When You WILL Be Made To Pay

"She was breathless. She had perhaps intended to express her idea with more dignity, art and naturalness, but her speech was too hurried and crude. It was full of youthful impulsiveness, it betrayed that she was still smarting from yesterday’s insult, and that her pride craved satisfaction."

(About Katerina Ivanovna)

- Fyodor Dostoevshy -

The Brothers Karamazov 

When I Am Fooled

"The ego as such is not evil, but it can lead us to do evil without realizing it. To succeed, evil somehow has to look like virtue. It leaves you blind to your own Illusions and convinced that you see perfectly."

- Richard Rohr. The Naked Now

The Top Soil Of Humility

"It is the attitude of one who is like the soil. Humility comes from the Latin word humus, fertile ground. The fertile ground is there, unnoticed, taken for granted, always there to be trodden upon. It is silent, inconspicuous, dark end yet it is always ready to receive any seed, ready to give it substance and life.

- Anthony Bloom. Living Prayer.

I Blame Others! And You?

"We humans largely hate or blame almost anything else rather than recognize our own weaknesses and negativity. “She made me do it.” “He is guilty.” “He deserves it.” “They are the problem.” “They are evil.” We seldom consciously know that we are scapegoating or projecting. It’s automatic, ingrained, and unconscious."

- Richard Rohr 

Who Buys A Master?

"Dost thou bring slavery, and bondage, and sale? Diogenes despises thee, who cried out, as he was being sold by some robbers, "Who will buy a master?"

- Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals

Grandiose People Cannot Creat Peace

"In the secular sphere, it has manufactured artificial ledgers of perfection that have clearly changed from age to age, class to class, and culture to culture. Perfectionism discourages honest self-knowledge and basic humility, which are foundational to spiritual and psychological growth. It has made basic social tranquility a largely unachievable goal. Grandiose people cannot create peace."

Richard Rohr

 

Most Leadership gurus we are trying to emulate here are "Grandiose", in my opinion.

Pretending Is Exhausting

"The ego doesn't want to surrender to its inherent brokenness and poverty. Yet the truth is, realizing your imperfection is the beginning of freedom and grace. There is such freedom in no longer pretending to be something we're not."

~ Richard Rohr

Don't Waste Your Life Defending Your Ego

Best line I've read in weeks... "Don't waste much time defending your ego"

"Whenever you are offended, it's usually because your self-image has not been worshiped or it has been momentarily exposed. The false self will quickly react with a vengeance to any offenses against it because all it has is its own fragile assumptions about itself.

Narcissists have a lot of asserting and defending to do, moment by moment. Don't waste much time defending your ego. The True Self is untouchable, or as Paul puts it "it takes no offense" (1 Corinthians 13:5)."

~Richard Rohr

Convinced You See Perfectly

"The ego must remain unseen and disguised to be effective in protecting itself. Evil always depends on denial and disguise, it seems. The ego as such is not evil, but it can lead us to do evil without realizing it. .... To succeed, evil somehow has to look like virtue. It leaves you blind to your own illusions and convinced that you see perfectly."

- Richard Rohr. The Naked Now 

Enjoying the 10% Truth?

"In all situations, of course, the all-important question is: "Is it true?" Not: "Is it from my group?" "Does it please me?" "Does it displease me?" "Does it use my vocabulary and my definitions?" Not even "Is it 100 percent true?" Who cares? The saint would say. "Only the ego cares," the Buddhist would say; and the ego is not interested in truth or in God, only in control. If it is even 10% true, the saint is grateful and happy for that gift.

St. Thomas Aquinas said in the thirteenth century: If it is true, then it is from the Holy Spirit."

- Richard Rohr. The Naked Now. 

Ego Loss

"The ego seems to strengthen itself by constriction, by being against, or by re-action, and it feels loss or fear when it opens up."

- Richard Rohr. The Naked Now.

Not With You First

"The church begins not with a Pious individual, but with God. "

~ Hans Küng. "The church"

From Power To Simply

"The price for real transformation is high. It means that we have to change our loyalties from power, success, money, ego, and control to the imitation of a Vulnerable God where servanthood, surrender, and simplicity reign."

~ Richard Rohr

Trapped In Your Cultural Moment

"The ego rarely asks real questions and mostly gives quick answers. This invariably leaves ego-driven, fundamentalist minds and groups utterly trapped in their own cultural moment in history. Thus they miss the Gospel’s liberating message along with the deepest challenges and consolations of Scripture."

~ Richard Rohr

Quick Ego

"The egoic need for clarity and certitude leads fundamentalists to use sacred writings in a mechanical, closed-ended, and quite authoritarian manner. The ego rarely asks real questions and mostly gives quick answers."

~ Richard Rohr

Seeing With New Eyes

To begin to see with new eyes, we must observe—and usually be humiliated by—the habitual way we encounter each and every moment. It is humiliating because we will see that we are well-practiced in just a few predictable responses. Not many of our responses are original, fresh, or naturally respectful of what is right in front of us. The most common human responses to a new moment are mistrust, cynicism, fear, defensiveness, dismissal, and judgmentalism. These are the common ways the ego tries to be in control of the data instead of allowing the moment to get some control over us—and teach us something new!"

~ Richard Rohr