Dear All,
Thanks for the sharing..
I’m just curious about being
prideful
It is not good to be
prideful?
Personally, i think it is nice
to feel happy that one accomplish something but not
necessarily one has to be proud of their
achievement.
A few disadvantages.
- Excessive pride leads to
arrogance.
- The Arrogance/show-off can damage
relationships with people.
- The excessive importance of
oneself.
- Not willing to compromise on the
matter
- Does too much pride leads to a
hollow and lonely emptiness among people?
- Do pride leads to suffering
eventually?
Dear Isis,
This is an impt question. I think many people underestimate the
defects of pride. It is one of the most potent pitfalls on
the path. The problem with pride is that it is hard to
detect. Compared to pride, jealousy, anger, desire are easier
to see. One has to have alot of self-awareness to detect it.
Shining the light inwards instead of outwards. It creeps into
many situations and pride/arrogance flashes on and off,
instead of being a really continuous thing.
In Tibetan sayings, it is said that the water of good qualities
cannot stay on the ball of pride, it will always flow off it.
No matter how hard one is practising, pride offsets alot of it and
is a huge obstacle. If one is cultivating merit, the attitude
of pride undermines greatly the merit one creates. If one is
learning from a teacher, pride is a great barrier to absorbing the
teachings thoroughly.
Pride is a function of ego and because of it, it is a direct
obstacle to realising egolessness. On the path, it is also
frequently a reason for people to stop learning, stop striving to
improve and develop further. It is also difficult for people
to take well-meant criticisms because of pride.
Pride is a huge demon or mara. It is something we have to keep
looking out for in ourselves. I know of a great master who
would scold anyone who praises him, because it is a possibility of
encouraging his pride to arise. Many practitioners along the
path who may have made some headway are destroyed by pride.
In history, this is commonplace.
Pride blocks compassion from arising. It blocks wisdom from
arising. It is the cause of the breaking of morality or
discipline. It can cause you to disregard the subtle workings
of cause-and-effect. One becomes reckless.
The sense of 'accomplishment' that u spoke of can become either
confidence or pride. It depends on how one treats it. If one
continuously dwells on it and uses it as a credential (even
mentally), if one's progress on the path then halts or slows down,
then it is definitely mutating into pride.
Just a sense of self-confidence is ok and helpful. But not
pride. One shd try to be mindful.
Hope my opinion helps.