About Self-Pride

By a practitioner from China

(Clearwisdom.net) People often say, "This person has too much self-pride and can't take criticism." A person with this mentality will become angry and lose their temper if criticized. The attachment is rooted in excessive self-pride.

Even for ordinary people, too much self-pride is not a good thing. Excessive self-pride is often seen when dealing with adversity, with the person not having a good mental attitude in adverse situations, and being unable to face these situations with a calm mind. They consider life unfair, and in order to protect themselves from the fear of being looked down upon, they lock themselves up in a shell. They are jealous of others who are successful or strong, and jealous of other people's good lives. It's an abnormal state of mind, consisting of self-abasement and self-pride, which ordinary people also consider unhealthy. It is actually a selfish mentality caused by their hurt sentiments.

When someone unconsciously touches this everyday person's self-pride, the person feels hurt and often carries a grievance. They may even become angry, hurt others, or do something irrational. In an extreme case, they may even lose their will to live, or commit crimes. This is how terrible excessive self-pride is. For cultivators, it is a strong attachment, a manifestation of demon nature, and the root of evilness.

"A wicked person is born of jealousy.
Out of selfishness and anger he complains about unfairness towards himself." ("Realms" from Essentials for Further Advancement)

We should thus eliminate the attachment of self-pride. Master told us,

"From this point on, whoever can't take criticism is not being diligent, whoever can't take criticism is not displaying the state of a cultivator, or at least on this issue." ("Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles")

We can see that the attachment of self-pride is a big hindrance on our path of cultivation, so we should see through it and eliminate it.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/6/18/180412.html

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