What is the nature of true humility?

[whirlingmerc]

What would healthy and unhealthy types of pride or humility look like?

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Healthy Pride: The lawn looks good; I did a good job. I'm proud of my efforts to make the lawn look nice.
Unhealthy Pride: The lawn looks good; All bow down before me, for I am the God of Lawns! You must do everything I say, because I know all about how to make lawns look good!

 

[VioletVortex]

I don't really think pride can be unhealthy by itself. I suppose it's possible for someone to be so proud of themselves that it starts to consume them and affect their day to day life, but that's really the result of a mental disorder like megalomania or something of that nature.

 

[Sunstone]

I've heard this idea attributed to Aristotle: True humility is claiming for yourself neither more nor less than is just. False humility is claiming for yourself more than is just, or less than is just. So, for instance, if you were an exceptional athlete (but not the best there ever was), it would be true humility to claim to be an exceptional athlete, and it would be false humility to either claim to be the best athlete that ever was, or to claim to be a poorer athlete than you in fact were.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

What would healthy and unhealthy types of pride or humility look like?

I see humility in line with unconditional love and seeing another as equal. For example, I'd feel as a servant if I covered my face and bowed. I feel prideful if someone bowed to me. I feel humble if I can look that person in the eye, say, and act in unconditional love. It's an act of giving one's self as a servant to humanity and treat them each person as equals.

Unhealthy humility, in my opinion, is having a hierarchy outlook. I never agreed that a parent cannot look his or her child in the eyes and view him as an adult and worthy of the same respect-as a person rather than parent/child-as he (the child) would from anyone else. It leads children and adults to look for something "higher" than themselves and I find that unhealthy mentally since people have loss their faith many of times. If it were natural or part of natural life, you can't loose your faith. So, humility is seeing life as it is and serving it and letting your environment and people help and serve you in return.

I always had another pet peeve about charity. We give charity for those in need but when we are in need, a lot of people I know would deny charity and give it to someone worse off as them. Who is to say that whomever is worse off needs more charity than the person who needs it but is in a different position? We don't know. We accept charity and we give it. It's a push pull situation.

I see myself acting in humility when I can help someone who is rich the exact same way as I help someone who is poor. It takes roles and bias out of the situation and treats each person who needs our help as people regardless the situation they are in.

With pride, I agree with @beenherebeforeagain response.

 

[psychoslice]

For me true humility is knowing that you are no better than anyone else, no matter what.

 

[whirlingmerc]

It's a bit of a paradox. People who help and serve people tend to be happier. Selfish people tend to struggle with satisfaction in the long run.

 

[Ouroboros]

It's a bit of a paradox. People who help and serve people tend to be happier. Selfish people tend to struggle with satisfaction in the long run.

How do you know? Is there a study to show this or is it just your opinion?

 

[Conceivia]

Humility is what allows a person to listen to all sources of wisdom. The more humility a person has, the wider the field of available wisdom sources. It takes humility to listen to God, as well as humans. I imagine the only way it could be unhealthy, is when it causes you to not stickup for what you believe in when it matters. Notice that I say, when it matters, 'cause I don't think it is healthy to always push your way on other people, nor is that humility. That becomes pride at that point.

I would say there is two types of pride. One is feeling good about a job well done, which is a very good thing. The other is feeling you are better than others. That form of pride will cause you to reject sources of information and wisdom, and make you stupid. A person which such pride is often called an "egg head", because they have an ego which is particularly easy to break, like an egg.

Confidence makes a person very intelligent. Arrogance looks almost identical to confidence, but arrogance makes a person stupid. The reason arrogance looks like confidence, is because people who severely lack confidence try to pretend to be confident, and they are quite good at pretending. Arrogance and that second form of pride are pretty much the same thing.

So what makes you wiser is healthy, and what makes you unwise is not healthy.

Tony

 

[arthra]

"Beseech ye the one true God to grant that ye may taste the savour of such deeds as are performed in His path, and partake of the sweetness of such humility and submissiveness as are shown for His sake. Forget your own selves, and turn your eyes towards your neighbour. Bend your energies to whatever may foster the education of men. Nothing is, or can ever be, hidden from God. If ye follow in His way, His incalculable and imperishable blessings will be showered upon you. This is the luminous Tablet, whose verses have streamed from the moving Pen of Him Who is the Lord of all worlds. Ponder it in your hearts, and be ye of them that observe its precepts."

(Provisional Translations, Tablet to Jamal-I Burujirdi)

A Full Provisional Translation with Persian Text

trans. Khazeh Fananapazir

The tablet (lawh) of Bahá'u'lláh translated above is one of the many addressed to Jamal-i Burujirdi.

 

[ratikala]

namaskaram Ji

What would healthy and unhealthy types of pride or humility look like?

to me true humility takes little or no personal claim , accepts no glory , ...atributes all glory to the kindness or wisdom of others , ....his pride is not in the self but in his Guru , his teacher or his philosopy , ....this gives not so much a sence of personal pride , but instead gives a sence of ones good fortune , ....''there but for the Grace of God go I '', .....

such a person shares with all and withholds from none , ....he does not think him self more worthy than any other so is not attatched to material status or position by dint of birth , ...all in his eyes are equal .

 

[ratikala]

Namaskaram JI

taking this scenario into consideration , .....

I've heard this idea attributed to Aristotle: True humility is claiming for yourself neither more nor less than is just. False humility is claiming for yourself more than is just, or less than is just. So, for instance, if you were an exceptional athlete (but not the best there ever was), it would be true humility to claim to be an exceptional athlete, and it would be false humility to either claim to be the best athlete that ever was, or to claim to be a poorer athlete than you in fact were.

were the truely exeptional athlete , or even the very best of athletes to be truely humble , their imidaite responce upon receiving congratulations would be to give thanks to their trainer before taking praise them selves , ....this responce is often heard from appointed personages who thank their wives , husbands and team members for their unwavering support , ....''without whom ..... I alone could not have accheived...'' ....what ever it was , or ''whithout whom I would not be here today''

 

[Sunstone]

Namaskaram JI

taking this scenario into consideration , .....



were the truely exeptional athlete , or even the very best of athletes to be truely humble , their imidaite responce upon receiving congratulations would be to give thanks to their trainer before taking praise them selves , ....this responce is often heard from appointed personages who thank their wives , husbands and team members for their unwavering support , ....''without whom ..... I alone could not have accheived...'' ....what ever it was , or ''whithout whom I would not be here today''

You seem quite sure of that. Does true humility bode such certainty? Perhaps not.

 

[GoodbyeDave]

There seems to be a consensus here that humility is a good thing. As a Pagan, I have little time for it. Looking at a dictionary, I find
> freedom from pride. What's wrong with pride? If my abilities are due to my own effort, I deserve credit; if they were bestowed on me, to down-play them shows ingratitude.
> a sense of one's own unworthiness through imperfection and sinfulness. Pagans don't believe in sin and regard imperfection as something to remedy, not wallow in.

 

[ratikala]

Namaskaram Sunstone ji

You seem quite sure of that. Does true humility bode such certainty? Perhaps not.

''you seem quite sure of that ''? ......Why sunstone Ji does this sound like a trick question ?.....

''Does true humility bode such certainty? Perhaps not''

from observation and a point of honesty I must say that I think it does , .....

if a humble person were to be asked a question relating to right and wrong , his humility should not prevent him from answering affirmatively , if he did not answer then his his apparent humility would be more like shyness or lack of confidence to speak , ..... a humble person is a modest person it is simply that he does not lay claim or ownership to thought or action , ....he may clearly speak but without the vainity of one who claims ownership or proprietorship , .....

Humility in a religious context is the quality of meekness which is far from the lack of character which humility is often regarded as in the secular world where it is often veiwed of as weekness . what we see as weekness is the pride and vanity some see as a strength, .....