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Can there be peace without humility?
When our minds are filled with egoism, we are far from peaceful. We are forever immersed in imaginary battles of ego. Our minds are disturbed as they are preoccupied with proving our own importance. Our minds are turbulent as our sense of exclusive self importance clashes with that of others. The result is bitterness, hatred and conflict. With this comes fear and endless agitation in the mind. Our peace of mind is directly proportional to our absence of egoism. A human being who has become truly humble is truly peaceful. He is at ease with himself . He has nothing to prove to others. He has no desire to make others feel small and prove his supremacy or superiority. Therefore, other people instinctively feel at ease with him. A humble man is respected and his opinion valued. This is because he sees free from notions and can be unbiased in his opinions. Humility can enable us to see the crux of any problem. In any situation, we can recognize our limitations and accept them. This brings peace to the mind.
Humility does not mean an absence of self identity. Rather, it implies an emptiness, a state of mind that is free from all limiting notions, from all arrogance and vanity and from a sense of exclusive self importance. It implies a receptivity to the new and to the unknown. The humble man is peaceful because he does not see himself as being at war with the rest of the world. Since he is not defending inflated self images, he can be spontaneous and receptive, natural and peaceful. His identity is rooted in a love of life as a whole, a universality of approach, an intrinsic sense of oneness with the rest of creation. A deep calm and peace envelops us if we are free from a sense of separateness.
Egoism is a sense of separateness. It makes us cut off from the rest of creation. It gives us an exclusive sense of self importance. Everything is seen as being subordinate to a narrow self identity "I". This delusion becomes a breeding ground for conflict and bitterness, hatred and fear. Since every human being on this planet has his own desires, needs, drives, ways of thinking, strengths and weaknesses, one's sense of separateness if built upon, can be a potent source of division and fear. A person who sees himself as removed from others, who builds walls between himself and the rest of creation, breeds division and conflict. Subtly, unnoticed even to ourselves, we build walls around our awareness. We confine ourself to narrow domestic walls, to fragmentary awareness by clinging to manmade divisions of nationality, power, wealth, status, education, religion and so on. We develop our own set of likes and dislikes based on affiliations and loyalties of various sorts. Based on religion, nationality, language, skin colour and so on, we build walls and create a polarized world. This polarization of consciousness within us reflects as conflict in the world at large . At an individual level, we lose our peace of mind, our most precious treasure. On a larger scale, our arrogance can lead to war.
Our deepest self which is the source of all love, peace and joy, is an unbounded, unitive awareness. It is the very ground of being, the substratum of awareness within us. Here, lies utter humility and total peace. For, we are unattached to name and form. We are not swayed by appearances, by likes and dislikes, loyalties and hatred, by selective identification with our body, a puny bundle of matter, as "I" and a few people, places and objects as "mine". In true humility, we abide in the oneness of all creation. We celebrate this oneness by sharing and experience deep peace and fulfillment within ourselves. Since peace and contentment is intrinsic, we are free from craving, clinging and compulsions. Our minds are clear and calm. We are able to act after careful consideration and measured thought. Our understanding is not muddled by imaginary notions of self importance. In our essential oneness, we are filled with true humility, we are totally receptive to the new, learning every moment, free from fear and vanity and filled with peace and joy.
Can we be truly peaceful without being truly humble? If our minds are filled with arrogance and pride, if we have inflated self images, will we be at peace? To me, it seems unlikely. For, arrogance is a product of self centredness and illusion. An honest appreciation of life as it is reveals our various limitations and the many ways in which every creature and every human being may be better than us. Where, then, is the place for pride and vanity? Our strengths - physical, mental and intellectual- have limitations of various kinds. In an acknowledgement of our limitations, our awareness becomes receptive to the new, to the untapped resources within ourselves, to new ways of thought and action, to vital but unharnessed reserves. In an awareness of our limitations, we become open to new learning and insight. By acknowledging and accepting our limitations comes deep humility. With humility arises reverence for the whole of creation. True humility makes us peaceful as all vanity and egoism is removed from our minds and hearts. We are willing to learn from every person and from every situation. We let go of fixed notions and become receptive to every new moment as it unfolds. We become emptied of pride, prejudice, egoism, likes and dislikes, hatred, conflict and bitterness. In this emptiness, we are filled with spontaneous understanding and deep insight, extraordinary peace, compassion, love and joy.