There is a constant belief that one needs to kill or destroy the ego on the journey to awakening. Much of my research and experience with practitioners pursuing ego death may be, still exploring this theory, but may actually be an egoic pursuit in of itself. Sort of like the Ego saying "Fine, if you don't need me, I'll take my toys and go home. See how much fun you have then." Often times when this happens, the ego can make a triumphant return later on and for some it gains control again. This happens when the practitioner forgets to put the ego in balance, to realize the ego is part of physical existence rather than our entire identity.
The ego is very much needed because what it does is create social boundaries for us. It helps us stand up for ourselves, saying "yes" and "no" in alignment with our energy aka self-assertion, it help us express ourselves in certain situations - self-confidence etc.
Ego's biggest tools are Fear and Classification. Fear is meant to protect us, and Classification is meant to help us understand our physical world. However these two tools are most often over-used by the Ego, they are the low hanging fruit because they are the first tools we come across when we are infants. The Ego uses fear to hide most things in the Shadow because it know you won't go near the emotion again. Classification is used by the ego to create a difference... us vs them, or hierarchies of order. They can be useful for physically identifying an object, but it becomes problematic when applying the concepts to the emotional state.
This is where the problem with the ego comes in, we aren't taught in school/society that not everything we think of, not everything we feel or come to believe is appropriate for our long term health. One can fool themselves emotionally very easily - which is why observation is a crucial technique when building awareness.
In the late 1800's everyone was very utilitarian, so unless something was physically useful it was pretty much shunned. (We pretty much had to because life was physically tough) So emotions took a back seat. From the 1960's onward the world has gone in a polar opposite direction - we are now told all emotions are valid, everything your thought form envisions is true. This has caused the ego to grow substantially - from the counter-culture movement in the 1960's to the viral depths of social media today. Even the supposed antidotes of social media, woke-ism and cancel culture have become overboard egoic pursuits in many instances (not all).
When the ego runs rampant, that's when the Shadow becomes a problem and grows. We repress things when certain emotions aren't socially acceptable or don't help us in the physical world. However, those emotions still need to be recognized. Ego is an important part of your physical being, but the trick is to make sure you de-couple it from your spiritual being. It is not who you are spiritually, the ego is simply part of your physical experience while you are present on the earth.
The Ego is the sixth of your seven senses, and part of the 2nd and 3rd layer of your aura. It is your “sense of emotional & mental self”. It is often ignored by medical science because it is not easily quantified, classified or measured.
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