I suppose you can think of ego and identity as synonymous. I do not. I choose a working definition for ego ... fear-based thinking. I avoid fear-based thinking and I do not fall to suffering. I see identity as being layered and evolving. Who I am in one moment ... as a person ... is not the same the next, and as such I spend very little time worrying (fear-based thinking) about who I am. What is ever-changing cannot be defined (Taoism); so there is no point in trying to. I exist outside of thinking too ... as a consciousness. The essence of consciousness when free of thinking/narrative also cannot be defined but it most certainly exists. The energy sensed by that consciousness changes too. If we accept not-knowing who or what we are ... remember, we change ... we stop trying to define ... the depth and richness of our experience increases. Accept you do NOT know who you are and experience it better.