The ego lives everywhere except in the 'Now' moment. The ego cannot exist in the 'Now' because that is where pure Presence and all power resides. That is why the ego spends so much time and effort trying to get us to identify with the past- which no longer exists except as a thought form and hence has no real power over us,only that which we choose to let it, and the future which has not arrived yet and when it does it will be the 'Now' moment.The ego does not want us to live in the present because it is afraid that we will come to realize our true essence and the need for it to control our life will no longer exist.

Yes that does seem so, I agree. The ego is all about the small self the one associated with the identity and the name assigned to that body and personality. As long as things are experienced as having personal meaning to that ego self that becomes like claws stuck in our selves, linking us to that event. We look back and feel I wish things would be like that again, or why did this have to happen to me 20 years ago?

The other thing as you pointed out is the ego lives as well in the future, I'll have this, I'll be that, I will make things better for myself, I will be recognized and admired. I need to plan this out to make my life better etc... Again all all of this is about that ego self.

But to be in the present is to know nothing has meaning, everything just "IS" and we are here observing everything, not experiencing anything. Nothing is happening for us or to us we are just observing what is happening even if something is happening to our bodies it is observed instead of experienced, unattached observation. This is what living in the fully present state of mind is.

There was a Zen Koan it went like this.

Two boys were playing and one said to the other, "My Zen Master is the best." The other boy asks "why what makes your master so special?" The boy replied, "I can stand on one side of the stream holding a tablet of paper, and my master on the other with a pen. My master writes in the air and it appears on my paper!" The other boy says, "Ahhhh that is nothing." "My Zen Master when he eats he eats, when he sleeps he sleeps, when he walks he walks." With that the other boy was enlightened.