(…) losing ourself is not such a bad thing. It can be interpreted in rather negative terms as punishing oneself, or denying oneself pleasures, or crucifying oneself in some way, or seeking hardships. The danger of that of course is that it creates a negative spirituality. It also creates a negative attitude towards oneself. You begin to objectify yourself in the same way as people do when they go to the gym and work out and develop very good bodies. The body becomes an object they are rather proud of and like other people to admire as well. That isn’t really what the spiritual path is about. The danger of losing oneself in that negative way, or trying to lose oneself in that negative way, is that we collapse into pride. The desert teachers were very conscious of the danger of pride. You could be a very good desert mother or desert father in the sense of being very disciplined, very controlled having mastered many of your passions, and yet you collapse into pride because you are rather pleased with yourself for being such a good teacher. So pride was the big pitfall.
( Finding Oneself 1 Laurence Freeman )
