Where
does the ego come from? We can say the ego is a kind of personality,
a personal mental attitude. Where does the personality come from?
The personality is nothing great; it's not our original Self; nor
is it our 
enlightened
God Nature. It's just our personality, born from habits that are continuously
accumulated. Every time we're born, whether as a human, a wild animal,
a Heavenly being, a hell being, a domestic animal or a demon, we possess
certain habits. Each kind of being has its own particular habits and
they are all learned.
For
example, if we were tigers, of course, we'd be fierce. Every day we'd
hunt for food and kill animals. This is how we'd live in that lifetime.
Then if we were immediately reborn as a human after dying as a tiger,
traces of our vicious animal nature would remain. We'd have a violent
temper, love to devour meat and be very vicious. We wouldn't be easily
compatible with others or forgiving, and we'd enjoy squabbling and
always overdoing in trivial matters.
If
after our life as a tiger was over we were reborn as another kind
of animal, perhaps a more benign one like a lamb, of course, we'd
"baah" our way through life and be very benign. Even if
the tiger's qualities were still in the animal that we had become,
it would have little chance to manifest. We'd gradually forget them
and then this vicious nature would diminish. We'd stop killing and
eating meat. Our animal qualities and killing instinct would diminish.
If, after we left the body of the lamb we were reborn as another lamb,
we'd become even more benign and "baah" our way sweetly
through another life.
If
we were reborn as a human being after our life as a lamb had ended,
of course we'd look rather sheepish. We'd be very benign, and we wouldn't
look very awful. We'd be docile and easily controlled and we wouldn
get along with others! Our palate would be easily satisfied. We might
prefer to eat weeds, and go looking for leafy or wild vegetables.
Thus we can see that each person has his own distinct personality
since each collects different habits.
During
our incarnations as animals, should we die as a tiger and be reborn
repeatedly as another tiger or as some other fierce beast such as
a wolf or snake before we were finally reborn as a human, our qualities
would not be much different than that of a demon. That's why we find
that some people are very fierce for no reason, and communication
with them is almost impossible. It's because they've just transitioned
from the life of an animal and taken on a new body. They've been reborn
repeatedly as an animal, and very often, as a fierce beast. This isn't
coincidental. Otherwise, why isn't everyone reborn as an animal, while
continuing to be reborn as a fierce beast? It's probably because before
they took the animal form, they had incurred lots of bad karma, having
taken too many lives or been forced into the situation by destiny
and letting violence overtake them.
