The arrogance of power
The master and his disciple were talking at a street corner when an old woman came up to them:
“Get away from my window!” shouted the old lady. “You are disturbing the customers”. The master apologized and crossed over to the other sidewalk.
They went on talking until an officer came up to them and said:
“We need you to move away from this sidewalk. The count will be passing by here in a few moments”.
“Let him use the other side of the street”, answered the master, without moving.
Then he turned to his disciple and told him: “Don’t forget: never be arrogant to the humble. And never be humble to the arrogant.”
The arrogance of sanctity
The Zen monk spent ten years meditating in his cave, trying to find out the path to the Truth. While he was praying one afternoon, a monkey came up to him. The monk tried to concentrate, but the monkey drew closer and seized the monk’s sandal.
“Damned monkey!” said the hermit. “Why have you come to disturb my prayers?”
“I’m hungry,” said the monkey.
“Go away! You are disturbing my communicating with God!”
“How can you talk to God if you cannot manage to communicate with humble creatures like me?” said the monkey.
And the monk apologized, feeling ashamed.
The arrogance of force
The village was threatened by a tribe of barbarians. The inhabitants were abandoning their houses and fleeing to a safer place. At the end of a year they had all left – except a group of Jesuits.
The army of barbarians entered the city without any resistance and held a great feast to commemorate the victory. In the middle of the dinner a priest appeared.
“You came in here and drove out peace. I beg you to leave at once.”
“Why haven’t you fled yet?” shouted the chief of the barbarians. “Don’t you see that I can run you through with my sword without blinking an eye?”
The priest answered calmly:
“Don’t you see that I can be run through by a sword without blinking an eye?”
Surprised by such serenity before death, the chief of the barbarians and his tribe abandoned the place the next day.
The arrogance of envy
In the Syrian desert, Satan told his disciples: “Human beings are always more concerned about wishing evil on others than doing good to themselves”.
And to demonstrate what he was saying, he decided to test two men who were resting nearby.
“I have come to make your wishes come true”, he said to one of them. “Whatever you want will be given to you. Your friend will receive the same thing – except double”.
The man remained in silence for a long while, and then he finally said:
“My friend is content because he will have double, no matter what my wish is. But I have prepared a trap for him: my wish is that you make me blind in one eye”.
Hello everybody from beautiful Greece.I don’t know much about life because I haven;t lived my life the way I ‘ve wanted.Though, I hate arrogant people and people who think that are superior than the others in any way…
I feel blessed that I have Paulo in my ordinary life(even though we’ve never met-I hope someday we’ll meet
somehow)It’s like I’ve known him for ages and I could trust him my deepest thoughts without worrying of being judged or criticised..God bless him…
arrogance is one of the most deadly sins. there is a story of the persian army attacking the city of sparta with 1 million men. at that moment in time there were 300 soldiers in sparta.as one persian leader said “the thousand nations of the persian empire descend upon you , this is madness” and the spartans replied “the Spartans that on this hillWe lie obedient to them still.”
the spartans held a gorge for 3 days whilst the other greek states gathered up an army to fight the persians. the arrogance of persia cost them there greatest army and that is one more story about arrogance.
Arrogance in itself is a few things:
1. Insecurity,
- self loathing, what we are is not enough so pretending to be something else is better than what we are
- insecure because they are not what they “should” be.
- confidence is an attractive trait one tries to be that in order to be admired or respected and obviously appear “secure” but an over confident line is generally reached.
2. Strength,
- not to be strong but to appear it. Different reasons…to your children, to appear strong to what we think will benefit others in the long run
3. To Convince,
- a way to convince yourself (and everyone else) your alright
4. A Way of Life (Getting By)
Couldn’t agree more..
Arrogance, as if it is an stained glass masquerade.
To hide the vulnerability.
To protect oneself’ heart broken in pieces.
A defense mechanism I wish I could change.
Huey
Don Juan (by Carlos Castaneda)
Arrogance must be seen for what it is.Arrogance is sign of shortage of self-respect.It is indulging to the personal impotence.Protection against ignorance is the best use of the personal energy in thoughts, feelings and deeds (in a serch for beauty).The triumph without war is the best.Do not produce enemies.
Must be thought over.
Awesom to read all this stuff.There is a lot of warmth.
“Don’t forget: never be arrogant to the humble. And never be humble to the arrogant.” – How does that make you different from an arrogant person?????
It’s easy to say you are humble when everyone else around you is humble. But the true test of character comes when you are humble in the presence of an arrogant.[/quote]
I agree with you on this and I also would like to know the answer…
where would one put words about images or merely understand a few things in silence? I read somewhere that whatever there ever has been to be said has already been said. I wonder what one does after that…
For Dave: a short story for you on arrogance.
You and I both from the same homeland have chosen to uproot ourselves & be planted on strange soil. In doing so, we must recognize that our difference may cause others to be arrogant at us at times. Our color, our working ways, our ideas may cause others to treat us …even cruelly at times. But Humility is the best armor against arrogance. Kill arrogance with humility; with this, respect is born.
Hear this story and be proud that we are a race, taught well, in handling arrogance.
2 patients of mine come, one prompt and one late. I stand by as the late patient lashes his anger at me as I decide to treat the prompt patient.I silently take in all his reasons (even his cruel words). Once finished, I merely look at him and re-schedule his appointment. He leaves.
Prompt patient tells me, “Doctor, you have earned my highest respect today. I have concluded that Filipinos are better people than I am. Just this morning, I shouted at a Filipino staff for an honest mistake he did. After almost half an hour of angry words, he looks at me and simply says, I will do better next time sir and goes his way. I could not stand what I had done and told him this afternoon, You are a better person than I am, please forgive me. So don’t worry doctor, that man is just too angry to admit his mistake but he will, in time. But may I ask you how you do it? How can you stand such arrogance?”
Simple: we think little of it, not take it to heart, and we smile a lot. Our country is small and poor but big and rich on serving with a “humble” smile.
!!!:)
Dear Paulo Sir!!
I have read The Zahir and loved it immensely… I just discovered these blogs today and love them totally .. Thank you for writing and sharing your thoughts… They touch me although I don’t understand a lot of it. Your writings have helped me immensely in settling down with my hostelmates and in just being happy… Thank you…
The Priest in “The arrogance of force” reminds me of the MEN who defended & protected our land during the 33 war on Lebanon this summer.
Dear Paulo:
Thank you for all the inspiration you have given me so far, I know i was late getting to know your books and writings, but it is always better late than never.
I wish i would live enough to read your rivers of writings.
You have influenced me so much that i am about to make the decision that will move me away from what “i have to do” to what “i want to do”.
Thanks and God bless you
A man finds a magical lantern on a beach. He excitedly rubs the lamp and a Genie flies out. “I am the Genie of the lamp,” he roars, “I will grant you three wishes on the condition that your neighbour gets two times the worth of your wish.”
The man is grateful for his wishes and makes the first one,” I wish for all the great things in life a big house with a pool and ten cars and five wives.”
The genie granted his wish and his neighbour got double.
The man a bit irate at his neighbour’s fortune made his second wish,” I wish of all the money gold and jewels of the world.” The genie granted his wish and again the neighbour got double. The man was totally angry, he couldn’t even enjoy his new gifts or his five wives because his neighbour had ten wives and two houses and twenty cars.
He thought long and hard about his last wish…”Genie of the lamp, for my last wish, I wish for one testicle…
Over the past nine months I have learned a few great things…My most valuable lesson was to listen to your heart when it shouts so loud that you hear it and feel it pounding through your chest and to forget what your head is saying as it is only what you are programmed to think. Your heart is who you are and nobody can take that from you as your life is between God and you.
All those voices saying do it, work there, don’t leave, don’t grow, never think for yourself, listen to me, I know best, never follow your heart, never trust the world, only think of yourself. The list goes on. There has been Destine written in the sand for everyone. Thousands of years may have passed and what has been written has long been hidden, but it was once written and although it was lost, God in his love wrote something just for you.
Hello everyone, I am tamara from Queens NY, This is my first post. The Alchemist opened my eyes and I’ve been hungry for more ever since.
I am still learning to let go of my arrogance and I am eager to be rid of it. It has caused me much pain, sorrow and heartache. I deserve, I’m better, why me or why not me, I should have, I should be, I own great things, and the list goes on and on..
Learning to be humble I am happier, lighter and not weighed down by the arrogance society has confused with privelege.
Thank you Paulo for opening my eyes to live a fuller happier life everyday!
Your way of writing is just excellent! And what you are writing is so true!
I agree with Vikas to an extent. YES, we learn best out of life experiences and even Paulo mentions this in his books and passages. A book can NOT tell a person who he/she is. This is something that the person has to find out for themselves.
Books on the otherhand can inspire and motivate the reader to go out in the world to experience and for self realisation. Books can help guide the reader in the right direction. Books open a world many of us thought never existed, and yes its up to us to explore this world and learn from it.
It is a bit naive to say that we can not find ourselves through writing. I might have not fully have understood what Vikas meant with the following:
“I hope guys get over writing to learn the things of two yourself …”
I personally know that keeping a journal, a blog or even writing novels you learn a lot of your own personality. When I write its like meditation. You scale the depths of your mind and resurface things you never knew about yourself. Some things great and some things not so great, but always good to know.
Dave – Thanks for the sweet compliment! I would gladly adopt you if I was OLD ENOUGH to be the mother of a 23 year old! I’m only 41 years YOUNG!Hee hee!
Josephine – You are so right..courage and love ARE the only important things. Time has its importance, too, though, as I’m finding….always running out of it, it seems! Money…I actually hate it..with the love of it being the root of all evil and stuff. Maybe it’s not so much the love it, but the greed that results.
Chris – Totally agree with you about Paulo being a ‘messenger of the heart’….that’s the perfect way to describe him!
And last but not least – Daniel Q. – I was interested in what you said about authority. That was a good observation about the officer not being arrogant. I know, I personally, as I mentioned above (many moons ago) I had a funny feeling about being arrogant to the policeman and maybe it was because of that one point – that HE wasn’t being arrogant. Thinking of the arrogance, however, of the ‘important’ person who was about to pass…I think that’s where we all placed our focus. At least, I think that this is what the story was, perhaps, supposed to be about. (??)
I had to laugh to myself and wonder….are you a police officer or in some similar position, which is why you took offense?
I don’t personally hate authority, myself. I hate corrupt government officials…and, well, corrupt individuals. And, I guess hate is too strong a word. My wish for them is that they would look within themselves and act out of love for all humanity, as opposed to their own welfare and greedy interests. It hurts my soul to see our governments killing our planet and us for money.
Sorry to be such a posting hog! I just love people and love to connect, as I live such a sheltered and reclusive life.
Peace and love to all and to all a good night. Oh, or good day, whichever the case may be.
-New and Improved, Smiley Face Icon – Free, Deb. (Did you notice? Not a one!) (And I feel so naked without them)
I never saw Paulo to be a teacher but as a messenger. We as humans already know the meaning of good and bad and we dont need anybody to teach us these things. What we need are messages of hope and love to rekindle the good in us, and Paulo gives us these messages in a clear and concise way. How important the message is determined by how much weight the message has. And Paulo’s messages weigh a ton in love, peace, hope and freedom. These are messages of the heart and they inspire me to always strive to be a better person in every possible aspect.
Thanks Paulo for being our messenger of the heart.
Our thoughts and actions are defined by the things which we have seen and experience, yet these things become our world leaving the world besides. ” Are these the things this forum is about”. It seems that some are eulogising themselves. Do we need to realise ourselves from some books now? Arent people awake enough to learn from life? The chapters of books are long written, read and forgotten, but the life remains the greater master of all as its learnings cant be effaced in ones life time.
I hope guys get over writing to learn the things of two yourself. When the life strikes, you and you only decidet the consequenses based on your insticts. Now some will say instincts can be trained by reading writings.
Yes, insticts can be trained but by experience. good books leave good thougths, the positive behind but learn to unlearn to act on those.
Preaching is not of great help so i am not a philosper. i can go on but you guys get to know yourself by experience.