Our modern notion of egotism doesn’t present itself in the original teachings of the Buddha. The term, egotism is something that has been added to Buddhism, which seems to have been cobbled together from the older terms, selfishness and pride.
Perhaps a better grasp of egotism’s meaning would be to define it as the tendency to measure others and various ideas by one’s own subjective standards and idiosyncratic values. In the same framework, an egotist wants others to think the way they think. More importantly, they are not interested in the Buddha's spiritual teaching—quite the opposite.
The egotist’s subjective judgmental system may well be the main cause of evil and on a greater scale, macrosocial evil. In such a system, primitive fears and emotions govern, instead of reason and wisdom.
Consider, also, that empathy and compassion towards others may have no use for the dedicated egotist and an egotistical culture. Thus, a kind of paramorality can emerge which can justify anything from abusive child rearing, murder in the name of war, and other such horrors like the witch craze and the Holocaust.
Where, in fact, the idea of egotism fits in Buddhism is with those whose personality or character lacks a sense of deep compassion and the yearing to realize their Buddha-nature. The egotist is, in many respects, the worldling (prithagjana) who lacks proper knowledge and conduct to realize the luminous Mind which begins the career of the Bodhisattva.
Worth adding, the Parileyyaka Sutta (S.iii.97–9) covers the fact that the worldling regards the Five Aggregates to be their self (attâ/atma)—not otherwise in the understanding that they are not actually any of the Five Aggregates which are subject to clinging. In this respect, the egotist is the worldling who has made the aggregates their sole criteria. But according to the Buddha such criteria constitutes Mara the Evil One who is the arch enemy of the Buddhist. In a word, the worldling/egotist unknowingly works on behalf of evil until they enter the stream to nirvana.
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