Perhaps there is a difference between having an ego and being egotisical?
The relative definitions of ego from the waking state are boxed in belief and opinion.
Being egotistic in some peoples minds is being self absorbed in ones personality, reverence for ones personal accomplishments, aquaintances, name dropping to give value to ones status. Self idolatry.
From the standpoint of conscious awareness and enlightenment the ego is what separates the absolute unmanifest potential from the manifest.
When speaking of ego regarding enlightenment, (generally speaking) the term is indicating that awareness is saturated in beliefs and opinions of the manifest as it is interpreted through personality. Stored memories and attachments to the personal experience limiting awareness of reality to belief and personal opinion.
I am God, you are God, we all are God etc.etc. The personal relates to God through the personal experience.
From intellectual discrimination in expanding consciousness, awareness becomes aware of awareness itself which is part and parcel to everything and everyone.
The personal is seen as extremely small when compared to the absolute. From that experience it is difficult to linger or continue to grasp onto ones own beliefs as awareness of greater mind emerges and awareness becomes cognizant of itself as universal mind. From universal mind anything can be known about the universe. There are no limits to experience and to desire.
Fulfillment is no longer idealized within the limits of opinion and filters of belief. Fulfillment is found within the extending limitless awareness of everything being perfect as it is.
The intellect immersed in ego narrows the unlimited potential into personal experiences, fear, destruction, chaos, feelings and duality of mind in the beliefs of good and evil.
The knower and the known become limited by the known so the knower is unaware of its potential to know itself. The known is seen as the knower tucked between two points that are birth and death, experiencing everything in between but nothing beyond, forgetting the knower before birth of the body and the knower after death of the body.
