Wisdom Quote: Be Both Humble and Noble

Be humble for you are made of dung. Be noble for you are made of stars.
--Serbian proverb

I love this quote because it offers a reminder that nobility and humility can co-exist. Being composed of matter, we are all fundamentally created from the dust of stars. That's a very noble thought. On a more organic level we are all also simply organic beings made from molecules that eventually become waste matter to feed the earth. This is a good reminder that the original definition of "humble" is to be low to the ground. None of us are "all that", as the saying goes. As the Beatles sang, "life goes on within you and without you."

The Serbian quote above reminds me of another quote by the Tibetan Buddhist Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who wrote:

You are living in a rich world, one that never runs out of messages. If you are being too arrogant, you will find yourself being pushed down by heaven, and if you are being too timid, you will find yourself being raised up by earth.

Here again is the idea of bearing yourself with nobility without arrogance, humility without groveling. So walk upright, with mild demeanor, friendly and helpful to those around you, able to look anyone in the eye and speaking even harsh truths gently.

In my work I've seen a lot of clients who were unbalanced toward either arrogance or humiliation. I've wavered across that line myself. It doesn't serve a person well to be excessive in either direction. Humiliation is a form of ego worship in disguise and a misguided idea that something is fundamentally wrong with you. As for the seduction of arrogance, it's wise to remember the lines from the famous Shelley poem "Ozymandias":

And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

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