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Profound truth only comes to those who would not presume to have the answer.
Ignorance is a treasure of infinite price that most men squander, when they should cherish its least fragments; some ruin it by educating themselves, others, unable to so much as conceive of making use of it, let it waste away. Quite on the contrary, we should search for it assiduously in what we think we know best. Leaf through a dictionary or try to make one, and you will find that every word covers and masks a well so bottomless that the questions you toss into it arouse no more than an echo.
"Don't worry too much about how spiritually poor you are_God sees that,but for you it is expected to trust in God and pray to Him as best you can,never to fall into despair and to struggle according to your strength.If you ever begin to think you are spiritually_"well off"_then you can know for sure that you aren't!True spiritual life,even on the most elementary level,is always accompanied by suffering and difficulties.Therefore you should rejoice in all your difficulties and sorrows."
Father Seraphim Rose
The spirit of obedience is necessary not only in monks, but everyone else, too. Even the Lord was obedient. The proud and those who are a law unto themselves prevent the indwelling of grace and therefore never know peace of soul; whereas the grace of the Holy Spirit enters with ease into the soul of the obedient, bringing joy and quiet.
He mocks proud mockers but gives grace to the humble.
from the Book of Proverbs
"The proud man thinks he can comprehend everything with his mind. The Lord does not grant this ... The Lord does not manifest Himself to the proud soul. Pride is difficult to detect in oneself, but the Lord leaves the proud to be tormented by their impotence until they humble themselves." -- St. Silouan of Mount Athos
Only if you see yourself as zero and being full of passions can you see God. If you can not see that you are nothing, then you cannot see God. God lives only in the humble person.
"It is not the self -critical who reveals his humility ( for does not everyone have some how to put up with himself? ). Rather, it is the man who continues to love the person who has criticized him."
Saint John Climacus
Do not think that enlightenment is going to make you special, it's not. If you feel special in any way, then enlightenment has not occurred. I meet a lot of people who think they are enlightened and awake simply because they have had a very moving spiritual experience. They wear their enlightenment on their sleeve like a badge of honor. They sit among friends and talk about how awake they are while sipping coffee at a cafe. The funny thing about enlightenment is that when it is authentic, there is no one to claim it. Enlightenment is very ordinary; it is nothing special. Rather than making you more special, it is going to make you less special. It plants you right in the center of a wonderful humility and innocence. Everyone else may or may not call you enlightened, but when you are enlightened the whole notion of enlightenment and someone who is enlightened is a big joke. I use the word enlightenment all the time; not to point you toward it but to point you beyond it. Do not get stuck in enlightenment.
DO NOT FORGET, (nor neglect), that the reading of the scriptures can never replace the Mindful Eating of a good bowl of rice.
NOTE THAT Peace soup can only be made by you becoming a humble pea.
Humility is a virtue when you have no other.
If you approach the world's complexities, both its glories and its horrors, with an attitude of humble curiosity, acknowledging that however deeply you have seen, you have only just scratched the surface, you will find worlds within worlds, beauties you could not heretofore imagine, and your own mundane preoccupations will shrink to proper size.
The most intelligent person is one who humbly accepts the ideas of others, and not their own
Insomuch as you can be simple and humble, and you can want nothing more than to know and serve God, you can rise to the heights of spiriitual life.
Kuʻia ka hele a
ka naʻau haʻahaʻa.
TRANSLATION:Hesitant walks the humble hearted.
EXPLANATION:A humble person walks carefully so he will not hurt those about him.
I maintain that the biggest challenge in the new millennium could be a change of habit. We could change from a dominating commodity culture into one of true exchange in which we learn from each other in humility and respect. I do think it's possible. But it's up to us.
No man stands as tall as when he stoops to help a crippled child.
"Everything in moderation, kid. Everything in moderation."
"Everything in moderation, kid. Everything in moderation."
"Everything in moderation, kid. Everything in moderation."
The best CEOs in our research display tremendous ambition for their company combined with the stoic will to do whatever it takes, no matter how brutal (within the bounds of the company's core values), to make the company great. Yet at the same time they display a remarkable humility about themselves, ascribing much of their own success to luck, discipline and preparation rather than personal genius.
Level 5 leaders are differentiated from other levels of leaders in that they have a wonderful blend of personal humility combined with extraordinary professional will. Understand that they are very ambitious; but their ambition, first and foremost, is for the company's success. They realize that the most important step they must make to become a Level 5 leader is to subjugate their ego to the company's performance. When asked for interviews, these leaders will agree only if it's about the company and not about them.
There are so many distractions today it is much easier to sleep; to hit the snooze button in our lives and simply roll over with the best of intentions to get started tomorrow.
Yet with the challenges of today's world, this behavior could be called emotional and spiritual truancy. It is characterized by "the evasion of one's own growth, the setting of low levels of aspiration, the fear of doing what one is capable of doing, voluntary self-crippling, pseudo-stupidity and mock humility." No matter how sophisticated or ingenious the avoidance, it is still a cheap adaptation to the implorings of personal evolution. It is clinging to the trivial, to cultivate our own little gardens. *
* - From Greg Levoy "Callings" excerpted from: http://www.ticl.org/
the complementary movement towards divine love is growth in humility which is the acceptence of the reality about ourselves, our own weakness and limitations.
11. The best people and organizations have the attitude of wisdom: The courage to act on what they know right now and the humility to change course when they find better evidence.
Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all.
It is very rare that you meet with obstacles in this world, which the humblest man has not faculties to surmount.
Humility: the ability to give up your pride and still retain your dignity.
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