On being humble

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[crystalwizard]

Curious what being humble means to you, especialy when NOT in a dojo or other training setting. Like say, the grocery store, the freeway, or other places.

[shadow]

Being humble, is just being.

It is looking at the other people in the store or wherever you are, seeing and treating them as fellow human beings and nothing less. No judgement, no arrogance.
It is trying always to be selfless, to be friendly and to be happy.

This is how I try to live my life, and this is what being humble means to me.

:) 's always

damien

[ian]

very interesting - I struggle with this one. I find that having pride in yourself and your club and being open and honest with people can be very constructive to your personal development as well as that of your associates. However we should also expect to 'destroy our ego' and be humble. To me the english language is poor at expressing these concepts.

To me humility should not include a feeling of insignificance, inability to contribute or passiveness and pride should not include arrogance, a feeling of being more important than others or that our view is necessarily the right view. If this was the case we should have both humility and pride. However this is hard to get your head round so I like to think of it more in terms of, we're all one big human team with the aim of helping each other to fulfill themselves; lets get on with doing that.

Two expressions come to mind;
one is

'we are all part of the bundle of life' (Bible)

the other is:

'only when you know that the whole universe is as big as a grain of rice and a horses hair is bigger than the whole universe will you understand the tao' Chuang Tzu (apologies if I miss-phrased that).

[ian]

P.S. I would agree with the being humble as just being, as well (although I am less eloquent). A problem which christianity often hits is the difficulty of trying to be good, when you are being good to be a good christian. To get a hold on the yin & yang and subjective nature of things we just have to be who we are. Me, I'm a talkative fool who keeps writing on these pages to avoid real work.

[Mike Collins]

I don't know if it is correct, but I think humility is rigorous honesty. That is, taking an honest appraisal of ones self and seeing the real, objective truth. I find this to be incredibly difficult. I always want to be (and see) more than I am.

[Aikidoka2000]

To me, humility is thinking about other people's feelings and concerns as you go
through you daily routine. I don't think this means to cater to everyone around
you, rather to be aware that they have feelings as human as we all do. As well, to
be humble is to move forward in life as a person who realizes that there is
something to be learned from everyone and everything, and that no human's life is
more or less valuable than another's. To educate the misinformed, but in a
compassionate way. To aid those in need, and to care for all fellow people,
regardless of their dispositions. This is the challenge of being human. At least in
my humble opinion it is :)
-Aiki

[BC]

According to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary:

Humble
1 : not proud or haughty : not arrogant or assertive
2 : reflecting, expressing, or offered in a spirit of deference or
submission
3 a : ranking low in a hierarchy or scale : INSIGNIFICANT,
UNPRETENTIOUS b : not costly or luxurious

I think the above is OK. In my mind, I think one definition of being humble is accepting that what I think may not be the correct answer and that someone else's view may be better or at least worth considering. And being gentle in my actions and spirit.

For me, a definition of being humble can be difficult to completely capture with words, and sometimes I define it by thinking of some of the people who have touched me in my life who I have admired for among other things, their humility. Like my late aikido sensei, one of my best friends, my favorite college professor, an ex-girlfriend, etc. Some traits that all of these people have or had were: intelligence, caring, giving, gentle, quiet (until you got to know them), talented in some way, and passionate, among others. Regarding these individuals' intelligence, talents and passions, you never really understood or saw these until you knew them for awhile. Seeing as I regard humility as a very worthwhile trait, I view these and other people as role models in many ways, and on the other side, I also look to other people who exhibit the opposite definition of humility as how not to behave. Anyway, my two yen's worth.

[sceptoor]

hhmmmmmmmmmm. That's a good question, and worthy of discussion. It's the basis of most religions, (except satanism of course), like Budo, is it not??

I define it as simply, when one realizes that the universe does not revolve around them, but rather quite the opposite.

Webster's definition is blunt.
As BC wrote:
Humble
1 : not proud or haughty : not arrogant or assertive
2 : reflecting, expressing, or offered in a spirit of deference or
submission
3 a : ranking low in a hierarchy or scale : INSIGNIFICANT,
UNPRETENTIOUS b : not costly or luxurious

The question is---Insignificant to what?? Yourself?? Another person?? Nature?? The Weather?? The Earth?? The Universe??

We find no trouble admitting our insignificance to the Earth and the cosmos, but the battle begins with humanity and how it chooses to treat itself and it's brothers.

I believe LOVE is a form of humility, like HATE is a form of arrogance and disrespect.

It's as simple as that.

That post was probably deeper than I intended, I'm usually not so deep, but I am now humiliated

[tarik]

crystalwizard wrote:
Curious what being humble means to you, especialy when NOT in a dojo or other training setting. Like say, the grocery store, the freeway, or other places.

Ironically, I think it's easier to talk about personal humility in terms of what it's not than what it is.

If I tried to reduce it to something simple, I might say:

It's NOT allowing your ego to assert itself in social situations for the sake of personal gratification.

OR with perhaps less gravity, but equal intent:

It's NOT saying, "in my humble opinion".

But that second one is probably more along the lines of giving examples.

[tedehara]

crystalwizard wrote:
Curious what being humble means to you, especialy when NOT in a dojo or other training setting. Like say, the grocery store, the freeway, or other places.

I tend to think of humility from a different direction. If you learn to truly respect others and develop a sense of empathy (like a good uke/nage in action) then you'll discover a type of self-respect others might call humility.

Beating down your ego, like it was some kneaded dough, seems pointless. You wouldn't do that to other people, so why do it to yourself?