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Originally Posted by Honza
What is the spiritual significance of Pride? It holds an important role in the Old Testament, it is considered the cardinal sin by the Christians, the East suspiciously avoids mentioning it (correct me if I'm mistaken) or ropes it in with ego and thus underestimates it.
How do you understand it? To me it is a BIG issue. It lies at the crux of spiritual reality. I will wait till I hear what you have to say before I say more.
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I once had a Christian teacher or guru who said my greatest weakness was Pride and then showed me my Pride, a small, dark, unhappy, childlike being within me that I took to be my nasty, little, unhappy EGO. Pride seemed so sad and hurt that I wanted to go down to him/it and comfort it but the Christian sage said, "Don't go down there with him, stay up here with us." (Him and his other Christian followers) It was so much nicer up there with them so I turned my back on Pride to stay up there where it was so wonderful and happy. Later, Pride became extremely angry and hurt but I didn't realize at the time that Pride would not simply leave or die, as the Christian said it would, and then many years later, I finally had to enter therapy to deal with Pride (the ego) and HELP it overcome it's unbelievably intense RAGE and PAIN! I guess that Christian guy never realized that Pride cannot simply be KILLED or IGNORED.
I can't say that I've mastered Pride or fixed anything but I sure feel better these days after working with and helping Pride rather than ignoring or expecting it to DIE. If Pride represents all the unhealed, emotional wounds and anger from my rotten past, working with it has helped me way more than trying to stay up there with the enlightened ones, in the clouds, while ignoring my very damaged Pride down there. Psychology, more than spirituality, showed me that unhealed wounds cannot and should not simply be ignored or denied like much of spirituality teaches folks. Pride can and will kick us in the *** if we stupidly believe we can just IGNORE IT!
IMO, everything in creation, including Pride, matters and had a significant place. I suppose the key is to understand things rather than assume stuff, like Pride, is bad, evil, unnecessary and EXPENDABLE. It must be here for a reason, otherwise, it wouldn't be here! That's my take on Pride - for now.
