Avoid Spiritual Pride

There are two kinds of stress or anxiety in life—Overt Stress and Covert Stress. Overt Stress is easy to recognize because it bogs us down and troubles our hearts. I also call it “Sour Stress.”

Covert Stress is “Sweet Stress” but more insidious. It makes you feel good and proud but sabotages you from the inside. For example, we all have seen many successful people in life destroyed by their own prosperity. In other words, prosperity is equally, if not more, harmful to our spirit than poverty.

Maybe that’s why the wise King Solomon asked God not to make him poor or prosperous because poverty could make him break the law, and prosperity could make him forget God. He knew that the moment we forget God, life becomes vanity. He wanted to avoid Covert Stress.

Covert Stress is like sugar. You know sugar tastes good and makes you happy, but it stresses your inner organs without feeling it and could eventually cause type II diabetes or other serious diseases. Type II diabetes is known as a silent killer because it doesn’t show any symptoms for a long time. By the time it shows symptoms, it’s often too late. In the same way, Covert Stress is a silent killer of our spirit.

The ancient sages call these sources of stress the Eight Winds of Life, which constantly blow at us from eight directions. The overt winds might be like storms of life, but the covert winds might feel like pleasant breezes. Because it is constantly blowing at us, we must always maintain our spiritual fitness to stay in the fruitful state.

The top four Overt Stresses are Scorn, Slander, Setback, and Suffering. When someone scorns you, you feel belittled; when people slander you, you feel outraged; when you encounter a setback, you feel worried; and when you face suffering, you feel pain. Overall, Overt Stresses give you anxiety.

The top four Covert Stresses are Praise, Prestige, Profit, and Pleasure. When people praise you, you feel elated; prestige makes you feel successful; profit makes you feel victorious; pleasure makes you blissful. All these stresses make you proud, but if you are not careful, it could lead to arrogance. They are silent killers.

If you think you can handle these winds by yourself, you are still young. There’s a story of Su Dongpo, about whom I told you a few weeks ago. A highly gifted person in history, he was like Benjamin Franklin of 11th-century China—a statesman, a scientist, a poet, an artist, and a military strategist.

His childhood playmate, Foyin, became a zen monk. As a bright and competitive young man, he wanted to beat the monk in mediation. One day, he felt he had achieved total stillness in his meditation. He immediately jotted down a poem to illustrate his spiritual achievement and sent it to his friend, Foyin.

稽首天中天， 毫光照大千， 八風吹不動， 端坐紫金蓮

“I bow my head to the heaven within heaven; My halo illuminates the universe; The eight winds cannot move me; Sitting still upon the purple golden lotus.” ~Su Dongpo

Notice he said, “the eight winds cannot move me.” The last sentence, “Sitting still upon the purple golden lotus,” means he is comparing himself to Buddha. In other words, he had achieved Buddhahood. It’s the highest achievement a zen practitioner could wish for.

He ordered his family servant to cross the river to give his poem to the monk at the monastery. Upon reading it immediately, the monk wrote a remark on the paper and sent it back. The remark said, “Breaking wind!” meaning passing gas.

When Su Dongpo received it, he was furious, “Dirty monk! How dare he ruin my beautiful poem.” Immediately, he got on a boat and crossed the river to confront the monk. A little boy came out telling him that the master was not at the monastery.

He thought, “I knew it! The guilty monk had gone hiding.” But the boy said, “My master wants me to give you this note.” The note said,

“Eight winds cannot move you, but a breaking wind blew you acros