Acharya Prashant explains that the ego is indeed a condensed form of thoughts, a central node of memory. He uses the analogy of a circle, where the ego resides at the center. If this circle is constricted, the ego suffocates, which is why it constantly seeks to expand its domain by accumulating more things, experiences, and relationships. This is why we are always eager to fill our lives and find it difficult to let go of anything; it is a mechanism to provide life force to the ego, which wants to survive. The ego sustains itself through every object it can touch, experience, or think about. When all external objects are taken away, the ego's final subject becomes itself, a state he describes as "I-I." This is the ego's most unstable and final stage before its dissolution. Normally, the ego identifies with external things like the body, wealth, or status. The state of "I-I" is the ego in its purest form, just before it disappears. To overcome the ego, one must use the ego's own power against itself. The ego is its own enemy. The entire spiritual path is for the ultimate well-being of the ego, which paradoxically lies in its dissolution. Unlike worldly things that improve through growth and enrichment, the ego's betterment comes from its reduction and eventual erasure. The ego resists this because its only experience is of the material world, where growth is valued. The strength to fight the ego comes from the understanding that enduring hardship for the right cause is for one's own ultimate good. The path of progress is for those who are willing to endure suffering for the sake of truth, rather than chasing ordinary pleasures. Those who seek truth find both truth and an extraordinary joy.