Egotism
is the drive to maintain and enhance favorable views of oneself, and
generally features an inflated opinion of one's personal features and
importance: intellectual, physical, social and others. The egotist has
an overwhelming sense of the centrality of the 'Me' of his/her personal
qualities.
It is placing oneself at the core of one's world; an excessive and
objectionable reference to oneself in conversation or writing; conceit;
boastfulness, selfishness; self-centeredness generated in different
forms, ways and means.
I have learned that in meetings and gatherings, egotist is one who has
his/her Is too close together, always me-deep in conversation and tries to
dominate the discussions.
|
Self centered people have
only one topic to talk about, themselves -Stef
Harder |
Egocentricity
is a vanity that makes us wonder what people are thinking about us when
they are really wondering what we are thinking about them.
The great
Dalai Lama
advises us to
understand that we are not independently existing entity; that
we should begin to view ourselves instead in terms of our dependent
relation to others. Although merely reflecting on this may not produce a
profound spiritual realization, it will at least have some effect. Our
mind will be more open.
Something will begin
to change within us and there will definitely be a positive and
beneficial effect in reversing our attitude from self-centeredness to
other-centeredness, from belief in self-existence to belief in
co-existence.
We are so wrapped up with egotistical things, career, family, having
enough money, getting a new car, etc. We are
involved in trillions of little acts just to keep going so we don’t get
into the habit of standing back and looking at our lives and saying, is
this all? Is this all I want? Is something missing?
Intolerance or narrow-mindedness is the most socially acceptable form of
egotism, for it permits us to assume superiority without personal
boasting.
Some
people often prefer to be right rather than compassionate and often,
they don't want to give up their egotism. They want and keep on
endorsing their ego, their identity.
We have self-centered minds which get us into plenty of trouble. If we
do not come to understand the error in the way we think, our
self-awareness, which is our greatest blessing, is also our downfall as
we could learn from the following anecdote.
As the story goes, there was once a learned scientist. After a lot of practice and efforts,
he developed a formula and learned the art of reproducing himself. He
did it so perfectly that it was impossible to tell the reproduction from
the original.
One day while doing his research, he realized that the Angel of Death
was searching for him. In order to remain immortal he reproduced a dozen
copies of himself. The reproduction was so meticulous that all of them
looked exactly like him. Now when this Angel of Death came down, he was
at a loss to know which of the thirteen before him was the original
scientist, and confused, he left them all alone and returned back to
heaven.
But, not for long, for being an expert in human nature, the Angel came
up with a clever idea. He said to the scientist addressing all thirteen
of them, "Sir, you must be a genius to have succeeded in making such
perfect reproduction formula of yourself. However, I have discovered a
flaw in your work, just one tiny little flaw."
The scientist immediately jumped out and shouted, "Impossible! Where is
the flaw?" "Right here," said the Angel, as he picked up the scientist
from among the reproductions and carried him off.
The whole purpose of the scientist and his formula of reproduction
failed as he could not control his pride and ego, lost his life.
While one’s knowledge and skills takes one to the top of the ladder
and makes one successful, the three letter word "EGO" can pull one down
immediately. Our ego is one thing that can keep growing without
nourishment. So, let us let go our ego.
Related article:
http://timyrna.com/ATP/braggingeffect.htm
By
Tim Pedrosa
