Is Pride Stopping You From Growing Spiritually?

The reason some people are in big trouble is because they have big character flaws. Flaws occur because of pride, stealing, unregulated chaotic emotions, and insistence in supporting ridiculous statements and stands.

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 job well. It’s okay to feel good about our achievements. In fact, it’s healthy and necessary. By acknowledging our good points we become humble because we acknowledge our abilities. It also brings to our attention the things we can’t do, and so we work on self-improvement.

Is negative pride making you look down on others?

Negative pride is when we look down on others. It’s negative pride that prevents us from growing spiritually. If we cannot get rid of it, we cannot progress. With negative pride, there’s a tendency to think that we can do everything; perhaps you may have noticed some people who always one-up others’ accomplishments, or who always seem to know better, and say they can do everything better. When people do this continuously, it’s usually a way of identifying negative pride.

Negative pride is born as a result of inaccurate perception. It shows a lack of healthy self-esteem. People who are highly, highly intelligent have a tendency to develop pride. It’s important to identify these warning signs and work on ourselves.

Are you better than everyone else?

Envy is an emotion that is connected to pride. When someone is envious, they can’t stand others being better than them. They have to buy something bigger or go on a more expensive vacation. Envy makes a person devalue others around them.

Master Choa very specifically said to be “extremely ruthless” with oneself in eliminating pride. One of the best ways to do so is by developing humility. People who are humble normally have good self-esteem – they know their strengths as well as their weakness. They understand that it’s 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 self-honesty equal humility.”

Spiritually there is only Oneness

Buddhism, Sufism and many other world teachers have spoken about a sense of selflessness. They have spoken about Spiritual Oneness. The absence of pride and a sense of selflessness are often shown as one of the greatest achievements towards true spiritual development.

With pride, there’s a sense of separation. A feeling of Me vs Others. But spiritually, there’s only oneness, so there’s no ‘others’. By ridding ourselves of pride, we allow ourselves to experience the spiritual oneness. In doing so, we grow spiritually.

Pride is useless. Throw it away.

References

Buddhist Quotes and Sayings. (n.d.). Retrieved from A View on Buddhism: http://viewonbuddhism.org/resources/buddhist_quotes.html
Master Choa Kok Sui. (2006). Creative Transformation, The Golden Lotus Sutras on Spiritual Practice. Institute for Inner Studies Publishing Foundation.