Ego often gets in the way of learning because learning involves acquiring new skills and insights by opening yourself to the world. But ego is a form attachment to the world you have been used to, and so learning must involve a way of giving up the ego so that one's being can be enlarged to achieve a certain type of agreement with world. This does not mean that ego is not important. It means one should not be attached to it to the point of arrogance that makes one incapable of learning and enjoying the world as it is. Hence, the mark of a true master is the same as the mark of the most inexperienced beginner: humility and joy in learning as one attunes to others and the world...