A man who visited the Master's home was astonished. He saw the Master was busy working; he hauls the water with a bucket and brushes the floor of his house aloud. His sweat was sweating profusely. Watching this oddity the man asks, What are you doing?
The Teacher replied, I was the arrival of a group of guests who asked for advice. I give a lot of useful advice for them. They seemed very satisfied. However, after they came home suddenly I felt like a great person. My arrogance began to appear. Therefore, I do this to kill my arrogant feelings.
Arrogance is a disease that often affects us all, whose seeds too often appear without us knowing it. At the lowest level, arrogant is caused by material factor. We feel richer, more beautiful, and more honorable than others.
In the second level, arrogant is caused by intelligence. We feel smarter, more competent, and more insightful than others.
At the third level, arrogant caused by factors kindness. We often think of ourselves as more moral, more generous, and more sincere than others.
Interestingly, the higher the level of arrogance, the more difficult it is we detect it. Arrogant because the material is very easily visible, but arrogant because of knowledge, especially arrogant for good, difficult to detect because often just shaped seeds in our inner.
The root of this pride is the excessive ego. On a normal level, the ego presents itself in the form of self-esteem and self-confidence.
However, once these two things become pride, you are already very close to pride. The boundary between the proud and the arrogant is less clear.
We are actually composed of two poles, the ego at one pole and the true consciousness in another pole. At the moment of being born into the world, we are naked and have nothing. However, over time, we begin to cultivate desires, more than we need in life. Our six senses always say we need more.
The journey of life tend to lead us toward the poles ego. It is this ego illusion that introduces us to the dualism of greed (extreme likes) and hatred (extreme dislike). This is the root of all problems.
The struggle against pride is the struggle for true consciousness. To fight against pride in all its forms, there are two paradigm shifts we need to make. First, we need to realize that in essence we are not physical beings, but spiritual beings. Our truth is spirituality, while the physical body is only a means to live in the world. We are born with empty hands, and (remember!) We will die with empty hands.
This view will make us see all beings in universal equality. We will no longer be fooled by looks, labels, and everything else outside. What we now see is inward. Views like this will help keep us away from the vanity or ego illusions.
Second, we need to realize that no matter what good deeds we do, they are merely for our own sake.
We give something to others is also for our own sake.
In this life applies the law of conservation of energy. The energy we give to the world will never be destroyed. That energy will return to us in another form. The good that we do will surely come back to us in the form of friendship, love, meaning of life, and deep inner satisfaction. So, any good deeds to others, we are actually doing good to ourselves. If so, what are we arrogant.