The Kidd and Friends Podcast | Self-Improvement and Mindset Insights · Christopher "KiDD" Perry

Ego Is an Illusion | Zen Master Thich Dieu Thien on Awakening, Meditation & Purpose

·1 hr 9 min·4 clips

The biggest ego trip is trying to get rid of an ego that “doesn’t exist.”

1. The Kidd and Friends Podcast episode centers on ego, awakening, meditation, and purpose with Master Thich Thieu Thien. 2. Chris hosts the discussion, and Master Thich Thieu Thien, founder of Universal Door Meditation Center in Sugar Land, Texas, brings the Buddhist framework. 3. The episode asks what it means to stop identifying with ego and live with “awakened mind.” 4. Chris opens with a poem about ego that says, “you cannot catch hold of it,” and says he has been having more moments of clarity. 5. He uses a gym-team example where a leader visited other locations without telling him, and he noticed his reaction instead of staying angry. 6. Thich Thieu Thien says that moment shows expectation, reaction, and the chance to let go. 7. Chris says the shift happens faster now than it used to, and he connects it to a “reset” in how he responds to people. 8. Thich Thieu Thien says people normally hold on to what they believe, but awakened mind lets them see beyond the voice in their head. 9. She says reaction creates negative thoughts and feelings, and that doubt in ego opens the door. 10. Chris describes helping a friend through divorce-related guilt and says answers now come out of him in conversations he never planned. 11. Thich Thieu Thien uses the image of the sun to explain that light makes things clear, while darkness and illusion create confusion. 12. Chris compares that to his sauna meditation, where he found that the less he tried, the easier it was to get clarity. 13. She says meditation has many forms, including sitting meditation, walking meditation, eating meditation, talking meditation, and interaction meditation. 14. She says basic meditation is the first level, and that deeper practice means recognizing who you truly are. 15. Chris says the biggest shift is realizing that ego cannot destroy ego, because only awakened mind can see it. 16. Thich Thieu Thien compares identity to snow, ice, and a glacier that melt when the sunrise shines on them. 17. The tone is conversational and reflective, with Chris asking long personal questions and Thich Thieu Thien answering in short, symbolic explanations. 18. The format mixes personal examples, spiritual teaching, and repeated metaphors such as sunrise, fog, darkness, and melting ice. 19. People interested in meditation, ego, and spiritual self-inquiry will probably listen closely. 20. Listeners wanting fast debate or non-spiritual content may skip it.

As heard by us

A third conversation treats ego as an illusion to notice in daily life, not a thing to hunt down and remove.

The episode approaches ego as something less like an object to catch and more like a habit of misrecognition. In this third conversation, the host brings Master Thich Thieu Thien a poem about an ego that cannot be grasped or gotten rid of, then follows her from basic meditation…

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Want to examine the ego, starting with a poem and leaving with a vow?

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