Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Humility Precedes Wisdom

This is something any wise person could tell me if I'd the inclination to listen. I've read this idea in multiple places. It never sank in until recently.

Wisdom is found only when one loses one's sense of pride. This is not to say one should not or can not have pride and also be wise. However, when one loses pride and is "cowed" by awe into humility one has taken a step towards sophia (AKA wisdom). There are many other steps on the path, some I've taken, some I've yet to choose. I feel a new sense of pride, one that comes from having found my humility and then rebuilt myself as a new "man."

When one loses pride one is forced to find it again from a different route. One finds pride and, in turn, wisdom only after having lost one's vain pride. This, as I've (re)discovered, is a different sort of "pride" and comes from a different source than vanity  (or self-pride). This pride feels as if it comes from simply being oneself and not from being "prideful" of oneself. In this way, I can say I am humble and bow before God but still say I am proud.

Humility (and, in order, pride) can often be found in:
a) realizing one's flaws
b) accepting and owning one's flaws
c) seeking a way to overcome one's flaws
d) overcoming one's flaws (or turning flaws into positive characteristics)

All philosophers (seekers or lovers of wisdom) must, and usually do, come to this realization at some point in their growth. A wise woman is humble, a hubristic man is not wise. Hubris has been defined fairly specifically and in different ways over the decades. For me, it is a simple concept. To commit hubris is to feel excessive pride in oneself or in humanity in general. To have true pride, and not hubris, is to feel a humble satisfaction that comes from simply being.

One may find "true pride" in other ways, but for me, it was found through having my existing prideful vanity torn down and cast away in spite of myself. When that happened I felt bare but empowered. I had lost the restrictions of my own vainglory and was free to feel both humility AND pride.

This, is one step of many in my search for Sophia. May you find these words helpful in your own seeking.

-Lykeios - AKA Adam -

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