Humility and the Ego

If the TAO could be summarized in one word, it is the word “humility.”

Humility is the enemy of the ego, while pride is its best friend. With humility, we see who we really are, and not who we think or wish we were. With humility, we become aligned with the Creator, who provides us not only the true wisdom to live in this material world, but also the spiritual guidance for the thinking mind. With humility, we are in the world, but not of the world.

“Humility is power.

Power comes from the lowly.

According to the Way:

the lowly will be elevated;

the last will be the first.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 66)

With humility, we begin to see our real identity—and not the ego-self that we have created for ourselves.

“The Creator is above,

and we are below.

The Creator is in front,

and we are behind.

Because this is the nature of things,

humility is only natural to us.

Yet many are desirous of the top

fearful of lagging behind.

Humility is the Way.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 66)

According to the TAO, this is how the human mind may have become distorted, delusional, and even dysfunctional:

·    In the beginning, man did not know things existed, and so he had perfect knowledge.

·   Later, he found out things existed, but made no distinctions between them.

·   Then, he began to make some distinctions, but expressed no judgment about right and wrong.

·     Now, he makes his own judgments of right and wrong, and that leads to his own preferences of likes and dislikes, and thus creating his desires and expectations—they become his attachments and ultimately the sources of his own sufferings. In short, the human mind is like an unbridled horse: it makes judgments, making what does not exist, exist, and also what does exist, does not exist. In the process, delusions and illusions are created, and they become the attachments of the ego-self.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau