Is pride preventing you from growing spiritually?

The reason why some people are in trouble is because they have major character flaws. Failures occur because of pride, theft, unregulated chaotic emotions, and insistence on supporting ridiculous statements and positions.

Let’s look at pride. Pride is an obstacle to spiritual growth. It is a manifestation of inaccurate perception and incorrect expression and shows a lack of self-esteem. However, there are two forms of pride – positive and negative.

Do you have positive pride?

Positive pride is what we feel after doing a good job. It is normal to feel good about our accomplishments. In fact, it is healthy and necessary. By recognizing our good points, we become humble because we recognize our abilities. It also draws our attention to the things we cannot do, and so we work toward self-improvement.

Is negative pride causing you to belittle others?

Negative pride is when we despise others. It is negative pride that prevents us from growing spiritually. If we cannot get rid of it, we cannot make progress. With negative pride, there is a tendency to think that we can do everything; perhaps you have noticed some people who always surpass the accomplishments of others, or who always seem to know more and say they can do everything better. When people do this continuously, it is usually a way of identifying negative pride.

Negative pride is born as a result of inaccurate perception. This shows a lack of healthy self-esteem. Highly intelligent people have a tendency to develop pride. It is important to identify these warning signs and work on ourselves.

Are you better than everyone else?

Envy is an emotion that is linked to pride. When someone is envious, he cannot tolerate others being better than him. They have to buy something bigger or go on a more expensive vacation. Envy makes a person devalue others around him.

Master Choa very specifically said to be “extremely ruthless” with himself in eliminating pride. One of the best ways to do this is to develop humility. People who are humble usually have good self-esteem – they know their strengths and also their weaknesses. They understand that it is not possible for them to be universally good at everything. Therefore, they appreciate others as well as their own abilities. In fact, Master Choa goes on to say that “Self-esteem and honesty equal humility.

Spiritually, there is only Unity

Buddhism, Sufism, and many other world masters have talked about a feeling of altruism. They talked about Spiritual Unity. The absence of pride and a sense of selflessness are often shown as one of the greatest achievements for true spiritual development.

With pride, there is a sense of separation. A feeling of me versus others. But spiritually, there is only unity, so there are no “others”. By ridding ourselves of pride, we allow ourselves to experience spiritual unity. In doing so, we grow spiritually.

Pride is useless. Throw it away.

References

1. Buddhist Quotes and Sayings. (n.d.). Retrieved from A View on Buddhism: http://viewonbuddhism.org/resources/buddhist_quotes.html

2. Master Choa Kok Sui. (2006). Creative Transformation, The Golden Lotus Sutras in Spiritual Practice. Publishing Institute for Inner Studies Foundation.

Text translated with permission from pranaword.net by CLAUDIA FLÖRICKE