Holger: What does Sal say…
“Without the sense of agency / personal-doership
there is no ego”?
How does he define ego, what is ego?

NotebookLM:

In Salvadore Poe’s teaching, the sense of agency and ego are inseparable; he states that “the idea of agency itself is ego,” and if that idea is gone, ego is gone. He defines ego not as a permanent entity, but as a misplaced idea or a “movement of mind” that claims to be the central controller or creator of life’s spontaneous flow.

According to the sources, Sal defines ego through several key concepts:

• The Idea of Doership: Ego is the mistaken belief that there is a “central figure” making choices or creating thoughts, when in reality, life moves on its own.
• The Need to Understand: He asserts that the drive to philosophically or spiritually “figure things out” is not something the ego has, but is what the ego is.
• The “Rising I”: Ego is the “rising” of being that attaches itself to attributes like a name, a body, a history, or opinions, thereby creating a sense of division and separation from the whole.
• A Habitual “Me Story”: It is a “carousel” of programmed information and personal history that requires constant effort to maintain.

Ultimately, Sal suggests that ego is merely an “add-on” to pure being. When you take a “holiday” by stopping the pursuit of these mental movements, you recognize yourself as “unborn” timeless being, which is already free of the separate self.