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18 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS

The Buddhist

Perception of Humility

By Chen Yu-Hsi, Ph.D.

Dr. Chen Yu-Hsi was chairperson of the Department of Religious Studies,
Fo Guang University, Taiwan, from 2000 to 2003. He is currently a full
professor teaching religious psychology and psychotherapy at that
Department. He has published many articles and papers on spirituality
and religious psychology.

Like other spiritual traditions, Buddhism sees humility as a virtue. In the Buddhist
text on Mahā Karuṇā (great compassion), humility is one of the ten sacred qualities
attributed to Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, or Buddha of Compassion. Within that context,
it appears to be a natural by-product of supreme spiritual attainments that transcends
the ego, just as are the four noble states of mind -- love, compassion, sympathetic joy and
equanimity.

However, Mahāyāna Buddhism also advocates humility as a moral precept. As such
it is often expressed in terms of exhortation against an arrogant or haughty attitude.
Being a sign of ego-centeredness, pride is seen as impeding acceptance of the Buddha’s
teachings and progress towards spiritual liberation. Buddhist practitioners believe that
only a humble mind can readily recognize its own defilements of craving (or greed),
aversion (or hatred) and ignorance, thereby embarking on the path of enlightenment and
liberation.

The Platform Sutra tells a story about how the Sixth Patriarch, Master Hui Neng, of the
Chinese Zen Sect reprimanded a follower for his arrogant attitude. That follower felt self-
conceited about his knowledge of a major Buddhist sūtra and knowingly or unknowingly
kept his head above the ground while bowing to the master. At that point the master
gave him a lecture that his lack of humility suggested that having a great knowledge
of the sūtra fettered his mind rather than liberating it. In other words, when religious
knowledge, like other knowledge, adds to “intellectual arrogance” and self-conceit, it
becomes an impediment to what religious practice is supposed to attain. Elsewhere
in the Platform Sutra, the Sixth Patriarch teaches that behaving humbly and according
to propriety is a merit and a desirable moral quality that comes from insight into the
spiritual reality. Humility in this sense is both a prerequisite for liberation and salvation
from the deluded ego and a manifestation thereof.

The quintessence of humility is manifested in a practitioner’s realization that he is nobody
or nothing. This state of enlightenment comes when he transcends all worldly desires,