arrogance | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

The following is respectfully quoted from “Naked Awareness” by Karma Chagme with commentary by Gyaltrul Rinpoche:

If you are a genuine practitioner, you are in the process of transmuting your five poisons into the five types of primordial wisdom. Once that transformation is complete, you’ve become a buddha. Upon attaining this, is there anything to be proud of? Having transmuted even the mental affliction of pride into primordial wisdom, there is absolutely no ground for the quality of pride or conceit. If you are not yet a buddha, there is no basis either, and if you are in between, there is no ground for pride. So really there is no ground for arrogance or conceit at any stage where you are a sentient being or a buddha.

The following is respectfully quoted from “Naked Awareness” by Karma Chagme with commentary by Gyaltrul Rinpoche:

Even if you have been born as a cakravartin, you still remain in samsára, so you have not been liberated from the cycle of existence. Whether you are a king or queen of the world, whether you are rick or have immense power, you are still within the domain of suffering; you still are not liberated. So why would you aspire to such a state when it’s simply just more of the same–suffering? Moreover, we tend to be proud of our various qualities–wealth, power, intelligence and good looks. What really is the basis for this pride, when conceited and arrogant people remain in the midst of suffering? If these mundane qualities were truly beneficial, we would expect people who have them to become buddhas by now. Instead these people are just coming closer to death.

The Basis of Pride

Examining Our Aspirations