Humility can help us open the heart and experience Gongjing (true respect). While humility is upheld as an important quality by most people, true humility is not just a ‘moral or social code’ that is imposed on us, nor is it a mentality of ‘refraining from showing off’ or the behavior of ‘avoiding appearing to be arrogant’.

True humility is unconditional – no reason is needed and no exterior motivation is involved. It is a state of a pure heart. It comes from a place of recognizing our place in the universe and our relationship with it. It is a natural state to be in when we truly realize that we are part of this vast universe and that everything is the embodiment of the wisdom of the universe.

Humility is the constant connection with our inner self and recognition that the True Self within is who we truly are. There is therefore no need to prove ourselves in any sense. With true humility, we don’t fall into the trap of constantly looking for reference points by mostly comparing as a way to find where we are, which inevitably leads us to constantly swinging between feeling inadequate and feeling superior.

True humility opens the door to the universal wisdom in everything. When we are able to connect from a place of true appreciation and true intention to learn, wisdom will become accessible to us. Or we can say our inner wisdom will resonate with the universal wisdom and unify with it. This way everything becomes our teachers and we will be growing all the time.

When working on the quality of humility there are a few areas you can focus on:

• Maintain a healthy state (relaxed, calm, natural, integrated, unified and harmonious) to allow your heart to be in a healthy state and its innate qualities the opportunity to be noticed.
• Keep going back to your heart and experience the realization that your life is part of the universe; it is not exceptional or superior to anything.
• Examine how you treat yourself, including your body, Qi, consciousness, True Self and your life in general – and see if humility can play part in improving your relationship with yourself.
• Examine how ‘arrogance’ has affected your life, including the way you relate to yourself and others, and work on it by transforming the related patterns, for example, self-centeredness, competitiveness, approval seeking etc.

Humility is a heart quality that manifest naturally when we fully recognize the following:

• Patterns filter information. When life is run by patterns, we cannot possibly see the total truth and have a full understanding of anything. Even when the True Self is in charge of life, there is always room for learning more.
• Everything follows its law and this needs to be respected. In other words, the world does not revolve around anyone’s personal desires or expectations.
• Everything is the embodiment of the wisdom of the universe and therefore is our teachers.

Take a moment to take the above to your heart. When you resonate with the truth in this information, arrogance will have no place in life and humility will manifest naturally.

Keep working on cultivating true humility and you will discover the beauty of it and the amazing difference it can make to your life.

Yuan Tze

If you would like to learn more from Yuan Tze about humility check out our Learn REN XUE website for the Replay of his online workshop on Humility that was six-part of the Living From the Heart workshop series run in 2021.