What is humility in the Orthodox faith? How to learn to be humble?

What is meant by the humility of a Christian? What qualities distinguish a humble person? More about this in our article.

Content

Thanks to education and manners, a person learns to look worthy and confident over the years, without sticking out his own “I”. But often this is only an external manifestation - in the soul, most people are deeply selfish and pursue their own goals, even doing good deeds.

What is humility?

In the modern world, the egocentric model of attitude is laid from early childhood. Small children tend to always put themselves in the first place and consider the center of the universe. Parents only encourage such a perception of the environment, saying to the child: "You are the best." It is now customary to praise his baby and exalt his abilities. How often you can hear such statements in the conversations of mothers. From the part of parents, this is a manifestation of pride, and a child from an early age is suggested that he should always strive to be the first - thereby rise above the others, to be smarter, stronger, more capable.

Egoism separates a person from God. When a person was humble and obeyed God, he felt his unity with the Lord. But as soon as a person decided to show his “I”, he moved away from God, left Paradise, lost himself. Humility begins with humility.
We must remember our “I” in only one case - when we condemn ourselves. Then we put ourselves in the center of the problem, accept our guilt, say: "I am to blame, I was mistaken, I sinned." Unfortunately, it is in this case that a person forgets to recall himself, shifting all responsibility to another person or blaming circumstances.

Modern man, referring to psychology, trainings and other ways to improve his life, placed himself in the center of the worldview of himself. He obey only his own desires, they are controlled by vanity and pride. But the Lord teaches us to another - even if a person fulfills all the commandments and reads the Word of God, he must still consider himself an unworthy slave of God. The path of spiritual development is very long, and many consider their actions great at the very beginning of the path.

Humility in Orthodoxy

Humility is not a manifestation of weakness, when a person dutifully accepts the blows of fate and does not seek anything. A humble person is in truth - he knows his place in this world, seeks to live righteously. He is aware of his nullity and addresses the Lord with gratitude for all the good deeds that he receives, despite all his weaknesses and sins.

Humility means understanding the truth, and not to live in the deception that is created around us.
The main goal of the devil is to encourage human egoism, which moves people away from each other and from God, causes other unworthy feelings - envy, anger, dissatisfaction with life.
The Lord wants people to be humble and show humility in their lives. This means taking difficulties and losses with joy and calm. Sorrow and imprisonment purify our souls from past and future sins, cure diseases.

To humble - means suppress your will, show obedience. The whole egoism of a person is manifested precisely in the expression of his will, desires, and the inability to control the temptation.

The first vow of monks in tonsure is obedience - cutting off their own will to achieve spiritual perfection. The same obedience is the basis of marriage. If in marriage a person is not able to suppress his will, to sacrifice himself for the sake of another - he will not be able to achieve the inner world and tranquility.
If a person understands what great freedom gives a rejection of his own desires and voluntary improvement for the sake of his neighbor, then he will gain real peace and happiness.

Obedience and humility are the first steps on the path to humility

How to learn humility?

What interferes with humility?

Humility is a state of mind, which allows a person to correctly evaluate his place in the world - in relation to God and other people.

Pride is prevented from learning humility - an immoderate exaltation of himself over others, sometimes an attempt to exalt himself to rivalry with the Lord.
Pride is a passion that masters a person, controlling all his actions and thoughts. Humility and pride are two poles of the attitude of man, the state of his soul.

For example, a person with a certain talent must understand that his genius is a gift of God. If a person is humble, he thanks the Lord for this gift and applies him for good. If a person is subject to pride, he perceives his talent, as exclusively his own achievement, extols himself over others and puts himself above the Lord. Thus begins a sinful path, since pride requires a constant confirmation of their own significance.

As soon as we try to embark on the path of humility, the first temptation that any person experiences is vanity. This feeling, when a person, doing a good deed, begins to be proud of this. So again our ego manifests itself - "I am doing good deeds, so I am better than others, I am not like everyone else."
Even if no one knows about your good deeds, for example, you keep secret that you are helping the poor, feed homeless animals, provide support to loved ones - your inner pride with your actions is a manifestation of vanity.

Vanity is a sin that interferes with humility

How to come to terms?

Humility implies human lifestyle - he does not compare himself with others, does not condemn them, and does not elevate himself.

A humble person does not say: "I know better, do not tell me what to do." For spiritual growth, it is always useful to listen to the advice and experience of another person.
A believer striving to learn humility cannot argue, succumb to anger and anger.

Humility is the experience of the one who possesses them, only he can express it. It is an inexpressible wealth, it is the name of God.

The result of humility is a feeling of unwillingness of praise and glory. The soul experiences fatigue from the admiration of others, the fuss around, does not tolerate its own elevation.
When humility enters the soul, a person begins to experience indifference to the good that he performs. A person realizes that he still does negligently little compared to the burden of obvious and unconscious sins of his own life, that the moral ideal is still infinitely far away.
Spiritual improvement leads to the understanding that we do not deserve the benefits and joy that are granted to us by the Lord. If a person receives talents from God and becomes a source of spiritual joy, advice and help for others, he still realizes that for all these benefits he does not answer God properly and are not worthy of them. So the mind protects itself from temptation with vanity, pride and conceit.
A humble person is not afraid to lose material or spiritual values, because he knows that he does not possess anything.

Whoever believes that he has nothing, that Christ has in himself.

A person who seeks to achieve humility must have mental strength with joy and humility to accept deprivation, dishonor and anger of people. In the modern world, this sounds unacceptable. How can you take injustice?
The manifestation of humility is the extermination of all anger in the soul. A person who accepts the difficulties and sorrows of this world with joy does not show anger and anger. He refers to any manifestation of injustice with calmness, because he sees his path.

Humility - the adoption of all the hardships of life

If you limit the life of this world and not to experience faith in the kingdom of God, then the sorrows of the present seem unfair, and sometimes overwhelming. But if we understand that our goal in this life is to learn righteousness, get rid of passions, expecting a meeting with Christ who lives in our heart, then all difficulties are perceived as necessary obstacles to the way of purification of the soul.