“Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.” — Lao Tzu
The ego is what gives you your separate identity in the world. It’s the sense of “I” -ness.
The ego gives you the power to separate things out, to discriminate. This is a good thing but if you go too much in that direction it limits you. The world is very oriented this way– separate races, separate countries, nations, people.
“You relay yourself to another self to gain your personality.” –Yogi Bhajan
How you relate to the world determines your character. You need your ego to play this game on earth. It’s part of the rules of nature. Without the individual identity you couldn’t have the experience. So it’s perfectly fine to separate out and make judgements and discriminate between things. However, If you only separate though, you lose your identity. See the one flow in all things.
“Recognize that the other person is You.” –Yogi Bhajan
The best is when you can distinguish the difference in things and stay neutral. Really experience that there’s a unity there in all things.