def: The belief that I am separate.
Prideful thinking mistakenly separates me from “what is” and then I live in an impossible fiction, where I imagine myself outside the inextricable gift of BEING what is, BEING one with everything, BEING the universe, BEING the way of it and everyone in it.
And when I believe this fiction, I suffer.
Understood this way, it is not pride to “think well of myself.” That’s a wonderful thing to do. It is pride when I think of myself as better - or worse! - or in any way “other” - than the rest of existence (and non-existence) because I am something separate.
Pride works in both the positive and the negative. Pride can tell me the lie that I’m separate in a “good” way AND the lie that I’m separate in a “bad” way.
And I find that “separate/good” brings me just as much suffering as “separate/bad.”
Because it’s the separation that hurts, not the badness (which is not a knowable thing by me).
I find that when I think I am “separate/good” the world becomes distressingly bad and when I think I am “separate/bad” the world becomes distressingly good.
Pride tells me the lie…
That there is “me” and there are “others”
That God or the world or the human community doesn’t care for me the same way it cares for others
That I deserve more - or LESS! - than others.
When I notice that I’m suffering the pain of separation, I can question what I’m thinking and believing and return to the peace and eternal joy of my humble true nature.