Pride

It's the deep faith and confidence that one's own nature is not separate from Buddha nature.

Pema Chödrön wrote, quote, "When you find yourself slumping, that's the motivation to sit up." Not out of self-denigration, but actually out of pride.

Pride in who you are.

Pride in the goodness or the fairness or the worstness of yourself.

However you find yourself.

Some sort of sense of taking pride and using it to spur you on, unquote.

Back in 2020 I wrote that the development of true confidence requires the cultivation of enthusiasm for learning from mistakes, positive anticipation of discovering our mistakes which are critical opportunities for growth and development of understanding and indirectly for the cultivation of joy.

And I said something very similar to that last month when I gave a talk.

Chapter 11.

Disdain, Contempt, Disgust, Guilt, Pride, etc.

Helplessness, Patience, Affirmation and Negation.

Part 1. contempt, scorn, and disdain, variously expressed, derisive smile, gestures expressive of contempt, disgust, guilt, deceit, pride, etc., helplessness or impotence, patience, obstinacy, shrugging the shoulders common to most of the races of man, signs of affirmation and negation, scorn and disdain can hardly be distinguished from contempt excepting that they imply a rather more angry frame of mind nor can they be clearly distinguished from the feelings discussed in the last chapter under the terms of sneering and defiance Disgust is a sensation rather more distinct in its nature and refers to something revolting, primarily in relation to the sense of taste, as actually perceived or vividly imagined, and secondarily to anything which causes a similar feeling through the sense of smell, touch, and even of eyesight.

Humility can give others room to grow.

Pride cannot.

Pride has to protect itself.

Pride has to win.

Pride has to be right.

Pride has to be seen.

It has to be above correction.

Pride has to try to control the narrative.

You don't have to provide for yourself.

That's pride.

Pride.

I'm going to read the definition of pride.

It's this.

They don't even have this because I'm just going with the moment.

Pride is an attitude of the heart, come on, that exalts itself.

It's an attitude of the heart that resists the dependence upon and the submission to and correction from God.

That's the danger of pride.

And so this, you can see where...

Pride as its source then ruptures that natural relationship that we are to have with God, meaning God is the creator, we're the creature.

Pride rejects God's rule and being subjected to him.

And when you reject that, you create a disorder within yourself and with your neighbor.

Charity, supernatural charity, that virtue... is meant to order yourself rightly to God.

And charity, therefore, helps us to order our life and the things in our life, the people in our life, in an ordered, balanced way.

So that when I love God above all things through charity, I love myself rightly, but I also learn to love my neighbor rightly.

Because humility says, okay, God knows.

Pride says, I've got this.

Humility says, God, I need you.

Pride says, my way makes more sense.

You know, too many Christians make big decisions leaning on their own understanding.

And I've seen this over and over in areas like marriage, finances, vocation, and more.

Let me give you some examples from the book of Proverbs.

You've heard some of the famous ones, the soft answer turneth away a wrath, that's Proverbs 15, for example, or Pride goes before destruction.

I think that's the number one proverb I heard from my mother is pride goes before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall.

But the ones that have, let me give you the second principle is these proverbs have caused me to reflect deeper on gospel principles.