Which is worse?

It doesn't matter. They are both the same. You suffer either way.

 

At the point of understanding, the individual can let go. If he or she let's go, then understanding has done its job.

With each act of letting go, the ego or self becomes weaker. That is why those of us who have let go of many things, both crude and subtle, experience much peace, contenment and bliss in life whilst still having a (smaller) sense of ego. Yet the ego will eventually fall away, for there is only nothingness.

Nirvana, that is perpetual peace, bliss and compassion does suddenly happen from nowhere because the individual finally realises no self. Yet that "event" only occurs when the ground is already laid. The Buddha spent years letting go of much before finally abandoning the self altogether, the last event before enlightenment, not the first.

That explains why there are people who (claim) no conscious self and yet still admit to experiencing negative emotions such as envy, anger and resentment, the outcomes of ego. The ground has not been laid and much attachment and ego still reside in their unconscious. This is liberation but not enlightenment. And because those individuals now have a philsophy of nothing to do, the attachments still persist in their unconscious, which are proven to exist when a provocative event or statement comes their way.

Peace and love
Jnanic