Hi Jon,

I can relate to the strenght of certain negative aspects we have inside ourselves. Trying to discover all tiny details of these negative aspects is really important. Usually if I have a lot of trouble with one of my negative aspects and I reflect upon it for a while, I often discover that I have been feeding tiny details during the week and this increases the main aspect.

Other than that, when we engage the battle against our own negativity it is not unusual to be confronted with a lot of resistance. Just keep looking within and try to be as aware as possible during the day. Once you see a detail of the negative aspect, hit it and come back to awareness.
Sometimes it can take a long time before we see any form of improvement.

Dreams are also a good source of information for spotting any details we might have missed during the day.

All the strenght

It may help to just keep focused on today. It can be really overwhelming to think about how far we have to go still. For me, this makes it hard to actually stay in the moment because there is this constant desire to be better than I am right now. All we can really do is try to make progress each day, from where we stand.

Hi Jon,

I know that pain; very often I've felt suffocated because pride is so strong - preventing me from feeling true love, blocking out humility, and causing me to harm others in subtle or obvious ways. In fact I still do feel that way...

Certainly the elimination is the only way to really get rid of pride. And as you hinted at, there are many tiny details that can be overlooked.

Perhaps you could do a meditation upon pride and try to gain a more conscious understanding. It could really help a lot, especially in catching the tiny details (it has helped me).

To some degree, we can become more humble or perhaps gain the strength to be humble through prayer and opening our heart to the Divine. When I saw how bad my pride was a few times, I devoted some time to pray to my Divine Parents and the Masters, begging them for help and simply confessing how much my own pride sickened me and how much damage it was doing. Then I could feel a lot more strength to go against pride later because I got help.

The feeling like you are being ripped in two also sounds familiar: there is the certain pleasure that pride brings on one hand and the voice of our conscience telling us to fight along with the pain in denying pride on the other.

In the moment, having to die to pride can be agonizing psychologically - the ego has a strong grip and it doesn't want to die. But by persevering, the true beauty of freed consciousness emerges and it is well-worth the fight.

When I'm being torn apart by pride (or other egos that bring pleasure), it helps me to remember this.

It is really wonderful to be able to look back, sometimes after a few months, and see the changes that have occurred within. It helps to see that change is really possible.

I hope this helps.

All the strength!

ML

Hey and thanks so much for your post Jon and everyone for your comments, it gives me a reminder to keep working with my pride.

Yeah, for me too pride is one of my biggest current obstacles. Maybe I should not even give any advices then?...

Ok, I'll give.

Probably, Jon, there is an approach which can make a difference here, especially because it seems that you have a great motivation and determination to fight with pride and defeat it.

Idea is very simple and reasonable -complete focusing for a few days, a week, etc. on all what you can do against this ego.

Attack pride continously from all angles and sides using all the tools from the courses, like working with the dreams, doing retrospections, meditations on ego, elimination, of course, etc.

PS.
Also for me besides judging others a very big way to feed my pride is to do things well, or perceive them to be done well, to show others that I do them well and then think about it all with pride, feel proud of doing things well and impressing others.
Then I tend to ignore my weaknesses and only think about my strong sides, or about my perceived strong sides.
It is very important to strife for success in whatever goals we have, right?...but pride looks to take an advantage out of it and feed from the fruits of our efforts.

Do I like the post I've just wrote, do I feel proud about it?

Hello Jon,

It is good to see that you are determined to eliminate pride ego. It is really a self-defeating vice, causes conflicts in relationships, makes us so self-assured that we can not see other's point of view, makes us talk back when we know that it is not required and even when we know that talking back would aggarvate situation. It blocks the way of getting help and blocks our way of learning. Deceipts, lies, confrontations, greed could be all stemming from this weakness.

As both the replies have emphasised, and as you yourself have commented - the best way is to spot it as it is manifesting and do the eliminationat that instant. It is by doing this from moment to moment that we considerably reduce the ego - and gain the knowledge. Otherwise, it can become all intellectual.

Watching and applying death to the ego in different centres as you observe it is very important. An effective way is to decide to work upon the ego for a week - and you will find that oppurtunities will arise in your daily life, so that you can observe the ego. Watch how you react when someone else is boasting, when someone is not valuing your work, when you feel the lack - these could be the details of the ego - and you need to see these in yourself .

regards

~Dawn is reached by the path of night~

Hello Jon,

As i'm sure we can all say from experience this work is terribly difficult. There are so many details that we don't see.

All you can do is work with what you've got and eventually move forward bit by bit.

One thing i find interesting when looking into pride is looking at the opposites of pride which seem to be fear and insecurity.

Kind Regards,

Dave.

Thanks, everyone.

I know that I expect too much of myself. I see that I put so much weight on everything that I do and say, so that I either think very highly of myself or consider myself worthless. It's such a big part of me right now and it's causing so much suffering but I guess I just have to work from the state I'm in.

Anyway, I think it is a good idea to try to take things one day at a time. I pray that I don't forget what I'm trying to do when it gets tough, although at times it has gotten the better of me.

Peace.

Hi Joh H,

See, you know what to do. As you said, it is a good idea to take one day at a time.

We are all struggling one way or the other with something. One day at a time will do it. Better still, one moment at a time.

I too, expect too much from myself at times but I am getting so much better with patience. Patience with others and patience with myself.

I wish you patience with yourself and you will see that it will get better.

When you have good moments embrace them, it will make the bad ones easier to deal with.

Peace

A very good topic :) I am sure many people can gain a lot from it.

Yes, I have definitely found that pride is one of the most scheming egos and surely an obstacle for anyone wanting to change spiritually. And like someone said, it’s not like we can turn on some ‘humility’ switch to get any close to getting rid of it. It’s one of those things that hovers very closely with our spiritual work and our relationship to other people.

I have felt that a lot of pride and fear comes when we forget to be spiritually independent so to speak. It seems you really have to be alone when you want to move ahead. It’s very easy to depend so much on our presence/identity in relation to others and the outside world and lose that sense of internal responsibility.

I’ll also second that getting intellectual understanding from a Meditation practice is also very helpful. Any information on the egos can help us to really know all the places where they are harmful and be more prepared for what to watch out for. The conviction of knowing they are bad for us can get stronger too.

I have also found that when we are going through something difficult a good source of help can come from praying for understanding and guidance. Then insights can start appearing throughout the day and we can make out some sort of path again :) It’s hard to think we can do anything without divine assistance.

Take care,
Olga

I try to look at both sides of the pendulum to stay in awareness as much as possible. I do notice myself bragging alot, and when this happens - it totally shifts my mental centers and I have to work hard with awareness to get back to something clearer. The questions I have asked that have helped me are:

What are the good egos of pride? What are the bad egos of pride?

Who are the good egos of pride good for? Who are the good egos of pride bad for? Who are the bad egos of pride good for? Who are the bad egos of pride bad for?

Can one's affinities magnetically pull them towards one side of pride or the other?

What is the purpose of pride in the animal kingdom?

In the uncomplicated mind - how would pride help form a pride?

In the complicated mind - how could pride get tangled up?

forgive me if I complicate things more...

Thanks Vadim - see some stuff i need to work on.