Pride ?

An honest analysis of the current geopolitical and political situation in most countries and your own behaviour towards it will have you thinking about the left , the right , being patriotic and or being nonconformist etc. it matters not the outcome of the analysis because the root cause is possibly one of four emotions - guilt, shame, anger and pride. All of these emotions are from the same same dysfunctional family; they smack of ego and narcissism. Narcissism is in my book an extension of the outcome of ego. Therein is a possible problem; because the definition of ego is different from a psychological and spiritual point of view. 

The ego as defined by psychology is essential a bunch of principles that are at the core of ones thought process and is necessary for life. It is your ego that helps you organise, it is your ego that enables you to learn by asking questions, it is your ego that allows you to add meaning to every day experience. It is what defines and to a great extent defines you. 

At a spiritual level the ego is defined as attachment to something that is false. It is not real, it obscures reality, it is unaware of the limitations, arrogance; and essentially lives in denial. It identifies with the physical body, the outcomes of thought and was born out of your mind. It is attached to what you believe is your self 

The two ideas exist at the same time while essentially being at odds with each other. The reason for coexistence is normally Pride. Both points of view support the existence of pride for different reasons, they do however converge on the outcome of such pride. To understand this we need to understand pride.  In order to do that we need to first understand a bit more about ego. At a psychological level we defend ideas based on an attachment to them, we have a belief of how things must be—our “shoulds” scream out insisting things be as we want to feel safe. This defensive reaction is essentially a mechanism that allows survival of the ego; it defends and it strengthens the belief and in essence provides a feedback loop that justifies the belief. At a spiritual level ego thrives on trying to self preserve. We feel better or less than others as a direct outcome of our ego wanting us to be different.  It defends shame and entitlement and is at the core of narcissism.

What then is pride? The dictionary meaning of pride is - an overly high opinion of one’s self and exaggerated self-esteem and conceit. It’s easier to identify the self with ego for the simple reasons outlined earlier. And If one agrees to that point of view; there are two extremes; one based on accomplishments, doing the right thing, gratitude, and treating people like you would treat your self; the other end is based in self-aggrandising and is a distortion of the ego. This end is destructive, it is fear-based ego which thrives on being prideful and pulls out all stops to hold on tightly to something disagreeable. 

Am I proud of myself , my family, my society, my people, my country is a question that needs to be asked by everyone at all times. Don’t ask me how I feel for I take the 5th as they say in America. 

C