Ego makes everything personal.

My life. My family. My home. My car. My job. My health. My death.

One way to look at the ego is as if it were a seemingly impenetrable wall, creating two sides. On the one side is what you refer to as "you" and, on the other, everything else that's "not you."

The ego is the root cause of separation, and so the root cause of the vast majority of pain and suffering in the world.

The ego is only concerned with itself. It is singularly concerned with its own preservation. This makes the overwhelming experience of life personal. My desire. My problems. My happiness. My sadness.

"I" always comes first.

The issue, of course, is that we are not our egos. We are only identified with them on the level of thought. We are dreaming to think there is separation between ourselves and everything else. We are dreaming to think our happiness can exist on a mountain of dysfunction. We are dreaming to think we can indefinitely keep our heads buried in the sand of ignorance.

More, we are soul—spiritual beings. Sooner or later, we start to rebel against the ego and its ways. Its concept of happiness begins to feel cheap. We tire of the incessant drama it creates. Most of all, we tire of the extremely limiting experience of life it offers.

We turn towards spirituality. Yoga. Meditation. Gurus. Paths of prayer and reflection.

Our soul knows what needs to be done. The wall of the ego must be destroyed to help us escape from the personal experience of life, and move towards the impersonal experience of life.

"I, me, and mine" does not exist in the impersonal experience of life.

I am me but I am also this tree, this rock, this bird. Separation ends.

With the end of separation comes the end of competition, escalation, and all manner of warfare.

Abiding peace relies on seeing the other in I and I in the other, no matter who or what the other is.