I appreciate this post and your insight. I didn’t figure most of the stuff out until I was in my mid 50s. I spent years a slave to the hidden agenda of my ego.

A simple teaching that is difficult to practice. The mind’s default position is to judge others while diligently deflecting judgment and avoiding any personal responsibility. When things go “wrong”, which, by definition is something turning out differently than the way the mind/ego wants, then excuses must be offered up, and the ego strives to convince anyone who will listen that they are a victim. Until a person becomes committed to a radical acceptance of everything that occurs, and takes personal responsibility for it, they are not being authentic, and they are being driven by the hidden motivations of the self-serving ego.