Ego is built on social rewards and physiological pleasures. It is then torn down by punishment and pain, and searches the mechanical view for ‘excuses.’ But there is an organ that observes this. What would that be if not a self behind the Ego? It is not revealed by inspection so much as it is what remains by default of both that inspection and the object of the inspection. Neither reward nor pleasure, certainly not punishment, and not exactly pain -- all education of the underlying Self is de-frustration.

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