Some thoughts about humility and its price in the spiritual practice

by Gregorian Bivolaru

Motto
: “He who will humble himself will be uplifted to God.
He who will be full of vanity will therefore go down (crumble)”

Among all the spiritual qualities to depict the genuine practitioner growing close to perfection, humility along with love shines like a diamond in a royal crown. The more it is hard to be attained, the more it is wanted and appreciated by all genuine seekers of spirituality. It requires, most of all, a divine integration of the specific elements of the individual in the Universe.

The traditional spiritual doctrines all together require to give up the “I” and “mine”, which become relative as compared to the DIVINE SELF (ATMAN) and to the divine will. The purifying fire of self-sacrifice of humility will consume the flaws of the confined being, and then will make the divine  Spark inside man (ATMAN) shine freely inside of it. Man will therefore extend from Finite to Infinite, from potential to acting, from striving to fulfillment.

At some approach, humility can be hardly understood by common people for it is the very   thing that makes the humble (human being) take after the Supreme Lord (GOD), through a mysterious process of alchemy and evolution. It was by no accident that Jesus Himself washed in deep humility the feet of his disciples before the Lord’s Supper and then asked them to do the same with each other.

In doing so, by humble services that mean no reward instead, the humble servant will make room  for Lord in his heart. As Jesus put it he will become “poor in spirit” and will be worthy of the heavenly kingdom. This is the very meaning of the saying “the last will be the first”, the humble people with plain souls will soon attain the “primary beauty”, this is the primary divine state, the Adamic androgynous state.

Jesus also said: “allhappy will be the mild, for they will inherit the Earth”. It is a great mystery of initiation that He revealed here, namely spirituality is the token of the subtle element of Earth assimilated in the human being on a spiritual path. Appealing to the mysterious law of analogy, of subtle correspondences and of resonance, the intelligent human being can know Heaven. For “what is up is also down” and the Earth by its mysterious matrix profile is a mirror for the superior qualities of Heaven. Humility actually provides a gain of great qualities: if we are humble we are also pure, non-possessive, we live in truth, selfless and ready for self-sacrifice, which will make us wise.

However, humility shouldn’t be taken for docility, for blind unconditioned submission which is senseless. They say that in order to raise one have to lean. Docility is an act of leaning, indeed, but it lacks the wish of uplifting. Docility comes from frailty, from helplessness and fear of not being persecuted. Most of the time it is an unconscious behaviour. People often take this attitude of bowing in false devotion for genuine humility.

Humility is the very opposite in fact: it is a quite noble attitude, it is respectable, uplifting, ineffable, divine; it is the attribute of the strong ones. Humility means to profoundly and sincerely admit the value of the fellow people, especially when they are superior to us, but this always requires discrimination.

Humility may even imply some sort of admiration for the wise man, particularly if we recognize him by discrimination and empathy. This also enables our being to much easier and efficiently assimilate the divine energy proper to that wise person.  Humility also provides the amazing ability of learning quite easily from mistakes – whether our own mistakes or the others’ – but this barely becomes an attribute for those who have reached wisdom at some point. For it is only by humility that we can look beyond our ego and reach those mistakes and courageously assume them in full responsibility. Striving ceaselessly with passion and perseverance to assimilate and enhance humility means most of all to aspire for devotion, love, wisdom and especially for GOD.

We suggest you to relish (in detachment) the fruit of this divine quality by yogi identification (samyama) watching the picture above that samples the state of humility. Remember in this respect that A OUNCE OF DAILY PRACTICE IS WORTH TONES OF THEORY.

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