I'm not very familiar with the Buddhist approach to ego.
But it seems to me that ego is not nearly the problem, in the orient, that it is in the west.
Even taoism has little to say about it, and I presume that when taoism was born, there simply wasn't enough ego around to notice.
It is a very modern madness, in that now, it is everywhere. You don't need to be very perceptive to notice this.
It is, however, the subject of my own intense study.
I've tried, for years, to distill down what ails society, to its core components.
Ego is right there at its heart.
It's a hard thing to grasp, in that anybody who tries, must first be able to recognize his own ego.
It's like a mechanism looking for a reason to exist. When really there is no need.
It's only apparent function is to present itself as powerful, strong, wise, clever, attractive...
I can see no useful purpose for it, at all, other than as a temporary stand-in for the failings of youth.
Once it gets the limelight, it does a Stalin, and can never step down.
Only a determined and concerted coup can oust it.
Once it is shown the door, though, it's like a blind man being suddenly able to see.
There really is a world, out there, beyond the mind, and it provides a multitude of experience that the mind can not.
This new world feeds, clothes, provides shelter, satisfaction, purpose, and communication with everything that exists.
That is why I promote ego-discipline.
It cures the madness of modernity.
It renders men sane.