Pride is dangerous not only because it leads to misfortunes and illnesses; the main danger of pride lies in its deformation of the human soul. Due to these distortions, a person receives less life energy. Our soul is Divine; it is through the soul that we receive the highest energy from God, without which we simply cannot live.
Pride is also dangerous because its growth occurs imperceptibly. Only in the final stages of soul degradation does pride lead to decay, illness, torment, and death – initially, pride even brings pleasure because the person feels a sense of significance: «I am smarter, I am more beautiful, I am superior, I control everything, I need no one, I am primary!..»
If a person does not voluntarily overcome pride, fate compels them to do so forcibly – through illnesses, misfortunes, and problems with descendants. We must learn to replace forced overcoming of pride with voluntary.
For this, we must have the right worldview, that is, the correct view of the world and the correct system of priorities. It is necessary to have the right understanding of God and of man, who, as stated in the Bible, is created in the image and likeness of God – then we can understand who we are, where we come from, and where we are going.
Pride is distancing oneself from God. To return to God, one must feel unity with Him. It is necessary to understand that God is our Father, He created our souls, and love for Him, resemblance to Him, service to Him, fulfillment of commandments – these are natural and necessary processes and the highest happiness that a person can have.
To successfully overcome pride, it is necessary to understand that a person is Divine by nature. This means that our soul always maintains unity with the Creator. This means that there is a path we can follow, gradually drawing closer to God.
Drawing closer to God is development, and development implies change. No matter how much a person prays, no matter how much they sacrifice – if their character does not change, their approach to God will remain superficial, and their inner state will remain the same. In this case, overcoming pride is impossible.
Regret for the past, dissatisfaction with the present, despondency, and fear of the future – these are rejection of Divine will and a struggle against God. Repentance is working on changing our attitude toward the past. Overcoming pride in the present is the ability to deal with conflicts with people, with oneself, with the surrounding world, and with one's own destiny.
Fear of the future, anxieties about the future, the desire to control the future – all of this is also a subconscious struggle against God. To overcome all this, it is necessary to understand that the feeling of love is more important than our consciousness and our mind, no matter how logical our mind may seem to us.
To feel unity with God, one must slow down consciousness. When a person stops their thoughts, discards plans for the future, fears, despondency, abstains from food and sex – this allows slowing down consciousness and activating the soul. The commandments of Jesus Christ help to feel the priority of the soul over consciousness.
When we understand that we are Divine, eternal, that we should not fear the future and regret the past, then dependence on instincts decreases. Life should be perceived as a game, where the main rule and the main prize is the accumulation of love in the soul.
To successfully overcome pride, one must learn to think dialectically, to see the world in all its diversity and, at the same time, to understand that the world is one, that everything in the world is one. A person who has lost faith in God, deprived of a sense of unity with the whole world, lives in extremes, dividing the whole world into good and evil, white and black – and then problems inevitably arise.
To work on our character and overcome pride, it is very important to understand that sin can be turned into virtue through love. It is necessary not to punish oneself for one's sinfulness, but to increase love in the soul. A very important condition for overcoming pride is the formation of inertia of love.
All people are Divine, and the ability to feel the unity of all people, to see the Divine in each person, to maintain love for every person, for their soul, for their essence – this is also a mechanism for overcoming pride. Overcoming slander, bad thoughts about people, the ability to see the image of God in every person – all of this helps to overcome pride.
The more we develop in ourselves mercy, sincerity, kindness, courage, independence, the ability to yield, not to be irritated, the ability to be tolerant of the shortcomings and points of view of other people – the closer we come to God. When we understand that truth is love, truth is mercy, compassion, and a sense of unity with people – then our pride is overcome.
We must raise our children correctly – this also helps to overcome pride. When a person passes on the correct system of priorities to their children, they thereby help their own soul. And if we orient children incorrectly, then their emotions return to us and hinder our development.
To overcome pride, one must gradually transition from the level of a physical person to the level of a spiritual person, and then – to the level of a soulful person. The more we overcome envy, greed, selfishness – the higher we rise above the level of the physical person.
As much as we overcome the worship of the future, the tendency to judge people, dissatisfaction with fate, how dignifiedly we behave during illnesses and misfortunes, how much we strive to constantly rejoice and approach life with humor – to that extent, we are ready to rise above the level of the human spirit and transition to the level of the human soul.
The first stage of overcoming pride is changing behavior, lifestyle, habits. The second stage is the change of character, feelings, perception of the world. And the third stage of overcoming pride is the profound transformation of a person: as Christ said, «you must be born from above».
People must become children of God, that is, absolutely accept Divine will, constantly feel an uninterrupted connection with the Creator. It is not just about improving character – at some point, there must be a transformation of a person's personality. This will be the real overcoming of pride.
Overcoming pride is approaching God, it is knowing God, and the process of knowing always contains an element of unpredictability. It is very important to understand that no religion, no system, no research can be complete and provide a full understanding of God, the world, and humanity.
The world is unpredictable, Divine will is unpredictable. A person can comprehend the world – but we must know that we will never be able to fully comprehend and predict Divine will absolutely.
Our understanding of pride will constantly change; we will seek all new ways to overcome pride – and so it will be until the end of time, until the cycle of the Universe comes to an end.
And if we decide that we already understand everything and know everything – it is precisely at that moment that our pride begins to grow imperceptibly because our consciousness takes precedence over our feelings. Our soul, connected to God, senses the unpredictability of the world, while our consciousness tries to calculate and predict everything, striving to control every situation.
A person apprehends the world in accordance with their ability and capacity to unite opposites, which is determined by the amount of love in their soul. And we still have little love in our soul, our love is like a weak flame – we are at the very beginning of the path.
We will have to constantly fight against pride. The greater our abilities and talents, the more temptations we will have to overcome, and the more intense our yearning for love should be.
Working on overcoming pride should be done every day. Every day we must seek all new ways for development, for improving character, for increasing love in our soul, for strengthening unity with God. This is the main recipe for overcoming pride and attaining true happiness.
Of course, I would like to tell in this book about people who really put love first and overcame their pride. But as of today, I know only one person who succeeded in this. I think the reader knows his name. I advise everyone to reread the New Testament once again.
S.N. Lazarev, «Overcoming Pride»
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