Originally Posted by
audra 
IThe ego is a very necessary part of ourselves. It lives in this 3rd dimensional material realm, like our bodies do. It is a conventional truth. I am practicing accepting my ego (and now my alter-ego beast) as being parts of me that need a voice, need to be heard, need to be seen, need to be integrated into the whole by accepting all aspects of myself. How? Through awareness and observation and complete acceptance (yes that's hard) of ALL OF ME. (The seemingly negative aspects as well as the seemingly positive aspects
Thanks Audra, Great stuff
One of things that made it difficult to see past the illusion is the Hierarchy that can come about when we develop awareness of these states. When I would judge certain thoughts or urges as being part of something separate, its hard to escape a long held Dualist belief that there is something Better observing something dysfunctional. This is a common theme especially in Most Religions (for example the "the fallen" found in christianity). You can see this in some peoples interpretation of Neuroscience, when people who study the brain talk of areas of the brain influencing certain states, Many take a dualism view (usually a pseudo science misinterpretation) that addiction lies within certain areas of the brain, and when this is mapped onto the belief that addiction is a dysfunctional self and a true self is trying to break free, some people are left saying "see science shows that I am correct".
I am not sure but I may differ from your perspective in that I am a materialist , to me there is nothing other than the material, the idea of "waking up" in buddhist terms for me is to simply see things as they are, separate from my own constructed interpretation, this is not so much something I want to achieve but an attitude that helps me live as much as a rich and robust life as possible, there are plenty of things in my life that I construct to negotiate living and many times those things escape my awareness until something "falls apart" then I try curious and mindful questioning techniques to see that construction and most of the value for me is that simple observation not really an attempt to find a solution. sorry about the waffle (its hard to explain this stuff sometimes)