Spiritual Superiority

[Nefelie]

~~~

This is a question for everyone who feels safe and complete to her/his spiritual/religious choices:

Where you ever tempted to feel spiritual superiority?

It is said that the trap of spiritual arrogance is to remove you from the very thing you are arrogant about.

Have you ever felt that?

~~~

 

[Riverwolf]

Oh, GODS, yes.

I was wholly absorbed in a feeling of "spiritual superiority" back in Middle School. The feeling does still pop up now and then, though I try to fight it.

 

[A Vestigial Mote]

~~~

This is a question for everyone who feels safe and complete to her/his spiritual/religious choices:

Where you ever tempted to feel spiritual superiority?

It is said that the trap of spiritual arrogance is to remove you from the very thing you are arrogant about.

Have you ever felt that?

~~~

I'm in somewhat the same boat as Riverwolf. I would say I tend to think of myself as "right" a lot of the time... but try to always remember that my true credo is to only ever profess that, while I do not believe, I am not 100% sure on the reality (or non-reality) of anything of a spiritual nature. I fail at that quite often - but in the end there are no repercussions to my failure - except that I may tick a few people off here and there. Since I don't belong to any sort of "group" or organized religious endeavors, there's really no one to admonish me but myself.

And I don't honestly think of it as superiority. Most of the time I am only really interested in getting others to realize faulty lines of logic, or to attempt to get them to question things from a different perspective. I guess I have to wonder if believing it is right to make your own discerning choices about a lot of things and explore the depths of right/wrong/meaning/life on your own with the input of others ideas and influences is truly believing yourself "superior". I'm trying to be "superior" for my own devices. Everyone else is free to further or remain at whatever level they find themselves, on whatever path they are traversing.

 

[Nefelie]

Most of the time I am only really interested in getting others to realize faulty lines of logic

Just for the sake of argument: "faulty" according to who? You?

.

 

[A Vestigial Mote]

Just for the sake of argument: "faulty" according to who? You?

Well, not necessarily "me" per se. It could simply be that the arguments or statements made by the person are simply illogical, conflicting or already disproved previously within the greater community/society. It could be that they are ignoring a completely valid avenue of thought - either willingly (hoping I don't bring it up) or ignorantly (having never heard the argument from that perspective), and are therefore being obtuse about the matter.

Besides, I just said I fail quite often. Why would the above statement come as any surprise? Meaning yes "me". Of course me. From my own perspective it will almost always be me unless the side of the argument I'm defending hails to a superior authority on the matter at hand that I can utilize.

For instance, I once debated a person here who adamantly chose to believe that the Earth was flat, not round. I came up with all sorts of evidence that pointed to the Earth being round, but to no avail - so I looked elsewhere for more "proof". So, according to me (and to the vast majority of the scientific community) the person was reacting/responding under faulty lines of logic. Why wouldn't I try to persuade them with what I feel is more sound, logical and supported information?

 

[Quintessence]

That word "spiritual" is nebulous nonsense to me, so I'm just going to delete that word from the question or else it makes no sense to me at all.

It may be relevant to note that recognizing superiority doesn't necessarily translate into arrogance. If a person has spent five years going through an initiatory mystery school, it is simply being honest to say that this person has superior knowledge about that mystery school compared to someone who is a non-initiate. Where this person would become arrogant is in thinking that this superiority makes them wholesale better than other people who are non-initiates. Or does it? All these labels are attributions anyway - and the way we make these attributions usually say more about the attributor than the attributed.

 

[Father Heathen]

Doesn't spirituality have much to do with humility and detachment? Wouldn't a sense of superiority completely conflict with this?

 

[YmirGF]

~~~

This is a question for everyone who feels safe and complete to her/his spiritual/religious choices:

Where you ever tempted to feel spiritual superiority?

It is said that the trap of spiritual arrogance is to remove you from the very thing you are arrogant about.

Have you ever felt that?

~~~

Interesting question. I'm not ever sure how to respond, really. For a time in my long and wild ride saying "superiority" doesn't really even approach where I was, LOL. I won't say what it was, but I will say that eventually I began to settle down and learned to take things in my stride. I found that most folks weren't particularly interested in what I had to say anyways so I simply shut up. I still felt the same and thought the same. I just "didn't go there" around others. To my delight, I found that people were not as put off and eventually I became very comfortable in this new role. That is when I began my own version of what I called "Koan-speak". People would say or ask something interesting and I'd roll out one of my riddled answers that was usually presented in a humorous way. People really seemed to like that. But the real magic when I would answer their question with, "What do you think?"

 

[Scott C.]

~~~n

This is a question for everyone who feels safe and complete to her/his spiritual/religious choices:

Where you ever tempted to feel spiritual superiority?

It is said that the trap of spiritual arrogance is to remove you from the very thing you are arrogant about.

Have you ever felt that?

~~~

The more one has of any one thing, the greater the temptation to be arrogant. This goes for religious truth, good looks, athleticism, education, intelligence, wealth, heritage, lineage, etc. Since I have all of these in abundance, the temptation to be arrogant is almost more than I can handle. HAHAHAHA

If one perceives that he has great spirituality and becomes arrogant because of it, he loses that spirituality. As soon as one becomes proud of his humility, the humility is gone.

There have been times, mostly when I was younger, that I would catch myself feeling superior because of my beliefs and lifestyle. Life's experiences have a way of correcting this.

 

[psychoslice]

Our true Self is superior to our fales self, the false self or ego will grab and run with this inner knowing, but the one who stands his or her ground will see the ego for what it is, and the feeling of superiority will quickly fade.

 

[-Peacemaker-]

I honestly never feel that way

 

[YmirGF]

I honestly never feel that way

Me neither, not since I went with Inner realizations 2.0
That realy ironed out a lot of bugs in the oringial software.

That said, intelligence (aka spirituality) is not something that CAN be hidden. Human animals, for all their faults, do tend to notice. If some discern it as being superior then not a lot can be done except to crack a few obscene jokes. That usually brings them back to reality. Imparting a heart-felt homily with the occasional "f-bomb" really helps to brings things into the proper perspective, lest human animals let their imaginations run away with the imparted comments...

 

[-Peacemaker-]

Me neither, not since I went with Inner realizations 2.0
That realy ironed out a lot of bugs in the oringial software.

That said, intelligence (aka spirituality) is not something that CAN be hidden. Human animals, for all their faults, do tend to notice. If some discern it as being superior then not a lot can be done except to crack a few obscene jokes. That usually brings them back to reality. Imparting a heart-felt homily with the occasional "f-bomb" really helps to brings things into the proper perspective, lest human animals let their imaginations run away with the imparted comments...

you took the words right out of my mouth

 

[YmirGF]

you took the words right out of my mouth

I get that a lot....

 

[LuisDantas]

~~~

This is a question for everyone who feels safe and complete to her/his spiritual/religious choices:

Where you ever tempted to feel spiritual superiority?

It is said that the trap of spiritual arrogance is to remove you from the very thing you are arrogant about.

Have you ever felt that?

~~~

Since when? Let me see what time it is.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

~~~

This is a question for everyone who feels safe and complete to her/his spiritual/religious choices:

Where you ever tempted to feel spiritual superiority?

It is said that the trap of spiritual arrogance is to remove you from the very thing you are arrogant about.

Have you ever felt that?

~~~

I'm actually thinking hard of anytime I felt spiritual superiority. I teach as a growing profession, but I don't own that role I live the role. It's a part of my faith though not religious in nature. I guess one can abuse their spiritual roles in life. For example, The Buddha taught that we teach people to be enlightened in the manner they understand. So, most my students are Christian and if I'm trying to teach them what a house of worship means (ESL class), I wouldn't use the word temple or mosque. I'd use church or parish (Catholic owned organization).

The Buddha did warn against being superior or egotistic. I read some books that talk about how we can think we are enlightened all because we sat on our cushion for ten minutes in perfect (if that's a word) meditation. I think I remember saying that "I understand now" and what I realized years later is, what I understood is that I understand nothing. Enlightenment? At the time yes. I don't know if that meant I was being superior.

I don't live with people and barely talk to anyone outside of my immediate environment; so, I don't have much options when it comes to spiritual superiority and egotism. It's more knowing my own mind and balancing between what I know and what I don't know. It's also learning that we don't always have to know everything.

Don't know if that answered the question. My religious worldview is a bit different than someone with a fixed religion and religious labels.

 

[YmirGF]

I'm actually thinking hard of anytime I felt spiritual superiority. I teach as a growing profession, but I don't own that role I live the role. It's a part of my faith though not religious in nature. I guess one can abuse their spiritual roles in life. For example, The Buddha taught that we teach people to be enlightened in the manner they understand. So, most my students are Christian and if I'm trying to teach them what a house of worship means (ESL class), I wouldn't use the word temple or mosque. I'd use church or parish (Catholic owned organization).

The Buddha did warn against being superior or egotistic. I read some books that talk about how we can think we are enlightened all because we sat on our cushion for ten minutes in perfect (if that's a word) meditation. I think I remember saying that "I understand now" and what I realized years later is, what I understood is that I understand nothing. Enlightenment? At the time yes. I don't know if that meant I was being superior.

I don't live with people and barely talk to anyone outside of my immediate environment; so, I don't have much options when it comes to spiritual superiority and egotism. It's more knowing my own mind and balancing between what I know and what I don't know. It's also learning that we don't always have to know everything.

Don't know if that answered the question. My religious worldview is a bit different than someone with a fixed religion and religious labels.

Tell me about it. I interact with octogenarians every day and even at the spritely age of 60, I have to pause and consider the wealth of experience I am addressing. It IS humbling...

 

[Unfathomable Tao]

~~~

This is a question for everyone who feels safe and complete to her/his spiritual/religious choices:

Where you ever tempted to feel spiritual superiority?

It is said that the trap of spiritual arrogance is to remove you from the very thing you are arrogant about.

Have you ever felt that?

~~~

As a Taoist I can't really tell another person their approach to life and truth is wrong, since I do not experience reality unentrapped by the human senses myself. No person does. I can only follow what helps me and seems reasonable to me to conclude, as I think we all ultimately do. I cannot claim superiority as far as that goes, no.

 

[Nefelie]

If a person has spent five years going through an initiatory mystery school, it is simply being honest to say that this person has superior knowledge about that mystery school compared to someone who is a non-initiate.

Is knowledge and wisdom the same thing?
Can a "non-initiate" or just a simple person be wise?
Can a person with deep knowledge not be wise?

 

[Quintessence]

Is knowledge and wisdom the same thing?
Can a "non-initiate" or just a simple person be wise?
Can a person with deep knowledge not be wise?

Knowledge and wisdom are generally not regarded as the same thing.

Knowledge is easily defined, and easy to objectively measure. A person either knows a particular fact or they don't. A person either demonstrates they can ride a bike or they can't.

Wisdom... not so much. It's highly subjective, and it seems to me what we think of as "wise" basically amounts to "this makes sense to me" or "I think that sounded smart." I don't know how one would go about fairly assessing that in any way.