I am the World's Most Arrogant Man. If I know anything in life, it would be arrogance. I am an expert, trust me.
The seed of arrogance is an over-inflated sense of self. In other words, a big presence of the ego.
When you start believing that you are the only thing that is real, and that your concerns are the only concerns that exist, that whatever you say or do is the center of everyone's universe, that if you like or dislike something will determine the outcome of some things.
This is all an inflation of the ego. Only when you realise that your 'self' does not matter, can you be free.
Jesus said, 'deny thyself'. 'Blessed are the poor in spirit'. Poor in spirit? How? Well, the rich in spirit are those with huge egos, as I see it. The meek shall inherit the earth.
Islam has a concept of 'surrender' in its very own name ('Islam' means surrender. To what, terrorists? No, but to the will of God).
Buddha teaches that suffering is caused by greed and lust - desire - which in turn stems from an erroneous understanding that things are not connected. That we are isolated from everything else. From everyone else.
This is the seed for unnecessary competition, a desire to be SEEN as right, to destroy other people (which never really gets accomplished because destroying other people is also destroying yourself) and lots of other difficult stuff.
Desire is always poisonous.
I cast off my ambitions a long time ago. Still, some of my projects were judged to be ambitious. But, no, not really. If you are honest with yourself on what you could do, without wishing for the impossible, you can accomplish many things. And you could be happy, if you allow yourself.
You don't even have to be honest with other people. Just with yourself. You know yourself - not the 'self' that you present to the world, which is just an image as well as your ego, but the real you.
And how do you find yourself?
Well.
When you realise that you are NOT the center of the universe, that's a start. When you realise that everyone and everything is connected, that's another step. When you figure out that you ARE the universe, than you have finally figured things out.
And after that? There is nothing. That sensation after great sex, when you don't see anything but white static and your ears are ringing? Your very soul feels like it's been wrapped in cotton wool. Trancendence. Nirvana.
Nevermind.
