Monday, May 13, 2024

C.S. Lewis on Humility

 From Philosophy of Language:

C.S. Lewis said:

True humility is not thinking less of yourself: it’s thinking of yourself less.

But how do you think of yourself less without thinking less of yourself?

How do you diminish yourself without demeaning yourself?

How do you hush your ego without putting a gag in its mouth?

How do you harness your ego without resisting it?

Can you just talk it into quieting down without making it into your enemy?

The art of humility – thinking of yourself less – cannot be achieved through willpower. But it comes naturally when we are smitten by Wonder.

The Greek for “beauty” — kalos — has the same root as the verb “to call” — kaleo. Beauty calls. Kalos kaleo. The true function of Beauty is to call – to call us out of ourselves by the magnetic pull of Wonder.

How do you dissolve ego without fighting it?

It dissolves by itself when we no longer need it for our sense of self. It gets bigger every time we feel we need it for the survival of our Self.

It melts away when we encounter a loving Presence and lose ourselves in Wonder. (Read more.)

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