If you're looking at Buddhism, Nichiren Buddhism is awesome. It's a very simple, modern look at Buddhism. It's changed my life in sooooo many ways. Check it out, if you like: http://www.sgi-usa.org
i have a question that i don't even know if its a good question or a silly one. but do we ever get old enough and wise enough to escape being made fools of by our egos? i've heard about the two old monks and the roar of the tiger for one and the word tiger written on his chair for the other, but i'm not so sure that so much answers as asks it.
I think that as long as there is an ego, at times, there is a fool. I am very young in a practice, but I sometimes see expressing wisdom like being on a diet. At each meal or instance of hunger an action/non action will occur, each time is an opportunity to stay on the diet or be a fool. Part of my practice, (but I am very lazy with it), is seeing that ego fosters illusion and it can be transcended.
Here is a very good article about The illusion of self.... Https://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-illusion-of-the-self2
Ego is the past in the form of conditioned memory manifesting as likes and dislikes, cravings and aversions. Thoughts of the future is also just a projection of the known past. In Awareness or Mindfulness, one is in the present moment and out of the grip of karma or habitual patterns stemming from the conditioned memory.
is that true - i find kind people who seem to realize they were assholes and did something, and assholes who were not kind kind people and did nothing - of ego, i just find words