False Pride

Reasoning: August 01, 2003

From: Rootsie

It is interesting to observe how false pride masquerades as true, and sends other ignorant ones scurrying to the defense of those who display it.

We create personas out of our insecurities. We crave attention and notoriety and go to great lengths to display our expertise and our convictions in order to receive affirmation of what is a false sense of self. Others with this same affliction jump on our bandwagon and actually do us great damage by affirming our iillusions, and theirs.

We bully and ridicule those whose opinions differ from ours in naked displays of our insecurity. It is very ugly to observe, especially since the insecure often choose the weakest and most vulnerable as their targets.

We take great care that our superficial trappings, our dress, our hair, the decoration of our homes, represent the picture we want to convey to the outside world.

Well if we are our true selves and live authentically from our true self, there is nothing whatsoever to represent. We simply are.

False pride can easily be distinguished from true. The truly great feel no need to stand out, and often work behind the scenes to effect the changes they need to see. They need no pulpit, no platform, for they are already lifted high above most others.

They feel no pressing need to answer the criticisms of others because they know who they are and rest in the peace of that knowledge.

They don't need to be 'ccol', they don't need outside affiliations to affirm their worthiness. They know they are worthy.

In this distorted funhouse world of illusion, it is easy for one possessed of false pride to collect a gang of followers, but in the end this just makes it more difficult for them to come in the truth of who they are.

And the truth of who they are is so so much greater than any greatness they can achieve in the eyes of fools.

Why do we choose lesser over greater? Why do we fail to embrace our magnitude?

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August 01, 2003
From: Tracey

Because of littleness...

We constantly make willing the sacrifice of our wee little selves upon the great alter of dellusion and illusions. Seeking instead, affirmation outside... rather then from within.

If you cannot hear the voice for God, it is because you do not choose to listen. That you DO listen to the voice of your ego is demonstrated by your attitudes, your feelings, and your behavior. Yet this is what you want. This is what you are fighting to keep, and what you are vigilant to save. Your mind is filled with schemes to save the face of your ego, and you do not seek the face of God. The glass in which the ego seeks to see its face is dark indeed. How can it maintain the trick of its existance except with mirrors? But where you look to find yourself is up to you.

- Course In Miracles

Let the storms come...and be left standing in who you really are..for it is only then... can one honestly walk through the door to the other side of themselves and see the face of God...where the I is created lovely in truth and holy in thy Sight.

Yes... one can always choose yet again... greater or lesser, and know just how worthy they truly are.

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August 04, 2003
From: Yan

Thank you so much for this powerful reasoning. It really put things in perspective for me. I have always wondered who or what I would be if I did not have al the ' things' that made me who I was, if I did not belong to the family I did, or the race, the culture, if I was not born into this time or looked the way I did, did not have my 'class' or education.... I suppose it is easier to hide behind these things and allow them to make up our 'self' cause it is harder to do without them. It is almost like a war with yourself and others sometimes, this process of redefinition. No one seems to be comfortable 'seeing' someone who stands as their true self. Does the glare hurt their eyes?


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August 05, 2003
From: Tracey

Yes... it is these "external" things that we tend to pick-up along the way that we let define who we think we are... Yet, in a way... they are necessary contrasts for revealing what we really are NOT... as we begin to see ourselves through the light of the many experiences that teach us well about the true essence of the universe.

This world attempts to offer us a pale shadow of our divine selves. It says...you are measured against what level of education you might have... what your job says you are... who your family is...what you look like... how much money you make... what you own and possess... they say... this is YOU! And base their definition upon all these limited and external things. These are but the little things of the world that stand as poor substitutes for the real Self.

There are many things that stand as a reflection to our true authentic divinity. But it is what we ourselves choose to measure ourselves with and against that will truly define who we are.

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August 06, 2003
From: Yan

I find this to be very interesting... necessary contrasts. At what point do we find the balance between the internal and the external, between our need for financial and social security and our innate knowledge that these things do not define us? I have been raised to believe that success depended on academic advancement, the attainment of financial security etc. I do not necessarily believe these are bad things. At what point does the internal and external come in to conflict? Can we successfully have both?

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August 06, 2003
From: Tracey

From early on, most of us are conditioned to invest heavily in the worth of ourselves through the many external things that this world offers... and it is this we must know and come to realize before the higher truths about our real identity begin to surface, as we measure ourselves based upon the many foundations that are set up for worldly success.

Here-in lies the duality of our spiritual and physical natures.

For as the many experiences unfold, one begins to realize many things about what they are "told" about themselves, and about whom they really are. It is through measuring and contrasting the weight of many things that we begin to see and discern more than just what society says, based upon its own system of success.

Many things are not bad in and of themselves. The difference here is what "we choose" to believe and place value in from within the realms of identifying our true authentic selves. Here, are where the many labels are thrown around to give so-called credence and worth based upon the "label". For example, education in and of itself is a very good thing, as it serves to help keep us better informed, and is a great tool for discerning the world around. But let us say that you get bad grades, can't keep up, and some of your tests scores are low. Now, based upon that system you might think of yourself as a failure, that you are not smart, not good enough, can't grasp it… on and on...you have measured your worth based upon this external system. On the flip side, if one is successful they can get quite an inflated sense of self and think they know all things and need not ask for any help or assistance from anyone... therefore manifesting its own ripple effects into the state and mind of one's perception of who they are.

I am not saying here that the things of this world are necessarily bad, but rather to see them for what they are. Use them wisely to assist in one's journey by doing one's best in all things... as we are both physical and spiritual and must deal in matter and conscious realms at the same time. The tricky part here is that many times... we allow the trappings of the external world to define who we are and get all caught up with that identification based upon what we allow ourselves to perceive.

Contrasts help to serve as a necessary means to help one's spirit develop its own sense of value. Here is where things are revealed for what they are… and so we must carefully choose how we wish to see ourselves.



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