Part IV - Pride

“I think national pride leads to nothing but wars and hates” - Johnny Rotten

Why is pride a sin?

Surely it is an emotion that portrays someone’s self worth, which has been attained through hard work?

It is surprising however that Pride is considered the original sin, and the one which all others derive. In essence it is the desire to be better than everyone else. All you have to do is to examine its synonyms arrogance, self-importance, conceit, superiority and my favourite description smugness.

There is a Hyacinth Bouquet in all of us, but reduced down, it is an emotion that outwardly projects our temporary high position that covers our insecurities.

The old adage of being house proud is not without personal sacrifice on the portrayer’s part. I am sure the endless cleaning, mowing and dressing like a stepford wife do have its downsides. I would hazard a guess that loneliness, lack of self worth and possibly alcoholism would be prevalent behind those ever so well presented and clean doors.

There is nothing wrong in living in a clean and tidy environment, the trick is not to be smug about it.

I hate smug people (yes, need to work on that emotion) and someone who is self made, I have been looked down upon and could say that it has affected me. However, I could fall into the trap of demonstrating the same behaviour as my abuser. These blogs could be deemed that, so the pitch, tone and the place where I am coming from need to be pure and free from pride.

A wicked irony indeed.

I also need to be self effacing and not throwing newly attained internet, DVD and literature gained wisdom to everyone. and come from a personal deep place that is sincere and honest.

I like what William Penn said about pride “Humility and knowledge in poor clothes excel pride and ignorance in costly attire”. There is however a caveat with that statement and it alludes to the notion that only the poor can be the enlightened. This is simply not true as there are many altruistic and truly wealthy individuals and foundations that donate lots of their time and money. I feel that it does come from a good place. This we should put aside our cynicism for.

There is however the flip side as of course there is also great truth in what William Penn says and it is summed up beautifully but quite brashly by John W. Foster “The pride of dying rich raises the loudest laugh in hell”
This quote is worthy of a blog on its own as we can all see the futility in this quote, the pride is constant but you can insert most scenarios or metaphors and see the nonsense that pride can bring.

For example, looking after my family and supporting them stopped me from becoming a millionaire and such like!

The pride in being successful in a small way, and maintaining it, is of course the issue. Pride in this case is the fancy robes for fear, and they cover this four letter meanie quite well, but every sin has FEAR molecules pumping around its evil black heart.

I love the parody of middle England in the sitcom ‘Keeping up Appearances’, and the undeserved smugness of Hyacinth Bouquet does overspill towards contempt for just about everybody. There were however incidences when her pride quickly turned into fear and that was when her unwashed common (in her eyes) family visited, or someone more afflicted with pride than her crossed paths with painful insincerity.

The whole thing of course is just one-upmanship and is f life’s cruel never ending game that two individuals affected with original sin, will never give up playing. Thomas Fuller said it best “Pride will spit in pride's face”
This is something that is often confused for principles, and no doubt why millions of people have died in wars across the spectrum of time. There are other traits involved and not so clear cut, however pride is the catalyst. Maybe Johnnie Rotten in the headline quote is onto something?

So does pride make us feel good or look good? I feel the latter, and agree with Thomas Merton who states that “Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real”. This is indeed a sobering thought.

Pride is an emotion (sin) that we need to let go, and the Lester Levenson Sedona method is a great example of how to do this.

First he identified what he calls the Scale of Emotions and is as follows.

Peace
Acceptance
Courageousness
_______________
Pride
Anger
Lust
Fear
Grief
Apathy


You see that there is a line separating Pride and Courageousness, this does symbolise that there is a fine line between them both and our natural happy state need to be with the first three emotions.

The information is freely available, and led by the infectious Hal Dwoskin (you tube) and in a nutshell you train yourself in all scenarios where you feel pain, are stuck, have emotional trauma to ask yourself the following questions.

Could I let this feeling go?
Could I allow this feeling to be here?
Could I welcome this feeling?

If you was to answer NO to any questions, then you re-question, and ask would and when?

Have a look at the site http://www.sedona.com/

I hope that pride does not stop you from looking, as we can avoid the FALL and not submit ourselves to such an old cliché.

I sincerely thank you for reading, and appreciate all feedback I receive. I have three more blog posts on this subject and have covered Jealousy (Envy) Lust, Sloth & Pride. This does leave Gluttony, Greed and Wrath

Toodle pip y’all, and see you next week.

Message me any feedback

Scott xx