Pride
_I: During the alignment yesterday, November 19th, when you told me to stay silent, I didn't quite understand what the point was. During the alignment I realized, I think at the same time as the people, that you were testing us in detachment.
_AM: There are things that we consider obvious in relation to detachment and attachment, thinking that it is clinging to an object, a place, a person, but no. Attachment only speaks of our need to feel secure in the bond with that object, place or person. As I told you, it is the expectation before them. Well, you don't cling to the external but to the internal emotion that its presence produces in you. Like a drug, what makes you addicted is the chemical reaction it produces in your body. No one is addicted to a drug just to have it in a bottle and look at it from time to time.
_I: It's true... It's all a matter of sensations.
_AM: And therefore, we become attached to waiting to feel these sensations in ourselves. At the end of the day, every attachment ends up being an expectation. And we must be very careful with this, because when we refer to the outside world, we usually do so based on what we expect from it, and not what it really is. We judge others according to our own perspectives and expectations of what is and is not right.
_I: It's like talking about politics and religion, they are delicate topics but easy to refer to and visualize when it comes to analyzing attachment and projection. However, in more everyday things like “be silent”, “respect”, “turn off the light if you are not in the room”, “lower the toilet lid”, these are things that seem silly or simple, but where the biggest lies. attachments.
_AM: Humans, like all others, are animals of habit. A habit is a predictable routine that gives security. Thus, the human mind is designed to foresee, it evolved in relation to expectation. Waiting for something to happen as I hope, believe, feel, intend, is a key to calm, security, confidence, peace.
_I: Like when we listen to a song, which is composed of moments of tension and resolution, if the song is stopped at a moment of tension, our mind will do its best to finish the next phrase by resolving the tension. It's almost impossible to control.
_AM: Therefore attachment is not only a matter of dependency, but a systematic, biological matter of human design. It is essential to recognize this to understand that we have attachments even to the smallest things...
_I: Yes, since yesterday's talk, I could see the hundreds of attachments that I have, from the silliest ones, like the fact that it makes me very nervous and bad when someone takes my pen when I am writing, in order to make notes on my own text. staining or crossing out, or touching with my finger the ink of the last thing I wrote. Thinking about it makes me incredibly uncomfortable. Reaching greater attachments, such as people I have loved and still love, believing that I need them to feel happy. In any case, I have put so much emphasis on working on the big attachments that when you showed me the small and daily ones, I realized that there lies the basis of all the others...
_AM: In your mind you design everything in a big way, visualizing the superior, when everything you see is based on small things. In physics, we can see this with any object. Your body, for example, you interpret as “a body,” and yet it is the product of billions and trillions of atomic and subatomic particles that support the larger image. Thus you understand that the greatness that you saw only exists thanks to small aspects that together make you up.
_I: It's true, we don't pay attention to the simplest and smallest things. Especially those who, like me, have so much Leo in the astrological chart... We are almost destined to look at everything with eyes of greatness and improvement. Many times in my life I fall into gigantism, depriving myself of small moments. And that's what I wanted to ask you about... The idea that our mind seeks the bigger image puts us in a place of superiority, of absolutism, and many times when expressing that vision I fear falling into the perception of conceit. As if he believed me more than others for talking about these things with ease. How does speaking of superior vision differ from pride?
_AM: Pride comes from the Latin word “superbus”, which is the adverb of “superior”.
_I: So you being conceptually “my Higher Self” could call you “Superbus Ego”, or “Superbus Self”.
_AM: Exactly.
_I: …So?
_AM: That. Simple… Superior Vision and Pride are synonyms.
_I: So, what do we mean when we talk about pride as one of the deadly sins?
_AM: We should not compare ourselves with God. Remember that for monotheistic religions, God is above all, he is the only one, the superior, the surpassing consciousness, the Supreme. No one can be above God or consider himself a god.
_I: Clearly for monotheistic visions, what we are doing here of recognizing that we are God, is a heresy. Well, we are putting God on our level or ourselves on His.
_AM: Well, all religious visions are based on a separatist vision of realities, and ignore the concept of unity as something physical and not purely conceptual. In the manners of the world of forms, they see separate bodies, separate natures, separate cosmoses, and they cannot perceive that the atoms that make up your body are the same ones that inhabit the stars like the Sun. The ancient vision of placing God in the Heavens, caused God to be positioned as the King over the Palace, or the Feudal Lord over the castle. That is why God is called “the Lord” and we are his subjects. But from the real worldview, there is no superior being, only visions from different heights. The closer you are to an object, you may know a lot about it, more than anyone else, but you lose your ability to see the bigger picture, the context of that object. It's like being an expert in literature but not knowing the origin of the words, the books, the history and not knowing the context of the writers. Or being an expert in medicine but not understanding the body as an extension of universal energy and vibration, that is, as a subjective object instead of a physical one. And at the same time, on the opposite side, seeing such a big image of things, a superior and transcendental worldview, that prevents you from knowing the details and specialties of the objects or subjects.
_I: I notice that the arrogance we usually refer to is considering that one's own vision is the assertive and most important one, disregarding the vision of the other.
_AM: Exactly. The problem is not a superior vision, the problem is considering my vision the only one, irrefutable and powerful over the others. He who on a beach considers that the most important thing is the grain of sand denying the beach, is a superb ignoramus. He who contemplates the greatness of the beach, disregarding every grain of sand, is a proud ignoramus. Pride is not a sin, the sin is being ignorant and using pride as a tool to boast about your ignorance. And remember that ignorance refers to not taking knowledge, to the denial of it. True Pride is found in the feet.
_I: Why on the feet?
_AM: Well, the true complement of true Pride is Humility. Humility comes from the word earth, “humus”, therefore it is the ability to be terrestrial. With your feet on the Earth. For a long time we have been led to believe that Humility is a synonym for Humiliate, which comes from the same root, but describes the action of bringing someone to their knees towards the ground, forcing, imposing someone to bow with their knees and hands on the ground. . Someone who is humiliated does not possess humility. But in the vision of the subjects (being “those who are given or placed below”: sub-datus), God is above and the others are “put under” Him, from the Latin: subjected. In the religious vision, Humility has been compared to submission, kneeling before the Lord, not questioning, having what is just and necessary, not exalting oneself, not raising one's voice, nor showing oneself more than one should, to keep under control, and do not show personal power. For centuries, this idea has permeated the culture, distorting the strength of the concept “Humility”, reducing it to a sense of bowing your head, lowering your voice, doubting and being afraid of appearing arrogant. What happens to you.
_I: I understand... But Humility is not kneeling and lowering your head, nor an obligation, but the strength of standing on the Earth, empowered as a human, recognizing the value I possess as an individual.
_AM: The Pride of being Humble.
_I: It seems contradictory.
_AM: What isn't? In a world of polarities, everything is contradictory. “Jesus washed the feet of his Disciples”; Did washing the feet of his disciples, his subjects and his traitors, prevent him from continuing to say that he was the Son of God?
_I: No… It would be what they call “the Humility of the Great.”
_AM: This concept refers to those who are not afraid to lean in, learn, question, be surprised, because they know who they are, they know what their true power and greatness is, and washing the feet of others does not make them less, but rather demonstrates their superiority. The Pride of the Ignorant is what you fear, what leads you to consider yourself better, wiser or more knowledgeable than others, what makes you believe that your vision is better, and that others do not know how to do it well. It is the arrogance of those who say: “leave it to me, you don't know how to do it”, of those who say “you don't understand anything”, of those who say: “you should do it better”, “I know and you don't”… Everyone sins pride of the ignorant.
_I: And how is this reversed?
_AM: Well, the first step is to recognize yourself as ignorant. And know that no one can know the same as you. The key to education is not equality but equity. In equality, the ignorant judge the other for being different from their point of view, in equity, the ignorant educate and learn with everyone.
_I: It's the difference between saying: “You're doing it wrong, you should do it better,” and saying “I'm sharing this with you that I suppose will help you improve.”
_AM: Pride would be saying: “I know and you don't”, when the humility of the great is saying “I share”.
_I: The key is to know that we are here to learn from each other, and therein lies the awareness of knowing that we are all Great Superior beings sharing in the experience of Humility.
_AM: You are all Superb creatures with infinite capabilities, learning from humility in a body composed of limitations. Never forget that you are a Supreme Being, that you are part of God, of the Universe, and that greatness lives in you, just as you should never forget that you are here to remember your greatness in the small acts of the simplest life.
_I: The Pride of the Ignorant is considering that they have the answers, the Pride of the Humble is knowing that the answers are within, and can only be found by sharing with others. Is it perhaps arrogance then to consider that I share with others what I know?
_AM: It will depend on where you stand from. Teacher or Professor?
_I: What's the difference?
_AM: Master comes from the Indo-European “meg”, which gives the words “mega” in Greek, (large) and “magnus” in Latin. Thus giving Magister: the great one, the one who has or knows the most. Professor comes from a Latin concept that comes from “pro” (towards, for) and from the Indo-European “bheht” which means “to speak” (giving rise to words like “fatos” in Greek: said, or “fateri”, in Latin, which is to confess). Teacher, then, refers to the one who speaks to others, who shares the dialectic.
_I: I think then that I am more of a teacher, because I talk too much, and I also learn from what I hear and what others share with me. But it is true that sometimes I have felt the arrogance of the ignorant, considering that he was in a superior position.
_AM: And it's in those moments when someone appears to teach you something you didn't know.
_I: Yes... Put your feet on the Earth, remember that we are all learning endlessly... Even after our death.
_AM: We continue to learn from each other… Sooner or later you will be able to remove the wheels from the tricycle.