The Importance of Humility
When learning anything in life, humility is of the utmost importance. Yet humility, as well as pride, are interchangeable and deceptive. Pride can easily appear to oneself as humility, and humility can appear to others as pride.
You might ask: “Why should I even be humble? I’m not trying to be a monk, nor do I really care about others’ opinions of me.”, and this is a perfectly reasonable sentiment.
The reason is simple!
When it comes to learning, humility is like a blank slate. When you are humble, you are a white sheet of paper, ready to be written on or drawn on. Anything can be done with you. You can make anything of yourself.
When you aren’t humble, you are like an already-used piece of paper. Perhaps you’re a book report, or a flyer, or a drawing. No matter what, however, it would be difficult, but not impossible, to make more of an already-used paper.
This principle has roots outside of philosophical traditions as well. It is often called a “growth mindset” in academic circles and has been proven to improve growth rates in many learning pursuits.
Perhaps I’ve sold you on this, or perhaps you found this looking for a method, or perhaps you’re still reading out of simple curiosity, but I will share my method for building humility. It is certainly not the be-all-end-all, and there are better methods out there, but this is what worked for me thus far:
Make a habit of thinking about what you say for at least a second before saying it. Any time you notice an absolute word, such as “always”, “never”, “everyone”, “no one”, etc., pause.
Absolutes are very rarely true, so question why you are thinking in absolute terms. Is your statement truly true? If not, why are you saying it? Look into your own motives, and when you find the root motive, try to mentally let go of it.
I have found that the more I let go of things I am mentally stuck on, the more humble I seem to become. In fact, I have used this method on the spot when I have trouble understanding things I am being taught, and it has helped me find my understanding more than a few times. Hopefully, it can help you too.
Here is some background information, for those interested:
It wasn’t until last year, 2021, that I learned this lesson. For reference, I write this as a light brown sash in Traditional Wing Chun, under grandmaster William Cheung’s lineage, as someone who has been practicing martial arts since 2017, and as someone who has been meditating almost everyday since 2012. Before that, I thought that I was humble. I thought I was open to other opinions, and I felt that I objectively judged my own abilities. How wrong I was!
I am grateful to Sifu for taking the time to point this out to me, and for taking the time to help me understand just what humility, ego, and arrogance are.
Arrogance is being asked for directions by a stranger, yet responding as such: ‘Ha! You don’t know where that place is? What a fool.’, and not telling the person how to get where they need to go.
Ego is being asked for directions by a stranger, yet responding with: ‘You should know this already, but…’ and telling them where to go.
Humility, on the other hand, assumes nothing about the stranger, and simply responds with: “This is how I would get there, but someone else may know better…”, and tells the stranger what they know.
I still find myself being egotistical, arrogant, or more simply put, prideful, every now and then, and must correct it when I notice it. I don’t know if I will ever truly be permanently humble, but I will keep striving for it.