We often hear about the importance of humility and being humble, but few people truly comprehend this. Insecure, prideful people lack humility, and the price they pay is that they experience a great deal of shame.
The Bible is clear on this:
With pride comes shame, but with humility comes wisdom. (Proverbs 11:2)
Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor. (Proverbs 29:23) (NLT)
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you. (James 4:10)
Without humility, you will experience a great deal of shame and humiliation. There is a reason why shame is the lowest emotion on the Map of Consciousness. Except for the feeling of wanting to die, there is nothing more agonizing.
Many people experience ongoing negative thoughts every single day. They continuously attack themselves (“I hate myself”; “I’m a loser”) and feel terrible shame over limitations they have and mistakes they have made. It is almost a continuous looping cycle with only the occasional respite.
Why do people do this to themselves? Quite simply, they lack humility.
Without humility, you won’t be able to stop thinking negative thoughts. Without humility, you won’t be able to stop attacking yourself.
The first step to humility is to fully embrace your humanness. This means accepting your limitations. It means accepting that you have been saddled with a primitive human brain that is far more influenced by emotion than it is by reason. Contrary to popular opinion, we do not use only ten percent of our brains. We actually use one hundred percent, but this matters little because our brains are deeply flawed.
Given the limitations of the human condition, it should hardly be surprising that most of us struggle when it comes to worldly pursuits. Therefore, there should be no shame in the fact that we often come up short in so many areas of our lives. You may not be smart enough, attractive enough, or successful enough, but that’s okay because it doesn’t subtract from your worth in the eyes of God. And it shouldn’t subtract from your worth in your own eyes, either. When you pass on to the next world, what will ultimately matter is not what you experienced in this life or the amount of worldly success you achieved, but how much you grew spiritually. In other words, what will matter is your level of consciousness, as this is what will determine whether you go to heaven or hell.
Another major challenge for people is how to deal with past mistakes. The key is to understand that we each do the best we can in any given moment. If we could have made a better choice, we certainly would have. Therefore, every choice we make is the only choice we could have made. (“It seemed like a good idea at the time”). Humility is crucial here. Man’s greatest limitation is his inability to determine truth from falsehood. What this means is that we are each intrinsically innocent. If we understand this, if we can see our innocence, we can forgive ourselves.
This is what God wants. While He does want us to acknowledge our mistakes and correct them, He does not want us to continually punish ourselves over them. After all, if God is willing to forgive us for our transgressions, then shouldn’t we be able to forgive ourselves as well?
It will also be helpful to understand that you are not the same person today that you were last year or even last week. What this means is that the mistakes you are beating yourself up over were actually made not by you but by a different person. If you could travel back in time, you surely wouldn’t make those mistakes again. Only a different person would have the wisdom to choose differently. Therefore, we can honestly say that you, the you who exists today, are innocent. Again, we are all intrinsically innocent. And under Christ, we are forgiven.
Many people beat themselves up over their limitations. However, your limitations and negative experiences may be karmic in that you did bad things in a previous lifetime, and so now you pay the price for them in this one. In my book Christianity 2.0, I recount many of the limitations I had, which resulted in enormous failures that brought me great shame. These crippling limitations were so deeply ingrained that I was only able to overcome them by doing Radical Truth and Iboga. The many disappointments and failures in my life weren’t easy to come to terms with, but one of the things that helped me find peace was realizing that it was my karma that I would be a crippled person. What also helped me was the realization that I was actually on the perfect path all along. My life, despite everything, has been perfect. And if you are reading this right now, I suspect this is also true for you as well.
With this understanding, we move on to the final step: Surrender.
Most people are guarded. Most people are afraid that others will see their flaws and weaknesses. Most people are afraid of being embarrassed or humiliated. But a person who has humility can never feel embarrassed or humiliated. If we can surrender our pride, we will be at peace with ourselves no matter how flawed we are, no matter how deficient we may be in the eyes of the world.
Most importantly, we can finally stop attacking ourselves. We can finally stop hating ourselves. While we can hide our true self from others, we cannot hide it from ourselves. But once we surrender our pride, then there is nothing left to hide and nothing to be ashamed of. The heavy anchor weighing us down can be cast aside, and we will finally be free.
I can testify to this because I’ve been one of those people who couldn’t stop attacking myself. Even after I reached a high level of consciousness (the level of Ecstasy), this was still a problem.
It was still a problem because I hadn’t yet learned to let go of my pride. I still hadn’t been willing to let my guard down.
But once I was finally able to do this, I began to experience life on a whole new level. In the past, the feeling of ecstasy would often fade due to all the negative thoughts and emotions that I couldn’t turn off. But once I finally did, the feeling of ecstasy became much more constant. I even started to sleep better. I started having dreams that were pleasant rather than uncomfortable. In the past, I would often wake up feeling awful and groggy, but now I wake up feeling good. It’s nothing short of incredible.
As you can see, true humility comes from surrender. Be willing to surrender everything, to let other people see you just as you are. No more masks. No more hiding or pretending. Just be you.
People can accept you or not. But the most important thing is that you are able to accept yourself.
There is nothing more liberating than that.
***
I reread this article every single day, and I recommend that you do the same. Why? Because the wisdom it contains is easily forgotten.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
All other scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Christian Bible
The Bible is clear on this:
With pride comes shame, but with humility comes wisdom. (Proverbs 11:2)
Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor. (Proverbs 29:23) (NLT)
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you. (James 4:10)
Without humility, you will experience a great deal of shame and humiliation. There is a reason why shame is the lowest emotion on the Map of Consciousness. Except for the feeling of wanting to die, there is nothing more agonizing.
Many people experience ongoing negative thoughts every single day. They continuously attack themselves (“I hate myself”; “I’m a loser”) and feel terrible shame over limitations they have and mistakes they have made. It is almost a continuous looping cycle with only the occasional respite.
Why do people do this to themselves? Quite simply, they lack humility.
Without humility, you won’t be able to stop thinking negative thoughts. Without humility, you won’t be able to stop attacking yourself.
The first step to humility is to fully embrace your humanness. This means accepting your limitations. It means accepting that you have been saddled with a primitive human brain that is far more influenced by emotion than it is by reason. Contrary to popular opinion, we do not use only ten percent of our brains. We actually use one hundred percent, but this matters little because our brains are deeply flawed.
Given the limitations of the human condition, it should hardly be surprising that most of us struggle when it comes to worldly pursuits. Therefore, there should be no shame in the fact that we often come up short in so many areas of our lives. You may not be smart enough, attractive enough, or successful enough, but that’s okay because it doesn’t subtract from your worth in the eyes of God. And it shouldn’t subtract from your worth in your own eyes, either. When you pass on to the next world, what will ultimately matter is not what you experienced in this life or the amount of worldly success you achieved, but how much you grew spiritually. In other words, what will matter is your level of consciousness, as this is what will determine whether you go to heaven or hell.
Another major challenge for people is how to deal with past mistakes. The key is to understand that we each do the best we can in any given moment. If we could have made a better choice, we certainly would have. Therefore, every choice we make is the only choice we could have made. (“It seemed like a good idea at the time”). Humility is crucial here. Man’s greatest limitation is his inability to determine truth from falsehood. What this means is that we are each intrinsically innocent. If we understand this, if we can see our innocence, we can forgive ourselves.
This is what God wants. While He does want us to acknowledge our mistakes and correct them, He does not want us to continually punish ourselves over them. After all, if God is willing to forgive us for our transgressions, then shouldn’t we be able to forgive ourselves as well?
It will also be helpful to understand that you are not the same person today that you were last year or even last week. What this means is that the mistakes you are beating yourself up over were actually made not by you but by a different person. If you could travel back in time, you surely wouldn’t make those mistakes again. Only a different person would have the wisdom to choose differently. Therefore, we can honestly say that you, the you who exists today, are innocent. Again, we are all intrinsically innocent. And under Christ, we are forgiven.
Many people beat themselves up over their limitations. However, your limitations and negative experiences may be karmic in that you did bad things in a previous lifetime, and so now you pay the price for them in this one. In my book Christianity 2.0, I recount many of the limitations I had, which resulted in enormous failures that brought me great shame. These crippling limitations were so deeply ingrained that I was only able to overcome them by doing Radical Truth and Iboga. The many disappointments and failures in my life weren’t easy to come to terms with, but one of the things that helped me find peace was realizing that it was my karma that I would be a crippled person. What also helped me was the realization that I was actually on the perfect path all along. My life, despite everything, has been perfect. And if you are reading this right now, I suspect this is also true for you as well.
With this understanding, we move on to the final step: Surrender.
Most people are guarded. Most people are afraid that others will see their flaws and weaknesses. Most people are afraid of being embarrassed or humiliated. But a person who has humility can never feel embarrassed or humiliated. If we can surrender our pride, we will be at peace with ourselves no matter how flawed we are, no matter how deficient we may be in the eyes of the world.
Most importantly, we can finally stop attacking ourselves. We can finally stop hating ourselves. While we can hide our true self from others, we cannot hide it from ourselves. But once we surrender our pride, then there is nothing left to hide and nothing to be ashamed of. The heavy anchor weighing us down can be cast aside, and we will finally be free.
I can testify to this because I’ve been one of those people who couldn’t stop attacking myself. Even after I reached a high level of consciousness (the level of Ecstasy), this was still a problem.
It was still a problem because I hadn’t yet learned to let go of my pride. I still hadn’t been willing to let my guard down.
But once I was finally able to do this, I began to experience life on a whole new level. In the past, the feeling of ecstasy would often fade due to all the negative thoughts and emotions that I couldn’t turn off. But once I finally did, the feeling of ecstasy became much more constant. I even started to sleep better. I started having dreams that were pleasant rather than uncomfortable. In the past, I would often wake up feeling awful and groggy, but now I wake up feeling good. It’s nothing short of incredible.
As you can see, true humility comes from surrender. Be willing to surrender everything, to let other people see you just as you are. No more masks. No more hiding or pretending. Just be you.
People can accept you or not. But the most important thing is that you are able to accept yourself.
There is nothing more liberating than that.
***
I reread this article every single day, and I recommend that you do the same. Why? Because the wisdom it contains is easily forgotten.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
All other scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Christian Bible