that its grip is the root of suffering. Indian thought calls it ahaṅkāra, Sikh teaching haumai, Sufism the lower self.
Ego
The sense of being a separate “I”, which contemplative traditions seek to see through or surrender.