Humility
Our greatness isn't being put in the spotlight,
but being more concerned about the inner light.
Righteous vs. Self-Righteous
Would you rather live a life that's Righteous or would you rather live a life that's Self-Righteous? According to all universal spiritual teachings, the difference between a person who would rather live a life that's Righteous and a person who would rather live a life that's Self-Righteous is that the former is more concerned about seeing their own faults (Righteous) whereas the latter is more concerned about seeing others faults (Self-Righteous).
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For example
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Consider the following story regarding this subject matter. Once upon a time, a father wanted to teach his fourteen year old daughter, Susan, a lesson on righteousness. Why? Because Susan had the tendency to see others faults but not her own. Indeed, Susan went to a very prestigious private school because she came from an extremely wealthy background. She was also known as what some people might call "a tom boy." Why? Because she was a girl who liked to perform boy activities like sports. In other words, she didn't consider herself "a girly girl" by traditional standards.
Indeed, she was the only girl who wanted to play baseball with the boys. When the boys picked teams to play baseball after school, she would always be the last one that was picked. Why? Because she was a girl. Everyday after school, Susan would come home crying into the arms of her father complaining how the boys at school were sexist.
In order to console his daughter, the father reminded her of her own faults. Indeed, in order to keep his daughter grounded, he would make her volunteer at a shelter every weekend by serving food to the homeless. He reminded his daughter, "Remember last weekend when we were serving food to the homeless, a homeless girl around your age bump into you by accident. Do you remember what you said to her." Susan, holding her head down in shame, remained silent.
The father reminded her, "You told this girl 'Don't ever touch me again because my clothes are really expensive and I would never serve you people if my father didn't make me." Indeed, Susan was complaining to her father about how the boys at school were treating her as an inferior because she was a girl, but she initially couldn't see how she was treating the homeless girl as an inferior because the girl was poor.
Georgia Kenney
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The moral of the story is....
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Just as a person who passes stool can tolerate the smell of their own crap but cannot tolerate the smell of someone else's crap, so also those who are influenced by the ego can tolerate the faults that come out of them but cannot tolerate the faults that come out someone else.
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Therefore, it is said:
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“Not the perversities of others, not their sins of commission or omission, but his own misdeeds and negligences should a sage take notice of.”
Buddha (Dhammapada Stanza 50)
