The seven cardinal sins were eight, organized at the beginning of Christianity by the Greek monk Evágrio do Ponto, and defining the principal negative inclinations of the human being (it is curious that on Evágrio’s list, the most serious sin is gluttony…). All of them were able to take us to hell. In the 16th century, Pope Gregory made the first changes in the list, including “envy” but merging pride and vanity. In the 17th century the list was rewritten again, and “melancholy” ceased to be a sin, being replaced by “sloth”. Now we have today’s list as a basis on which the next seven columns will be based.
According to the dictionary: Feminine noun, pride comes from the Latin Superbia. It means haughtiness, conceit, arrogance, presumption.
According to the Catholic Church: Self-esteem that goes beyond limits and places itself above love for God. It goes against the First Commandment (You shall have no other gods before Me), and it was this passion that caused the rebellion of the angels and the fall of Lucifer.
In a Zen fable: The grand master of Tofuku noted that the monastery was busy. Novices ran back and forth, employees stood in line to receive someone.
“What’s happening?” he wanted to know.
A soldier came up to the master and gave him a card which said: “Kitagaki, the governor of Kyoto, has just arrived and is asking for an interview.”
“I don’t have anything to discuss with this person”, said the master.
Minutes later, the governor came up, apologized, crossed out what was on the card and delivered it again to the master.
It said: “Kitagaki asks for an interview”.
“Welcome”, said the Zen master of Tofuku.
On an aircraft carrier: “MISSION FULFILLED” (banner on the USS Lincoln on May 1, 2003, when President Bush announced the end of the major military operations in Iraq. On that day, the number of American soldiers dead came to 217. On the day that I am writing this column, the figure has exceeded 2,700)
For Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: “When someone tries to discover who you are, using secondary things as a way of comparison, he finds a series of empty shells – which depend on each other to make sense.
“It is not correct to define yourself as a friend of Tom, son of Dick, an executive in such a post, doing this or that task”. Because all we will discover through this method are aspects of ourselves – aspects that are usually gloomy and incomplete, of someone who is trying to become visible at the expense of others.
“The only relationship possible is with the Lord; from then on, everything begins to make sense, and we open our eyes to a greater meaning”.
According to St. Augustine: Pride is not grandeur, it is swollen-headedness. What swells seems big, but really it is a disease.
Advice from the Tao Te King: It is better not to fill a vase completely rather than try to carry it if it is full.
When we sharpen a knife too much, its cutting edge will not be preserved.
When gold and jade fill a room, their owners will be unable to keep them safe.
When wealth and honors lead to arrogance, for sure evil will come soon after.
When we do our work and our name begins to become famous, wisdom consists of withdrawing into obscurity as soon as the task ends.
(next: Greed)
I do not believe I’d be ready to do that. But after reading your writing here makes me feel like I could do it.
aditya ,
i agree , lets not worry about yesterday or tommorow , lets worry about today. let us walk the path of improvement. it will be a long journey but it will be worth it. in the words of a great man “it is not the end , it is not even the beggining of the end , but perhaps it is the end of the beggining”
HI Tom,
There is not much point in worrying about what a god is or will be, let’s just focus on ourselves and see if we can improve anything, if answer is yes great let’s put some efforts in that direction, if the answer is no, wonedrful, let’s just be at peace with ourselves and others to?
Aditya
i agree with you IN and also you Aditya. i dont think that anyone can be perfect , even gods , wether christian , buddhist , hindu or pagan religion. i am not a christian myself , but i believe in a religion. i think gods are just purer than mortals. after all can gods touch , can they feel ? if they could then they would feel temptation to abuse these gifts , and so they can not be perfect. for if they couldnt feel then it would be a sad existance. but can gods feel sadness ? i guess that we will have to wait and see , and when we do know what gods are , it will be too late to come back and tell everyone , because we will no longer be amongst them….
HI IN !
It’s pteety much OK to feel envious, proud etc etc, but we should beware of acting on them, leads into a viscious circle, my experience. But such a feat, ‘feeling’ the sins but not acting on them is possible only if we remain ‘aware’.
Beutiful statement that ” only real sin is not recognising one”. We may be wrong. tomorrow, the very next moment something new may get revealed to us which changes are viewpoint drastically; but that should not prevent us from acting in the direction of ‘right’ as per our own sence of write & wrong, at the moment.
even Jesus said “I am not good, only God is good” . And I am not in despair. I sometimes feel envy, lust or pride, or one of the other sins. It’s ok. That is what makes us human. All that we need to learn is the difference between good and bad. For example if you have achieved something real good. It is good to feel good about it but, it is bad to think that you are better than any other man or woman. That is what we need to know. If we have committed a sin, we must understand that it was a sin and wrong. That is our good side. and to come back on the subject of the article. Pride doesn’t let you think outside the box. It only makes you think you are always right even when you are not.
The real sin is not acknowledging the sin.
Hi Tom ! Hi In !
Taking the path less travelled r u ? by being here when the party is over as DEb ( no ?) once put it. not many ‘hits’ to these ‘old sins’ I think. hmmm….
Tom I seem to agree that Sins will always remain and that they remain so that ultimately they can result in wars, some of us won’t listen unless talked to violently. Like children sometiems, what in has said also rings true to me also.
Only diffrence I have is where u say we can never become perfect. if Zesus could, if buddha could then we too can, possibility is open. As for perfection, it is OK not to achgeive it, as u said imporatnt thing is to keep on working towards it, every consious moment, ultimately,. As for perfection in the eyes of others, zesus was killed by those others, so better get concerned more with ourselves, our real selves.
In, there is no need to ‘depair’ that we will always remain in Sin, benchmark, world record if u prefer, in this direction has been already set preety high by our ancestors. Zesus, Buddha. Krishna,MOhammed, so may saints, philosophers like socrates, etec tec have alreday demostrated, what is possble for them is possible for us also, if not better.
aditya
i agree with “IN” , we strive to become perfect , but we never will. as i have said before , we are all human. it is impossible to achieve perfection , because to be perfect you not only have to be perfect in your eyes but everyone elses , but since everyone has a differant view of “perfection” it is impossible to do that. we may not be able to become perfect , but we can become a better person. we need hope. hope gets us through our darkest moments , for example winston churchill. the nazis were lining up in northern france and he made a speech and he quoted “if your going through hell , keep going” that is hope. so lets change the world by changing ourselves and help the world become a better place .
It is not pride we need to make us better but hope. Because there is no situation more perfect than Paradise and to achieve that we must have hope in ourselves not pride. If we keep faith love and hope in our heart we will come to a better situation. Not only for yourself but also for the ones around you. Pride is a sin because it will only make your situation better and not that of others. Because haughtiness, conceit, arrogance or presumption doesn`t help anyone.
But we are just human, we will always live in sin. Noone is perfect :) But we can try.
hello aditya ,
those are some very interesting quotes on wrath and i think your words speak wisdom. but now im going to move slightly off topic. do you need sins ? i would like to hear what you think ! because i have noticed that theres nothing like a little chaos to bring people together. just like the examples of the two past wars. in ww1 and 2 it is said that everyone got closer because of the war. now im not saying that they were good. they were chaotic but sins cause and come from chaos , therefore are sins needed to bring people together ?? even if thy are not we cannot help it anyway , were all human after all.
Hi ! Tom !
right o buddy ! let’s hope all our ‘understanding’ help us also. Hey ! did u read my ’solutions to half the problems of the world’ it’s on the ‘wrath’ page. Love to hear what u say !
regards
Aditya
aditya youve got it in one my friend. we need pride as a motivator. but if used too much it becomes a dependent thing and that is not good. we need to have confidence without pride aswell
Hi ! souria, Hi Tom !
I could not agree with you more, we need to be able take a ceratin ‘pride’in our actions. But that ‘pride’ has more to do with fulfillment over a job well done, a task acomplasihed to teh best of one’s abilities, the pride in being sincere. Such pride is not a sin but it is a virtue. The pride that is considered as Sin is the one in which we start comparing with others and start looking down upon others as being not as ‘good’ as us, that is the Sinful pride which is road to hell. What so u say !
Aditya
I don’t really think that pride is such a sin cos we need it to improuve ourselves and to carry on
i personaly think that you need some pride in yourself to keep going. im only young and every day i wake up and ask my self why i do actually get up. i have an answer. i want to become a writer and when i do i will be filled with pride. but not so much so that it becomes trouble. it is necessary to have some pride so it only becomes an issue when it grows to big
thank you ive read into a lot of philosophies and they are based on sins. like good and evil.
pride causes a lot of wars ive noticed. not wiling to back down and not willing to just quit while your ahead leads to full scale wars. yet we are not aware of how corrupt the world has become. were just on our safe little islands not so much as ignoring the fact but not acting against it either. ive watched this happen over and over again. im only young but ive read and seen how pride contributed to vietnam korea afghanistan and iraq. so now i ask everyone this. when will it stop or at least when will we open our eyes and see this corruption. just because our government is rich doesnt mean we have to keep others poor.
Thank you Tom, that’s a great quote!
ive just found an interesting proverb that may help you all figure out sins and non-sins here it goes : people kill people who kill people because they think killing people is wrong?
Is it not pride that brings me shame when I trip or turns my face red when I am embarassed. Most things in life have a dual purpose, it’s just the one who observes the act who interprets their own meanings.
Taking the apple is gaining sight, in the meaning of knowledge, consciousness. When we have no consciousness, when we are blind in the sence of knowledge – the fool – we do not know right from wrong. God is our protector and we live in paradise, we are all one. When we do have consciousness, we are not innocent anymore, we are aware of right and wrong, of everything. So, then we are accountable. And we see everything, we feel everything, we have to make choices. And there is no such simplicity as only right and wrong, white and black, left and right etc. Just as the world is not flat, there is no this or that. Having knowledge does not per se mean life will be easier, because we see more and more, we see the whole circle, so we become aware of pain and all the pain in the world. The pain of separation, we are not one anymore. But having knowledge is not the issue, it’s what we do with it, how we act upon it. Seeing and knowing and not act upon that, I think that’s the sin. We have enough examples of men and women closing their eyes very consciously.
About being humble and pride: climbing a mountain and going to the top takes effort, courage and whatever a person need. On the top we can feel one with everyone, we feel we are connected and we are grateful, we thank everyone who supported us getting there. And then we have to go down the mountain again, that’s the natural way of living. If we refuse to descend and we believe we can always stay at the top, at some point a lightning will strike us and we fall.
Dear Paulo,
Hello!!
Aditya and AVC, maybe you are getting stuck in labels, what is true is that some acts we humans perform are bad, bad for ourselves!!! If you harm someone that’s bad, if you steal something, that’s bad, if you live in hate, that’s bad, those “BADs” have been labeled sins. Regardless of the name though, what’s more important is the fact that all of our actions will generate a reaction, every cause will have an effect, and so we live bound to this universal principle which governs life.
It seems to me that sinners don’t want to believe in sins because they don’t want to take responsability for their actions and their consequences. Of course not! It’s just easier to be the victims of an ever unffair life design and wrong God. The beauty of life though, is that it gives us freedom, and that also extends to them, sinners are free to believe sins don’t exist!! It will not free them from the consequences of their sins though.
Our souls are on an infinite journey of growth and evolution, some on planet earth, some in other dimentions or even different planets I dare affirm. Life would be much more harmonious and less painful on planet earth if people started understanding that us and only us are the source of the mess we live on today.
Yes, we are all sinners, now let’s rewind and go back to life-on-earth 101.
Clover
Sin is a bad apple, straight from the Tree of Knowledge (of Good and Evil) Who’s imagination is at work when the sexually abused minor cries in mental pain after the physical feelings cease.? This is not imagination, it is real, there is no grey area, it is either good or bad, and the point is free will to choose, or deny, as seems to be the case for some, which is more profitable for the soul. If there were no sin, there’d be no forgiveness, and if I cannot forgive then I am slave to the unforgiven. In forgiveness, is growth of the soul, and the humble confession, we’re all human. No one to be looked down upon and no one to envy up. We are all as bad as each other at being the best we can !?! Love to all, yeah.
So long as U are, ego is. Sin is. what is sin ? what gives me pain eventaully even if it gives pleasure immediately ? Looks like sex too will fall within the ambit of ’sin’ if we follow what the Church or eatablished ‘religions’ have to say. Sex is the boundry line, some types of sex is not sin but some types are, how to distinguish ? Brother Paulo we need help.
I think we can learn the word from as many angle, as many experiences as we can, but we all will have to arrive at our own indivuidual definations.
I am seeing that since last few blog episodes, and I am writing this after reading your blog on greed Paulo, u simply copy paste ( as we say in the comp lingo )others views. Dear friend this is avoiding work WE ARE HERE TO LISTEN TO YOUR CONDESATION OF ALL THESE WISDOM, MOST OF WHAT U ‘COPY-PASTE’ GO ABOVE MY HEAD,
PAULO WILL U KINDLY OBLIGE BY WRTING A BRIEF PARAGRAPH ON EACH OF THE ‘SINS’, I UNDERSTAND YOUR LANGUAGE, OR at least that is what i tend to beleive.
AVC what is the hurry, let’s hear out paulo then we will decide whether Sin is or is it a figment of THEIR imagination.
REGARDS
aditya
A.V.C.,
You asked, ‘Who on this blog has the answers?’ Well, *I* do! I have all of the answers to all of the questions of life. And, for your information, you’re going to Hell because you are a sinner. :)
I’m just joking, of course. Felt the need to lighten things up a bit. ;)
I agree, again, with you in regards to how we will never know the merits of our actions/thoughts, until we view the consequences. That is a very true statement.
And, I don’t like the word ’sin’ either it’s too judgemental-sounding. Why don’t we stop calling it that and call it something else like – silly putty. Doesn’t silly putty just make you want to smile? :)
So, in regards to these ’silly putty’s’ that we’re discussing. I like to think of them more as guidelines of behavior, because, as I was saying before…you must agree that inside of yourself you can tell when you’re doing something just to be a ‘prick’ or because you’re feeling loving. Can’t you? Can’t you at least admit that? Or are you too stubborn? Hee hee!
Surely stubborness must be a silly putty! Ha! :)
OK..I’ll shut up now. Just had to throw in my two cents worth again.
Have a wonderful, silly putty free day, everyone. ;)
-Crazy Lady ;)
Please excuse me for being so stubborn, but I really do not like the concept of “sin”, deadly or not. Maybe because I simply do not understand it.
It seems to me that religious people often have very strong opinions on right and wrong. And they quite often extend those views to apply to other people’s lives as well.
To me, this is very difficult to defend intellectually. For instance, would it have been a “bad” thing to shoot Hitler before he came into power, even if you knew nothing of his character and inentions at the time? It would probably have saved millions of lives, at least as far as we can tell in the short term perspective.
On the other hand, did the the second world war really bring nothing but evil consequences to the world?
Who among us on this blog has these answers, I would like to know.
Isn’t death necessary to the regeneration of Life and its evolution? Isn’t it in fact that very death that makes us appreciate Life?
Still, most of us cannot rid ourselves from the feeling of horror when getting close to death; the drive in us to make the most of our lives, to “do our part” as it were, seems so increadibly strong. Hence, it has been quite popular to promise eternal life to the people of the world simply by following certain rules and guidelines, regardless of circumstances.
Is money “the root of all evil”? Sure, you cannot bring it when it is time to die, but that is true for any tool in this world. Is it “bad” for multinational pharmaceutical companies and their shareholders to desire money, when the consequences include the development of new drugs that save millions of lives and mitigate even more suffering every day? I guess this will be discussed later on, but to me the problem is the same regardless of which “sin” we talk about. The merits of any thought or act will be determined by its consequences.
In my view, popular religious thought seems to focus on the “meek” side of life, hoping for the divinity’s ultimate defeat of darkness and death some glorious day in the distant future.
Maybe everything simply is as it is. Neither good nor bad. Does that make this world less divine?
On our journey towards our realization of our True Selves, we definitely need to be able to show mercy at times, but we will also face many obstacles that can teach us the value of the “good fight” and applying severity.
question is how to diffrentiate ? r others hurt by our sence of ‘pride’ in us, our work or not ! is that a good yardstick ?
aditya
Hi ! Serenity,
The pride u speak of is not the one which is forbidden, i feel. I think we r all converging on the menaing of the word from diffrent angles.
regards
aditya
Hello to you all :)
Just to say, I`ve begun working on comparing the different language postings. I don`t promise, but I hope I`ll be able to finish the ‘research’ soon (I like the way it sounds :) ). But I`ll need a ‘volunteer’ with some spare time to have a look at the things when they are ready, just to check for major mistakes, and you know- second opinion. As soon as this is done I`d be happy to share what I`ve found out. Anyone, who wants to help me out, write at adifos@abv.bg.
Have a wonderful and smiling day,
Deyan
As with many teachings in the bible, this one can be looked at upside down, sideways and inside out, as we should always do with any object/subject we are studying for the purpose of determining exactly what it is. We are looking at first from a position of ignorance, admitting this is an act of humility. Then we discover a truth, which is disclosed in the act of testing the theory in practice. Upside down; the book of James says, The brother in humble circumstances should take pride in his high position, and the rich man take pride in his low position….this is talking about the pride we take on in our material/monetary circumstances. Jesus said, Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Meek means submissive or humble. Store your riches in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy.- Money is nothing. It does not buy Life, you cannot take it with you, and God wants you to give it all to the poor if you’re approaching him with alot of it in your pocket. Pride as sin is talking here about Love of Money, which is said to be the root of all evil. Love cannot be stolen like money. It is a Gift of the Holy Spirit which cannot be taken away. But Love too is to be given away in shedloads, more even than the money we give to good causes. love never runs out at the end of the month. So, another angle at looking at Pride as sin is ….the object/subject we are studying has many facets and faces, disguises and shiny temptations…Not knowing our place, as servants of God, in the universe, and that we are all equal in our curiosities and in his eyes. Knowing our place as servants is something to be proud of, because God is Love,and he said if we are ashamed of him he will be ashamed of us. we are told to love one another as He has loved us, if we do this truly, truly, truly, we will look after each others needs. Then we become His friends, instead of servants, but because we love him with all our mind, soul and strength, we continue to serve him and each other… and i’ve untangled some of a tangled ball of thread, which the online Warrior of the Light threw at us because he likes us to unravel it and hopes we do not get tied up in the process. Paulo are you well? your blog on Greed is lovingly awaited and over-due its usual arrival. I pray all is well. God Bless everyone.LJ
What a wonderful post and thoughtful comment discussion. I think of pride not as arrogance or a sense of self importance, but rather as a concept of doing one’s best in all things. So if a project is assigned, are we doing our best, even if the outcome is not seen by objective standards as being a job well done? Further, I don’t think humility is the same thing as low self esteem. I think humility is awaareness of ones gifts and talents, and awareness of one’s shortcomings.
I especially enjoyed the Zen fable. So much teaching in this simple story about the truth of our place in this world. Important labels and distinctions mean nothing. What lives in our hearts is what matters.
As a reminder to myself, I sign my name and e-mails with small case letter. It is a small thing, but a reminder to be aware and mindful in all things about humility and to mindful of the places that pride is taking a foothold.
Thank you for this wonderful blog and opportunity to participate in this discussion.
I agree to what AVC is saying, to a point. I always go back to that Shakespearean quote, ‘Nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so.’
I also think, however, that there are certain ways of being….certain laws of nature, if you will, regarding the positive and negative energies of the world in which you can feel, use and attract to yourself more of the same kind of energy that you’re putting out.
Others have touched upon this here, earlier. That, you can feel inside whether you are doing something that will cause a disruption in the energy field around you… for good or bad. From my experience, I believe that energy comes back to you (karma). So, while I agree that these man-made rules (sins) have been used by the churches to control the masses for their own devices, I believe that they have some foundation in the cosmic laws of nature. You have only to connect with it inside of yourself, to determine which way you need to adjust your energy, so that it best serves your purposes.
But, should we go back into that other discussion of whether or not we can even trust our feelings?! Ha! ;) Round and round and round she goes…where she stops…noone knows. Ever! Blahhhh, my head is spinning!! Get me off of this perpetual carousel!! ;)
hi im tom and i come from england and i agree with the saying of donal mulvey and i also think no sayings are more guiding than military ones such as ” if you know not of the port you are sailing to , then no wind is favourable” with pride people think they know exactly what there doing like they know wich port to sail to. you seem so confident that it leads people around you into a false sense of security , wich leads to you accumilating a false sense of security and when your pride gets too big you become disorganised wich reminds me of one more proverb before i finish “a large army is always disorganised” like a large sense of pride. why do you think the ancient romans conquered the world. they had small elite and organised forces. i rest my case
Many of us probably agree that it is important to strive, in everything we say or do, to come closer to the (ever changing) idea of the person we want to become.
But if that is the case, is it then possible to make any general statements of “sinful” or even good or bad behaviour? Any act bringing a person closer to his True Self would be “good”, and any act contrary to that goal would be “bad”.
In the light of this, I ask you if you think that anyone really has the authority to determine whether a particular act is “sinful”, or an act of virtue? Can anyone claim to have the sufficient knowledge and ability to see the future ultimate consequences of any given act?
Is not the claim of having such knowledge the worst example of “pride”?