Dear Brothers and Sisters

In primary school, I was taught: “You should be humble. When you see the poor, the disabled, you must lower yourself to their level to be equal to them.” I practiced that faithfully for many years, at least probably till I was in my 40s, but I always found it so hard to be humble. I couldn’t understand why.

Today, I have found the culprit. That is: The teaching I was taught contained these premises: (1) You are higher than many people, (2) Many people, including the poor and the disabled, are lower than you, (3) So, when you meet them, you humble yourself by lowering yourself to their level.

So, first I learned to be arrogant – I was higher than many people and many people are lower than me. Then, I learned to be humble whenever I met lower-class people.

Man, that is the lesson to be an arrogant SOB, not a lesson for humility at all. No wonder, the more I practiced it the more I felt so difficult about being humble.

In addition, because I learned of the class hierarchy of the world as such – there were people lower than me, and there were people higher than me too – I felt arrogant when seeing the low-class folks, but when meeting the higher-class folks, I lose confidence facing them.

So, arrogancy on one hand and insecurity on the other hand. That was the full result of the teaching I learned.

I am sure that many of you guys and gals have learned and practiced the same thing and gained the same experience.

My friends, humility is an attitude – feeling in our heart. It is not an outward act of lowering or heightening.

Feeling humble is the feeling that you are equal to everyone and everyone is equal to you. More than that, everyone is like you in many ways. You feel you are like many other people, and they all are like you, and they are your equals.

There are two things that make me feel humble to others:

– First, everyone of us is a child of God. We all are God’s children. We all are brothers and sisters. All brothers and sisters are equal, even though there may be differences in our outward appearance. Your sister is not lower than you just because you make more money than she does. Brother and sister are always brother and sister.

– Second, we all face very much the same difficulty and suffering of living. Rich, poor, high, low, noble, destitute… we all very much have the same amount of difficulty and suffering. So, we love all our brothers and sisters because we feel for them just as we feel for ourself.

Those two feelings make me truly feel in my heart that everyone in the world is my brother/sister, with the same kinds of difficulties and sufferings as mine, and I love them and feel for them.

True humility is true love.

Brothers and sisters, think about others, just like you, as your brothers and sisters, then you will love them and be humble with them naturally, with true feeling in your heart – no outward act required.

Wish us all be humble at heart.

With compassion,

Hoành

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