Prophet Muhammad, The Cure d'Ars, Gampopa, Swami Sivananda, Sri Ramakrishna & Dame Gertrude More: On Pride
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Photo: A Tibetan Buddhist monk and his pupil. Both subjects hold prayer beads and bundles of "sutras," or scripture, in their laps.
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Whoever has in his heart even so much as a rice-grain of pride, cannot enter into Paradise.
(Prophet Muhammad ﷺ)
Humility is to the virtues what the chain is to the rosary: remove the chain, and all the beads escape: take away humility, and all the virtues diappear.
(The Cure d'Ars)
It is useless to have lived, even for a very long time, with a spiritual preceptor if one be lacking in humility and devotion and thus be unable to develop spiritually.
(Gampopa)
Just as worldly people glory in their riches, certain aspirants and sadhus are vain about their moral worth. This kind of pride constitutes a serious obstacle to spiritual realisation; it has to be completely extirpated. As long as a man is vain, he remains the minuscule and ordinary incarnation of a soul and cannot know the divinity.
(Swami Sivananda)
God cannot be realized if there is the slightest pride.
(Sri Ramakrishna)
Living in a religion (as I can speak by experience) if one is not in a right course of prayer and other exercises between God and our soul, one's nature groweth much worse than ever it would have been, if one had lived in the world. For pride and self-love, which are rooted in the soul by sin, find means to strength themselves exceedingly in religion, if the soul is not in a course that may teach her and procure her true humility. For by the corrections and contradictions of the will (which cannot be avoided by any living in a religious community) I find my heart grown, as I may say, as hard as a stone; and nothing would have been able to soften it but by being put into a course of prayer, by which the soul tendeth towards god and learneth of him the lesson of truly humbling herself.
(Dame Gertrude More)
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Recommended Reading:
'Mystery Of Individuality: Grandeur and Delusion of the Human Condition'
By Mark Perry (Author), William Stoddart (Author)
Purchase Book:
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Description:
This book explores the nature of human individuality through twelve chapter-mirrors, whose main focal points are spirituality, psychology, sociology and love and, also, the meaning of sacred art. The issues of leadership and justice, as well as of politics and even crime, are, also, examined in depth, along with the roles of sexuality and marriage. Finally, man and woman are defined in the context of both cosmology and society, with a special emphasis on the divine nature of a human being and what this entails morally and socially. Perry bases his assessments on the guiding image of archetypal man, namely of a being created in the image of God. At the same time, he does not shy away from addressing what the distortion of this archetype entails. He asserts that in creating man, God lent him his own immortal personhood, namely all that we find most lovable in another human creature, in other words his personality. But finally the question for each of us comes down to remembering our divine essence without forgetting our human nothingness.
'The Mystery of Individuality: Grandeur and Delusion of the Human Condition examines what distinguishes humans as individuals in twelve chapters that explore spirituality, psychology, sociology, love, and the appreciation of sacred art. Complex social issues including leadership, justice, politics, and crime are also discussed in relation to the essence of human beings as creations in the image of God. If God deliberately created humans with individual personalities, then are the unique traits of personhood part of our divine essence, even though our frames are destined to return to dust? The Mystery of Individuality is a thoughtful, contemplative, and complex work, especially recommended for spirituality shelves.'
(Midwest Book Review)
'Mystery Of Individuality: Grandeur and Delusion of the Human Condition'
By Mark Perry (Author), William Stoddart (Author)
Purchase Book:
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Description:
This book explores the nature of human individuality through twelve chapter-mirrors, whose main focal points are spirituality, psychology, sociology and love and, also, the meaning of sacred art. The issues of leadership and justice, as well as of politics and even crime, are, also, examined in depth, along with the roles of sexuality and marriage. Finally, man and woman are defined in the context of both cosmology and society, with a special emphasis on the divine nature of a human being and what this entails morally and socially. Perry bases his assessments on the guiding image of archetypal man, namely of a being created in the image of God. At the same time, he does not shy away from addressing what the distortion of this archetype entails. He asserts that in creating man, God lent him his own immortal personhood, namely all that we find most lovable in another human creature, in other words his personality. But finally the question for each of us comes down to remembering our divine essence without forgetting our human nothingness.
'The Mystery of Individuality: Grandeur and Delusion of the Human Condition examines what distinguishes humans as individuals in twelve chapters that explore spirituality, psychology, sociology, love, and the appreciation of sacred art. Complex social issues including leadership, justice, politics, and crime are also discussed in relation to the essence of human beings as creations in the image of God. If God deliberately created humans with individual personalities, then are the unique traits of personhood part of our divine essence, even though our frames are destined to return to dust? The Mystery of Individuality is a thoughtful, contemplative, and complex work, especially recommended for spirituality shelves.'
(Midwest Book Review)
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