Pride separates me from the gift of wholeness.
In pride, I think I am separate. And in that mistake, I push away “your” help, not realizing that “you” are just me. The “you” I’m pushing away is my reflection, a part of myself I’m pushing away.
It’s all me - which is to say we’re all one thing from which I mentally separate when I innocently stumble into pride.
All people are me, my state of mind, reflected, a projection of what I am thinking and believing onto a world “out there.”
And so my rejection of anyone or anything is a rejection of myself. My judgment is a judgment of myself. My fear is a fear of myself. And it’s all unnecessary, like trying to fight a monster under my bed. I create this “other thing” in an attempt to do my fearing and judging and rejecting “out there.” But it fails every time. Because there’s nothing out there that isn’t created by me through imagination. I’m going to war with myself. I’ve given myself pain where there never has been, and never will be, a reason to hurt.
When I can release myself from this confusion and let the wholeness of my being carry me, I find that I end up exactly where I need to be. And I see that the reason I do is because I am always exactly where I need to be.
I just miss it when I’m protecting this idea of a separate me.
There is no such thing as an independent person. Only dependent people who innocently think they are independent.
I understand the drive to be independent all too well:
When I believe the illusion of separation, “others” suddenly become a threat to “me.” I want “other people” off of “me,” out of “my” way, out of “my” hair. I want other people to change, to fix their problems, to stop being stupid, to stop taking from me, offering to me, hurting me, or others. And it’s hopeless. Because the whole idea of separate “others” is an illusion.
There is nothing to judge, nothing to reject before I bring it into being by believing my thoughts.
Pride is the result of this confusion, a perfectly innocent confusion that gives rise to every possible reason to fear or judge or reject the gift of what is.
And so there is no need, and no benefit to believing myself separate from the wholeness of what is.
I can just decline to see myself as separate and live in peace.