The self is not the ego

Buddhists should never equate self or atman with the modern Western concept of ego. The two are unrelated. Ego aims towards the psychologicalatman, used in religious texts, is always spiritual and transcendent.

Here are some examples of how ego is used in the West: reason and circumspection (Freud); a center for selfishness (popular speech); something to strengthen (ego psychology); something to get rid of (cultism); the organizing center of wholeness (Blanck and Blanck); the fundamental cause of fragmentation (neognostic psychology); the small self as opposed to the higher self (Jung).

If there is an ego in Buddhism it is the satkaya, or more precisely, satkya-drsti (P., sakkaya-ditthi). This is the belief or view (drsti) that my self or atman is the Five Aggregates or the same, the psychophysical organism (satkaya). Of each aggregate one firmly believes, etam mama, eso ham asmi, eso me att (this is mine, I am this, this is my self).

Under this light, the Buddha taught against satkaya or the aggregated (skandha) ego. He taught of each aggregate this is not mine, I am not this, and this is not my self or atman. He wanted his followers not to identify with the finite aggregates but with the transcendent, i.e,. their true self.