The ego is a dear friend. Accept it unconditionally.

The previous dump about the ego goes completely against everything I've observed about how to make myself and other people happy.

In my experience, the ego is not our enemy. The reason we hurt ourselves and others around us is very often caused by the wars we sometimes wage with ourselves. We find this part of ourselves that does not harmonize well with the rest of our being, and we decide to try and control it, not realizing that every part of our mind is not just something that is controlled, but also something that controls.