Recommit to Virtue: Part 3 of 10 - Humility or Vanity

Pleasure without consequence is the second of Gandhi’s societal blunders.  This societal error is the denial of responsibility, and the rejection of liability for actions; it is a complete lack of humility.  Pleasure can include gastronomic contentment, tactile gratification, or sexual satisfaction.  When these pleasurable activities are pursued without discipline or consequence, they become destructive.  In our lucrative society, money most often drives this thoughtless, lustful pleasure-seeking.  We “shop until we drop” or “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” with no thought of the significance of our actions or the outcome of our choices.  From corporate profits to physical ease and gratification, we pursue our whims and wishes without conscious conscience confirmation or reasonable reflection of our responsibility.  We submit to the passing impulses of our excessive vanity.

Humility and vanity are all about individual attitude, which is influenced by our ego.  A decision is made to develop a forgiving heart by accepting liability for conflict, or to engage in blaming.  The pivotal moment in the humility and vanity association involves personal attitudes towards other people.  Individually each of us must truthfully answer the question, “How important are other people to me?”  The degree of recognition we have for other people in general is the critical awareness we seek.  This is validated by the extent of acceptance or rejection of responsibility for the relationships created with other people, as witnessed by action and personal behavior.  Pride is self-absorption resulting in a lower degree of service one is willing to offer to others.  Humility is honest recognition of self resulting in an increased level of responsibility and liability that we are willing to accept for the relationships created.  Forgiveness is demonstrated acceptance of relationship responsibility.  Personal levels of humility and pride vacillate between people-centered and self-centered perspectives.

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