The Egoless Monk

[mitd]

There is a person shrouded in myth, a legend, a meme spirit. He/She has transcended the body politic, risen through clouds of statesmanship upward to Nirvana, perfection of place, of humility, of serenity and of bliss. This person is 'The Egoless Monk'.

The Egoless Monk passes amongst us sometimes observing, sometimes touching us with wisdom, but never leaving a ripple in the pond. The Egoless Monk encourages change but never leaves evidence of change. He/she smiles upon the life path of others be those paths straight or crooked knowing that all directions lead to change and change is what binds the universe. The Egoless Monk embraces the opposite and holds is close for it is too easy to push away that which is not understood.

Recent events have got me thinking about why it is so hard for ones such as ourselves to become The Egoless Monk specifically within our own Perl Monk's community. The answers may lie in the normal human need for approval, or male hormone driven hunter instincts , or the fact we never got asked to play on the football team. Perhaps. I think it goes deeper than that, I think it goes to the core of what brings us to this community in the first place. Our magnetic north, the desire... no need to make a piece of technology do what we ask of it. The art form that is Computer Programming.

In the past Computer Programming was very elitist, if only for the cost of materials and training alone. Big iron, complex cryptic tools, the shear length of time to see meaningful results, they all factored in to making an art form for a select few with the means and the patience.

Then about 15 years ago things began to change, I needn't recite the entire history but through trial, perseverance, accident and miracle the art form has been made accesible to the masses and whole new generations of people could nurture the simple desire to make a piece of technology do what they want.

Some have embraced Perl as their tool of choice, some are drawing sketches to decide if the Perl pencil is right for them. They come here to seek out advice and camaraderie at all levels, whether they be deep in the catacombs of Perl's inner workings or simply want to print 'Hello Universe'. Some (many more than ever before) stay and become part of our community and that my friends may be the rub. These souls, once they decide to become a part of the whole, are quickly introduced to a system that seeks to temper and rank thier activities and the activities of the community around them. A simple model, needing only three things to be effective a plus(+), a minus(-) and a human ego to give it meaning.

Ego E"go, n. L., I. (Met.)
The conscious and permanent subject of all psychical
experiences, whether held to be directly known or the product
of reflective thought; -- opposed to non-ego.

I also add the way we rank, prioritize, and express this concious collective to the above. In fact it is this physical expression that usally gets ego its bad press and what seems at the core of 'trouble at the OK Corral.

Experience has suggested, to me at least, that ego is absolutely necessary to make good programming art. For without ego, without the collection of our concious experiences we could never decide which stroke of our brush is the right one. I very purposefully do not use the words skills, knowledge, talent or intelligence, no, the decision that this is the right line of code, accepting present knowledge and experience, is made with ego. Our collective concious dictates that this is the way otherwise we are lost in a never ending maze of options and alternatives.

A good programming artist starts with an abundance of ego and contiues as their experience grows, to feed and nuture ego. The strong ego gives us the self assurance to decide the way and publically defend that way. In fact it is others egos that are the primary foodstuffs of our ego. To much self feeding and our ego's become narrow and brittle. Too much feeding from others and the ego becomes expansive but lacking substance especially without a good dose of self reflection.

Every Monk who enters has, to one degree or another, the need to grow ego. They understand sub-conciously that it is imperative and for this need tp manifest itself like the desire for a cool mug of brew, or as the insatiable hunger of the alcholic, with behavior ranging from the reflective to inappropriate.

Does Perl Monks as a community nuture ego? Of course it does. Its quality check system demands it and there again the rub. Shooting pluses, minuses, rankings and classes at actively growing egos can be a dangeroeus undertaking. The ego can quickly turn from a facilator of community qualitiy to source of community discord.

You may feel that I am making an agrument AGAINST the Perl Monks XP and ranking system. I assure I am NOT. I beleve that it works that it does on the whole temper the content of the community. What troubles me is its side-effects when mixed with our need for ego.

So what is the answer? The answer is 'The Egoless Monk'!

Now you might say, 'hey MitD dude thats a contradiction how can we be egoless when we NEED ego to Perly do all day'.

Well you are right it is a contradiction which I will try to explain through the telling of my own personal experience.

There was a time in my life when my ego became blown out of all proportion. It started as a youngster and grew into my early adulthood. It eventually left me isolated, in pain and unhappy. I fortunatly had 2 friends who refused to let my ego push them away. They introduced to a man, a poet, an artist an Egoless Monk, who agreed to meet with once a week for a year. The following are a few brief pertinent things he taught me about ego.

Healthy ego is to intuitively know on YOUR own terms what is right and what is wrong for you and the world around you. This conciosness is so deeply ingrained that it requires no justification either internal or external. It is not grounded in man-made morality but in self-morality and it is your self-morality that must be fed by your experiences with the world.

The nuturing of Ego starts with 'ego defalation in depth', by self-refletion on the negative feedback from the world around you.

Ego feeds best when it is not at the concious level, thus it is always best to approach reality in an egoless state.

If you managed to dredge your way to this point you may think that this stuff is better left to philosphers, theologians or psychiatrists, I don't know. You may be right. But I do know that if we all tried to 'adjust' our ego's some the unhappiness expressed recently might go away.

I want to make one thing perfectly clear, I have the utmost respect for the people voicing their unhappiness with what they percieve as the downfall of Perl Monks but they are wrong. Perl Monks is alive and vibrant with new personalities, new egos and I like it and I have been here a long time.

My only wish is that we can all get a even a small glimpse of 'The Egoless Monk'

yours respectfully,

Peter G. Marshall

mitd-Made in the Dark
'My favourite colour appears to be grey.'

[Malkavian]

Personally, I'd just settle for the "Very Polite Monk", as, at the end of the day, the two would be almost indistinguishable...
I've no problems with people having huge egos; Just with them attempting to force that ego upon me. Politeness and etiquette are wonderful ways of having your cake and eating it (having a huge ego, but seeming like a meek and enlightened person).
Most monks, I think, seem to know that, which is why PM has been such a closely knit community.. The odd few flare ups have mainly been because people are, well, human.. Nobody can be perfect all the time.. But at least most try.. Which is as much, I think, as anyone can hope for.
If there were only a regex one could use to filter out impolite posts...

Malk

[earthboundmisfit]

This is something that goes far, far beyond PM and virtual communities. Jealousy, envy, depression: they all emanate from a fear of an egoless state. When we start peeling away the layers of the ego we inevitably enter a void, the selfless expanse of non-existence that knows neither form nor function. It's the realm of pure unknowing. It's the source of abject terror for all but the most enlightened.

Becoming egoless - stripping away the layers - is the first step. It's what you do after that that affects your overall happiness (or lack thereof).

It's only when you fill that void that you can grow. Some fill the void with constructive forces like God, Science, or Perl, others with destructive forces like rage, (drugs &| alcohol), depression, apathy; still others never fill the void at all and exist in an infantile state neither fully engaged in the world around them nor entirely able to escape its burdens.

Once the void is filled with positive forces, suddenly the world makes sense and miraculous things become possible. The trick is to find something lasting to fill the void and not something that you sleep off. IMHO, Love is the way.

Call it politeness or whatever, but it's about putting yourself in the shoes of the other and genuinely wanting them to thrive. In all aspects of my life, I'm trying to be the "egoless monk."

update clarified some of the enjambment of thoughts that resulted in trying to articulate this in the 10 minutes I had before a meeting.

[Sweeper]

There is a person shrouded in myth, a legend, a meme spirit. He/She has transcended the body politic, risen through clouds of statesmanship upward to Nirvana, perfection of place, of humility, of serenity and of bliss. This person is 'The Egoless Monk'.

You should say He/She/It. Do not forget the votebots, IRC-bots, foo-bots and such. :-)

[mitd]

A vote bot etc is just an extension of the ego that
created/runs it. Under Internatioanl convention it
inherits the gender of its masters ego.

Update Upon deeper reflection, I am willing to concede
that the ego could be genderized in the male,
the female or the id.

mitd-Made in the Dark
'My favourite colour appears to be grey.'