6 - Pride / Arrogance



CHALLENGE :

  • To assert our natural strength and pride

  • To prevent arrogance from obstructing
    our communication and cooperation with others

  • To prevent being treated with disrespect

RANGE :

Arrogance, haughtiness, pride etc. challenge us
from STAGE 1 to STAGE 9

This challenge manifests in different intensities
depending on the stage we focus on:

  • STAGE 1          - Totally overshadowing

  • STAGE 2 to 4  - Partially overshadowing

  • STAGE 5 to 8  - Restricting our scope of life

  • STAGE 9          - Subtle

 

 

Pride

[TOP]
We need natural pride to survive the current mood of our world. Without sound self-esteem and strength of character the egoistic motives of others may far too easily turn our life into unwanted directions.

    We don't need to generate natural pride. We were born with it. Everyone - even the biggest coward - showed enormous courage when he immersed himself into these overpowering material surroundings to face his scariest nightmares, desires, challenges and dreads in physical form.

    Yet as chaotic this may look at times, what we experience is a learning process to which we committed ourselves willingly and in total freedom of choice. It gives us insights into emotional depths of our character and essence more gentle environments cannot provide.

    Thus courage and confidence are an indelible part of our existence. These ancient powers enable us to experience this world in the first place.

    Nobody can ever take this sense of inner worth and self-respect from us. And when confronted with challenges and tribulations we only need to claim this indestructible part of our very existence, we only need to evoke our fundamental courage and with its archaic power face all troubles.



 

Arrogance

[TOP]
Arrogance - however - is something different.

    Arrogance, haughtiness, aloofness, self-importance etc. always indicate the exact opposite : - deep LACK of confidence and sovereignty. More often than not it only tries to gloss over gross lack of knowledge and understanding, deep insecurity, and uncertainty of one's social position and acceptance. For lack of personality it overvalues the importance of money, status, power and trinkets.

    Arrogance and its variants produce grave drawbacks for those exhibiting it -

  • Arrogance gives one's own  point of view such exalted importance that it discards all other beings, experiences, judgments, activities and viewpoints as far less significant or deeply beneath consideration.

        Yet the viewpoints and experiences of others offer insight into wisdom and skills we could not (yet) gain ourselves.

        Disdain for others' insights is mostly caused by fear that new viewpoints may violate our prestige. Yet such behavior only solidifies this subconscious angst and insecurity, and intensifies the vulnerability of our position and opinion.

  • Arrogance erects unnecessary barriers between ourselves and others. It excludes us from the benign cooperation and interchange with other people.

        Arrogant people hardly ever notice that they are left out. To their face they are paid lip-service that corroborates their aloofness, but behind their backs they are called idiots while their behavior is violently objected.

        The more aloof we parade our possessions, status, beliefs etc., the more we reduce our scope of life.


 

It's Easy to Deflate Arrogance

[TOP]
Most people feel hurt when treated arrogantly, yet it's quite easy to deflate all types of arrogance.


Arrogance, aloofness, haughtiness etc.
run into emptiness if we simply ignore them.


    Arrogance affects us only if WE accept the game. If we ignore it, it has no effect and cannot hurt us.

    So it's basically our decision whether we want to back another person's arrogance, - or whether it wouldn't be better to simply ignore such antics and turn to less narrow themes.

    Be aware that opposing someone's arrogance also costs our energy - possibly as much as when we silently suffer by it.



 

How to Find Out If This Challenge Is Active

[TOP]
Arrogance is easily recognized in others, but it's quite a test to realize and accept that we ourselves are under its sway.
   
    A number of simple signs tell us if this obstructive mechanism is active in our life -
  • Do we need to feel important, - and do we crave others to continually bolster this feeling?
  • Do differing views irritate us?
  • Do we only accept people who confirm our importance - and flatter us in our presumed supremacy?
  • Do we communicate with others as if we grant an audience to subjects?
  • Do we acknowledge that more advanced people might exist, - but certainly not in our immediate environment?

This challenge is also active
  • when we feel hurt if brushed off haughtily or treated with disdain, and
  • when it irritates us to watch others being put down arrogantly and with contempt.
    And further - the fact that we chose bodily existence in this time of pervasive egoistic conduct makes it most likely that this challenge is active in us now.



 

How to Neutralize Arrogance

[TOP]
We cannot remove this blockage by opposing, battling, suppressing or repenting it. Any kind of energy we put towards this attitude - no matter if we accept or fight it - only attaches our emotions to this same theme. Yet this inevitably programs similar experiences for our future.
   
    How can we neutralize arrogant behavior while retaining the natural  pride and self-respect we need for survival?

  • If we are secure in our knowledge, self-respect and inner worth, there's no need for aloofness to get respect from our fellow people. It is accorded naturally.

  • Rising disdain and aloofness are warning signs that our life is narrowing. It pays to stop this attitude before it paralyzes our life completely.

  • Decide if feeling self-important is more valuable than inner growth.

  • Remembering how hurt we felt when others treated us with arrogance and haughtiness (e.g. during childhood), - why then make others feel this way?

  • Certainly - WE  are the pride of creation no-one will ever reach and of which there can be only one.

        Sure. - Unfortunately we'll hardly find others to endorse this, since everyone else also feels to be the crown of creation.

        So let's scale it down a bit - in the huge emotional space beyond the region of arrogance we'll find inner sovereignty entirely independent of others recognizing or confirming it.

  • Open up to new ideas and concepts from every source that is presenting them.

  • Realize that you are not enlightened yet - otherwise why would you be reading this text. So why not ask others for assistance if this enables you to reach higher spheres faster.

  • And if arrogant treatment hurts you, you can easily remove this from your life. Just stop dealing it out to those 'beneath' you (children, subordinates, trainees, students etc.). Dealing it out inevitably programs you to experience this problematic emotion from the receiving end as well. Stop this vicious circle before it even begins.



 

Arrogance Manifests in Different Intensities - Depending on the Stage We Currently Focus On

[TOP]

In  STAGE  1
all intensities and varieties of this challenge can influence us. This is the only stage where we may block all our growth by showing haughtiness and senseless self-importance.

    In STAGE 1 it feels normal to put down others haughtily - while a minute later feeling hurt when we get treated this way.

    As long as we allow our arrogant behavior to run unchecked, we automatically lay the seed for further - active as well as passive - experiences of similar intensity. Arrogance and all its negative effects remain a theme of our life for as long as we don't stop this mechanism.

    The only effective way to neutralize this challenge completely is to shift focus to STAGE 4.



In  STAGE  2 to  4
we start to wonder if aloof behavior is such a good thing. Our stance softens a bit. If - each time this challenge activates - we make a conscious effort to stop this obstructing emotion, we create a momentum that will ultimately free us from this challenge - irrespective whether each single effort is successful or not.



From  STAGE  5  to  8
we more and more realize the total uselessness of this emotion. Yet sometimes we still succumb to its sway.

    Patience, perseverance and being aware of this mechanism help to overcome such temporary eruptions.

    The higher the stage we focus on, the clearer we perceive what causes arrogance within us and how to neutralize it.



In  STAGE  9
arrogance merely surfaces as mild emotion. Yet its ever so slight egoistic urge stops further expansion.

    At this stage we easily identify and neutralize any manifestation of this challenge.



 

Practical Tips

[TOP]

 

  • It's irrelevant whether everyone bows to your point of view.

        What matters is to advance to higher stages.
       
        Leave the sphere where you're always right. Wanting to always be right only rivets you to your present level.

        Cherish new clues from anyone providing them - even from those deemed far beneath your status.


  • Positions defended by pride and arrogance are not based on better arguments, but solely on the projection of negative energy (aggression, unwillingness etc.).

        Battling them restricts you to their narrow scope. Simply ignore them, they won't help you grow in any case.


  • The more arrogant an opinion gets presented, the more narrow-minded it is.


  • The more sovereign and secure we are in our knowledge, the more we tolerate or accept the views of others.


  • Some people enjoy others stoop before them, - and never care what's talked behind their back. Yet most often they only experience one limited theme in all their life: - their ascent to highest heights and then a deep fall into oblivion. They are poor people confined to tight boundaries till their days end.

        It's our decision whether we want to play their narrow game - fighting it, or getting irritated by it; - or whether we wouldn't prefer to direct our precious time and energy towards more expansive themes.


  • Holding fast onto aloof behavior solidifies life into unmoving static that's easily mistaken for stability.

        Do you sometimes - when you are all alone - feel your life run into emptiness, - that you are unable to grasp something important, something too subtle to apprehend, something nobody tells you?

        - Then try welcoming fresh ideas and the experiences of others. This leads out of your isolation.


  • And if you are famous now, and others give you all the recognition you crave, - enjoy, - but also look inside: - being recognized doesn't make you enlightened; it only satisfies some rather naïve longing.


Next: - CHALLENGE  7 - Status and Recognition


Author:  Hermann Kuhn
Book-Title:  'Unlimited Horizons'

ISBN:  978-3-9811466-9-1
Copyright 2008 Crosswind Publishing, Wunstorf, Germany

Available in pdf-format at DOWNLOADS

www.unlimited-horizons.de