Ego prevents us hearing the Truth, from within as well as without. To reduce the ego we must humbly heed and yield to Great Teaching, and then work like crazy. Such work is liable to break us as well as our ego, kill us in fact. Only if we're very lucky will we be left with a few moments to really listen – plug in – to a level of reality that escapes ego. Ego allows us to survive the onslaught of the real, and mere survival satisfies most, but not us.