Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘Practicing the perfection of patience or tolerance requires a humble stance in the world, an honest, uninflated sense of oneself. But humility is not one of the perfections; in fact, it is not a virtue that we can work on like any other. This is so because we come to be humble not through a series of accomplishments to our character but rather through humbling realizations about who and what we are.

We become humble when we are willing and able to look directly at our own weaknesses and failures. These shortcomings are substantial in all of us, but only the humble person has the honesty to own up to them and face who they are, all fronts aside. Such honesty often comes through times of humiliation, hardly the kind of experience we willingly seek. From this point of view, humility is not lack of awareness of who we are, as is often assumed. Instead, it is a profoundly felt sensitivity to the extent of our own limitations.’ (The Six Perfections)

I realise this is being published on July 4th… perhaps the idea of humility and limitations applies also here.