9. One winter time Francis of Assisi accompanied by his brother Leo, journeyed from Perugia to Porcionculo; it was very cold and they were shivering. Francis called to Leo who was walking ahead of him and said: "Brother Leo, God grant that our brothers might throughout the earth set the exemple of holy life; but make a note that perfect joy is not yet in that."
And a little while further Francis called again to Leo and said:
"Also make note, brother Leo, that if our brothers heal the sick, drive out devils, give sight to the blind or bring back to life men four days in the grave, make note that neither therein is yet perfect joy."
And still a little distance further Francis again called to Leo and said: "And make note once more, brother Leo, lamb of God, that if we learned to speak with the tongues of angels, if we comprehended the course of the stars, and if the treasures of the earth were revealed to us and we had opened to us all the mysteries of the life of birds, fishes, of all animals, people, trees, rocks and waters, make note that even therein would not be perfect joy."
PRIDE
тттттшти
PRIDE
What makes it so difficult to find deliverance from sins is mainly the fact that they find support in errors. Pride is one of such errors.
I..
The Senseless Folly of Pride
1. Proud people are so busy teaching others that they have no time to give thought to themselves, and why should they? They are good as they are, anyway, and therefore the more they teach others, the lower they sink themselves.
2. Even as man cannot lift himself up, neither can man exalt himself.
3. The meanness of pride is in the fact that people are proud of the things of which they should be ashamed; riches, glory and honors.
4. If you are stronger, wealthier, more learned than others, strive to serve others with the over-abundance you have as compared with them. If you are stronger, aid the weak; if you are more learned, help the ignorant; if you are wealthier, help the poor. But proud people have different ideas. They think that if they have what others lack, they need not share it with them, but only parade it before them.
5. It IS bad if a man is angry with his brothers instead of loving them. But it is much worse if a man makes himself believe that he is not the same kind of a man as other men, but superior to other people, and can therefore treat them otherwise than he would have them treat him.
6. It is foolish for people to be proud of their face or of their body, but it is still greater folly to be proud of their
parents, ancestors and friends, of their estate and of their race.
The major portion of evil on earth is due to this foolish price. It is the cause of quarrels between men and men, families and families, and the cause of wars between nations.
7. A man should not count himself wiser, nobler or better than other people, if for no other reason than because no man can properly gauge his own mind or his virtues, and still less the true value of the mind and of the virtues of other people.
8. Proud people consider themselves alone to be better and higher than others. But other proud people differ with them and count themselves still better. Still this fails to disconcert the proud; they are convinced that all those who count themselves above them are in error, and that they alone are correct.
9. It is amusing to see two proud men meet, each believing himself to be superior to everybody else on earth.
It is amusing to an outsider, but the two proud men are not amused; they hate one another and are much perturbed.
10. Folly may exist apart from pride, but pride never apart from folly.
11. Learn from water in the depths of the sea and in mountain gorges; noisy are the shallow brooks, but the shoreless sea is silent and barely moves.
Buddhist wisdom.
12. The lighter and less dense a substance the more space it occupies. Even so with pride.
13. A bad wheel makes more noise, an empty ear of corn is taller. Even so a bad and shallow man.
14. The more self-satisfied a man, the less ground is there in him for satisfaction.
15. A proud man is as though covered with a coating of ice. No good sentiment can break through this coating.
16. It is easier to enlighten the most ignorant man than a proud man.
17. If the proud could only know what other people who make use of their pride for personal gain think of them they would cease to be proud.
18. The prouder a man, the more foolish is he thought by those who make use of his pride, nor are they mistaken, because though they most flagrantly deceive him, he fails to see through it. Pride is invariably foolish.
II.
National Pride
1. To count oneself better than everybody else is wrong and foolish. We all know this. To count one's family better than all others is still more wrong and foolish, though we frequently fail to recognize this, and see even some special merit in it. But to count one's nation better than all others, is the greatest possible folly. Yet not only do the people fail to consider this wrong, but on the contrary, it is considered a great virtue.
2. The beginning of pride is in loving self alone. Pride is unrestrained self-love.
3. Men are an enmity one with another, though they know that it is wrong. And in order to deceive themselves and to drown the voice of their conscience they invent excuses for their hostility. One of such excuses is that I am better than others and that the others are unable to understand this, and for this reason I have the right to be at odds with them ; another excuse is that my family is better than
theirs: the third is that my class is better than other classes; and the fourth that my nation is better than all other nations.
Nothing divides people so much as pride—^personal pride, family pride, class pride and national pride.
4. Proud people are not content to count their own persons superior to all others, they even count their nation superior to other nations; as the Germans count the German nation, the Russians the Russian nation, the Poles the Polish nation, the Jews the Jewish nation. And harmful as is the pride of an individual, national pride is far more harmful. Millions upon millions of men perished from it in the past and are still perishing.
III.
Man Has No Rational Grounds for Exalting Himself
Above Others, as the Same Spirit of God
Dwells in All People
1. Man counts himself better than other people only if he lives the life of the body. One body may be stronger, larger, better than another, but if a man lives the" life of the spirit, he cannot count himself better than others, for the same soul dwells in all men.
2. People have titles: Some "Your Excellency,'* others "Your Serene Highness," still others "Esquire," "Sir," "Your Worship," but there is only one title appropriate to all and giving no offense. This title is: Brother, sister.
And this title is good for the reason that it reminds us of the one Father in whom we are all brothers and sisters.
3. Men consider some people superior to themselves, others beneath themselves. One need only remember that the same spirit dwells in all men to see how unjust this is.
wami^M
THE PATHWAY OF LIFE 193
4. A man is correct in thinking that there is no one in the world above him; but he is wrong to think that there is even one man beneath him.
5. It IS well for man to respect himself because the spirit of God dwells in him. But woe to a man if he is proud of that which is merely human in him: his mind, his learning, honor, wealth or good deeds.
6. A man IS good if he holds high his divine spiritual I. But if he seeks to exalt his animal, vain, ambitious individual I above all others, he is abominable.
7. If a man is proud of external distinctions he merely shows that he does not appreciate his inner worth compared with which all outward distinctions are as candles compared with the sun.