Pride

There's something in common in the many different worldly passionate cultural beliefs, values and practices, which is being proud towards oneself and others upon the presence of certain qualities of names and forms that are agreeable according to the different beliefs, values and practices, respectively. As well as being proud towards oneself and others upon the absence of certain qualities of names and forms that are disagreeable to the different beliefs, values and practices, respectively.

Under the absence of the idea of 'I', egoism and ignorance, there's no idea of, "I am so proud of myself for this or that," or "I am so proud of you for this or that," or "You should be so proud of yourself for this or that."

Most minds that are under the influence of the idea of 'I', egoism and ignorance, and are being conditioned by certain worldly passionate cultural belief, values and practice, that expect others to be proud of oneself upon the presence and absence of certain agreeable and disagreeable qualities of names and forms in oneself, would feel being unattended, unappreciated, unacknowledged, unloved and unsupported by others upon the absence of such passionate egoistic appreciation, acknowledgement, recognition, praise, compliment, support and encouragement of showing pride towards the presence and absence of certain agreeable and disagreeable qualities of names and forms in oneself, or in others.

Many minds would want to justify that there's no harm in not being stingy but being generous to give praise and compliment, appreciation and support, acknowledgement and recognition by showing pride towards the presence and absence of certain agreeable and disagreeable qualities of names and forms in oneself, and in others, to encourage oneself and others to be motivated to do better and be better.

There's neither right nor wrong, neither good nor bad with that, as most minds are being conditioned deeply by such thinking, belief, values and practice since very young age to think, believe and practice in such way, where they strongly think and believe that all these practices, actions and reactions are all positive, good and right, and nothing negative, bad and wrong, while if people don't perform such practices, actions and reactions are something negative, bad and wrong, or are being unloving, selfish, stingy, ungenerous and non-supportive.

However, such passionate egoistic thinking, belief, values and practice is nothing but empowering the idea of 'I', egoism and ignorance in oneself and in everyone, which is nothing to do with the teachings and practice of yoga and buddhism.

All these are merely the play of the ego and egoism and ignorance.

Yoga and buddhism practice is mainly to be eradicating the idea of 'I', egoism and ignorance, or such passionate egoistic belief, values and practice from the modification of the mind, by stop feeding the mind with such practices, actions and reactions, which is what mind purification is about, which is what eradication of the idea of 'I' and egoism and ignorance is about.

The minds that understand, they don't need the presence of such passionate egoistic attention, appreciation, acknowledgement, recognition, praise, compliment, support and encouragement for being what they are and doing what they are doing, or continuously to be improving, and to be performing certain necessary actions, duties and responsibilities towards looking after oneself and others. They are not being determined by the presence and absence of such passionate egoistic practices, actions and reactions. They are what they are. They don't need to be motivated by the presence of such actions and reactions, and they are not being demotivated by the absence of such actions and reactions.

These minds are void of the sense of low self-esteem, low self-worth, loneliness, left-out, animosity, humiliation, disappointment, meaninglessness, unloved, or lovelessness.

That is what mental and emotional independence is about. This is what self-independence is about.

To be compassionate towards the suffering minds, to help the suffering minds to be free from suffering, is not by empowering the ignorance and egoism in the minds, but to allow the minds to know how to be free from ignorance and egoism and the idea of 'I'.

Even in the world of yoga, many yoga teachers bring in such passionate egoistic practices, actions and reactions into the yoga class, thinking and believing that it would be encouraging the yoga students to be practicing yoga. It's like giving them lots of sweets, sugary drinks and food with high salt and fat content to encourage them to be free from the suffering of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, to have a healthy physical body.

Inquire towards the truth of everything.