The ego cannot be found...

Uncertainties, doubts and fears are natural to everyone until the Self is
realised. They are inseparable from the ego, rather they are the ego.

D.: How are they to disappear?

M.: They are the ego. If the ego goes they go with it. The ego is itself
unreal. What is the ego? Enquire. The body is insentient and cannot
say ‘I’ . The Self is pure consciousness and non-dual. It cannot say ‘I’
. No one says, ‘I’ in sleep. What is the ego then?

It is something
intermediate between the inert body and the Self. It has no locus
standing. If sought for it vanishes like a ghost. You see, a man imagines
that there is something by his side in darkness; it may be some dark
object.

If he looks closely the ghost is not to be seen, but some dark
object which he could identify as a tree or a post, etc. If he does not
look closely the ghost strikes terror in the person. All that is required
is only to look closely and the ghost vanishes. The ghost was never
there.

So also with the ego. It is an intangible link between the body
and Pure Consciousness. It is not real. So long as one does not look
closely it continues to give trouble. But when one looks for it, it is
found not to exist.

from Talks with Ramana