To keep things interesting, and to incorporate a "Zen flavour" into this edition, I'll be talking about this topic in strictly 20 bullet points that can be read in any order. Think of these are Threads (or Sutras as rightly described in Sanskrit). Delving deeply into each of these points, not just intellectually, but with your complete involvement, is what I recommend.
The original teaching of "Industrial Strength Ego" is something I learnt from Shinzen Young. Well, he just mentioned it in one of his talks and I understood what he meant instantly. I guess that's the magic of Zen. However, since the teaching was first transmitted to me, it has been constantly evolved and refined through my Mindfulness practice. At this point, I think it's worthy of sharing with the world.
I've been told that my writing is too verbose, so I've decided to keep this article compact, yet expansive and detailed.
Avoid reading the lines "literally" , rather internalize the essence.
- The problem isn't with the ego, the problem is a fragile ego, one that is solid, coagulated and cannot adapt to changing situations and people in life.
- Even the most enlightened person this planet has an ego. An ego is necessary for survival and to conduct yourself in society in a healthy way — a healthy, industrial strength helps you represent yourself in the best way possible.
- Spirituality isn't about "destroying" the ego, it's about learning to understand it's inner workings. To understand how the ego comes into existence, functions and ceases (ends) is the entire point. With this knowledge, it's your choice whether to have an ego or not and the kind of characteristics the ego should have.
- Ego-driven activities aren't bad if they're motivated by a larger purpose (of love and service).
- An industrial strength ego gives you a thick skin. You're not indifferent to feedback or criticism, you know what to accept, and what to discard, and how not to take subjective views or opinions personally. This is a powerful tool, both, in your personal and professional life.
- The ego (or egos) is / are created by desire. Just like a flame requires coal to burn, desire serves as the fuel for an ego to function.
- This does not imply that an absence of desire is an absence of ego. An ego can come into existence (from the void) due to several different conditions which is your assignment to observe, understand and figure out.
- A healthy ego or industrial strength ego has the foundation of beneficial habits. It's important to understand that "beneficial" can be subjective. One man's food is another man's poison.
- A fragile ego makes it difficult to deal with challenges. An industrial strength ego helps you navigate rocky terrain with ease, grace, and effortlessness (with a little effort at the beginning). The Zen bounce (google / chatgpt it), in some way helps in re-structuring the ego framework to be more reliable in the long-term.
- Mindfulness meditation transforms the ego from a solid one to a flowing one.
- The ego isn't fixed or static, it's constantly changing. Watching how it changes can teach you a lot about yourself. This is one of the features of Vipassana practise.
- The ego is not your identity but there can be some overlap. The identity resides few levels of abstraction above the ego. In terms of a tech perspective, the ego is a low-level system and identity is a high-level (psychological) system.
- For the untrained person, the ego and it's fluctuations is largely unnoticed.
- Mindfulness Meditation reduces the perceived "thingness" of the ego and shows you the "activity" called ego. It was always that way, Mindfulness just makes you see it clearly, without distortion. This causes a noticeable shift in one's perception.
- You can have multiple ego's and as long as you take care of your mental health and psychological and emotional needs, they can all co-exist without conflict.
- Multiple, industrial strength egos can be put to several useful purposes in the world. For instance, you could have a "musician ego" which unlocks musical prowess, and a "communication ego" which helps you interact with people better. Once you understand the mechanics of the ego, you see them as pluggable frameworks in your software (mind).
- Developing an industrial strength ego takes time, patience, energy and dedication.
- An industrial strength ego frees you from the clutches of pettiness and comparison. You're always secure and balanced when your ego enters a state of "industrial strength".
- Don't fight the ego, let it simply happen — watch it, drop into spontaneity.
- An industrial strength ego improves interpersonal interactions and human relationships because it makes communication more objective and empathetic.
Feel free to dive deeper into each of these points. The goal was to not give you something easy to understand, but something to ponder upon! As my Zen-inspired teaching goes;
I’m passionate about building and contributing to Open Source Software— explore my GitHub and see what I’m working on! ✨
On Instagram (@adityapatange), I share a mix of tech, meditation, startups, and hip-hop—because why choose just one? ⚡️
Looking for quick, impactful insights? Follow me on Threads, where I drop byte-sized wisdom to power up your day! 💡
Interested in Tech? Subscribe to The Hackers Playbook.
