Café Philos: an internet café

Ever and never are string words. Whatever wisdom the quote would have normally been associated with automatically gets sullied by these two words.
Hence, I say: trash!
BTW, Paul, it is the Dalai Lama...
:-)

I meant 'strong words'...

What if pride is not directed at ones self? I have pride in other people and feel joy for them. In that case I believe pride is justified. I agree with what the Dalai Lama said, but I have some reservations regarding the initial outcome. Maybe I do not know real pride, for I would never see people as "inferior". That is a nasty word.

Some of your writings are so profound, I am surprised at the thoughts that evolve. Thank You

Oh heavens, I think I disagree with the Dalai Lama! I think it is fine to feel pride in others and with oneself. Being proud is different than being smug or seeing others as inferior. Actually, I would even venture to state that a sense of pride is healthy. Otherwise, why do we even bother doing anything if it is all just the same? Pride lends itself to motivation and ownership. I would never tell my students that they should never feel pride in the work they are doing.

This is a hard concept for westerners, because we are by nature raised to be proud and to strive to be better than others.

But once you claim ownership by proclaiming your pride about some quality or accomplishment, you thereafter are forced to defend and maintain the image you've now created.

The pride his Holiness refers to isn't the simple fact of feeling good about things, but about pretending that the good things are yours to own, rather than simple gifts that have come your way. The pleasure that comes from pride is a fairly hollow thing.

Losing this kind of pride offers a freedom that is almost unimaginable if you haven't experienced it.

Interesting statement and debate.

"Pride goeth before a fall" is a paraphrase, but is similar to what Dalai Lama is stating.

Pride in anything can blind a person to the constant personal growth that is needed. When pride equals self-satisfaction and turns to contempt at others who cannot do as well, that is when pride becomes unjustified.

Being proud for someone else, feeling pride in living, that is different. Every day brings something new to experience.

There are probably several kinds of pride; directed at different objects, for different reasons, etc. I am proud of my kids but it is a different thing from being proud of my own ability to fix bicycles.

Nationalism would be an example of being proud of something you should simply be glad of; I like my country and want to see it prosper. But I don't say "Proud To Be 'American!!!"

Gender-pride, racial pride, pride in one's religion... makes no sense at all but is very common.

Maybe we need a lot of different words for these different meanings.

I'm with most of the commentators here, the Dali Lama needs to define the use of "Pride" in his statement because to me it doesn't seem to fit in all cases. Too much pride can make you look like an ass, but not enough can mean that paper or assignment you are turning in looks like s***.

Many of the Baby Boomers would say today's X-Geners or Next-Geners don't have enough pride and that's why they're lazy. Maybe. Either way I think you need to qualify your statement or define what you mean by pride when its a dichotomy.

This is a very good debate guys. I'm learning a lot.

Very well said... as I remember someone telling me, the first step of solving a problem is accepting that you have one....

Pride can boost a person's self esteem, but it's an easily corrupted feeling-

It can end up psychologically enslaving people to the actions that give them pride (ie a compulsion to have a shiny car), it can also raise their expectations of themselves and others, which can result in disatisfaction and mean the person is not at peace with the situation

Pride can often be on things that aren't really that important in the relative scale of things, and risks distorting a person't view of themselves, but it can sometimes be the only thing that keeps someone sane.