Preview

Summary Of Humility By Thomas Merton

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
217 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Summary Of Humility By Thomas Merton
Becoming comfortable with ourselves in situations we feel insecure in is a huge step in life. “Humility” by Thomas Merton presents the idea that humility is what drives us further away from connecting to ourselves. When we are humiliated, we are driven out of our comfort zones and that shies us away from future opportunities. However, does humility even exist in the first place if we let it? If we learn to become content with who we are as people, then we will be comfortable. “He discovers that true joy is only possible” (Merton 4). He talks about how life is so much easier and fun when we “forget about ourselves” (5) and simply live in the moments. I think the influences on today’s society have impacted our image of our own reputations and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Chapter one: Humility, discusses the traditions followed three days after a girl was born into the world. Whoever would visit her would make a sacrifice. Also the baby girl would be placed “below the bed to show that she was lowly and weak and should concentrate on humbling herself before others.” Zhao proclaims a woman must possess humility, industriousness and to continue sacrifice. She defines humility as acting respectful to others. She defines industriousness as complating everything that needs to be done as perfect as possible. She explains continuing sacrifice as serving your husband family, keeping clean, and never laughing. Today, the welcoming of a baby does not include being placed below a bed to show how weak you are. Also, the definition of the words/phrases Zhao defines could be defined less discriminating against women in present times.…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “True humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less” (C.S. Lewis)…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This week’s article entitled, “Shutting Shame Down” by Jessie Sholl addresses a problem that every human being deals with at some point in their life, generally even more than once. Shame, an emotion that is often confused with guilt and embarrassment, has become such an average occurrence that no one appears to address the issue. The most we do now is keep our heads down and ignore it until the moment passes. As someone who has experienced shame far more often than I would like to admit, and in the strangest of circumstances, I found this article to be illuminating. Although it would probably difficult to remember, I believe that, after a considerable amount of time, the techniques suggested in this article may be the key to dealing with the shame we tend to struggle with on a day to day basis.…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In a world consumed with desire, Carl Richards tries to offer a solution to an individual’s need to be better than the person standing beside him or her with his article, “Learning to Shun the Instagram Life.” Richards discusses how he sees others living their life, which he refers to as the “Instagram life”. He describes this life as being “focused on making it look like we have a better life than everyone else.” He even further demonstrates that as we look at ourselves and appear happy, we also see others and feel jealousy towards those people. Envy is considered as one of the seven deadly sins. Everyone has some jealousy in their veins, the question is do we build our lives around that jealously? Richards does a decent job trying to convince the reader that he or she should not live the Instagram life, but focus on building a genuine life of happiness,…

    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Humility takes an honest recognition of your worth as God sees you and recognizing your faults and knowing God loves and values us is so important to our well being. Doesn't this promote a healthy view of us? Pride is wrong because it elevates you above others, and often above God. Humility doesn’t always come naturally for some people. There are people who are stubborn nature and were brought up very confident and elevating themselves due to experiences and upbringing. I believe the reason why they fell like this is because they are suffering inside with jealousy, insecurity and are a result of their "ego" or self or pride, sense of entitlement, or the desire to be the "best" at whatever. People need to be humble sometimes so they can be in place where their life is better. I think that humility comes first than honor. What matters if you have honor if you don’t have humility you can’t go through life and stepping all over people because when you get older and have kids they would do that to you. We live in a society that is like a chain reaction if you do something other people follow but we need to break that mold and make this a better place to live. There are people walking who don’t care if they hurt people because they were never thought the meaning of humility. I consider myself as a humble person, I am the kind of person that if hit in one cheek would put the other cheek, like they say is better that there is one crazy person that two. I don’t like people who are like that. For example, I have an aunt that is good economically stable and when one of her sisters husband died she provided some stuff for the funeral and gave my aunt some money, she had her pride very high and was telling everyone what she had done. When I heard I had this feeling inside of me that I can’t explain, I hated the fact that she was telling everyone, you don’t have to tell anyone what you did; you should keep it to yourself and be humble. Sometimes I think she…

    • 2173 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lao Tzu's View Of Daoism

    • 925 Words
    • 4 Pages

    According to the Daodejing, a humble person avoids attracting attention of others. They are mindful, therefore, do not need to advertise themselves to be open to growth. One will be truly humble when they realize their own insignificance. Like water, one must submit to kindness without contention. They understand when to keep the “I” silent so that they may hear the…

    • 925 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Secretly we all want to be beautiful or handsome, equally talented, the center of attention just for once in our lives. The extravagantly creative are loners, the amazingly attractive are too conceited, and the king or queen of our dreams are nowhere in sight. But what makes us that social butterfly, that person who creates connections all across the world as their smile lights up the room, does this person reveal their true selves in society or is it just an illusion? The hard work and efforts we make to gain respect, insight and a positive imagine in our life might take more than just a decent gesture or a firm handshake, we sometimes have to be untruthful about who and what we are and simply what we do. Within our own crowded closets we hide our skeletons so perfectly that no one is aware of…

    • 4051 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Competition And Happiness,” by Theodore Rubin, he emphasizes that competition has evolved from being a mean of survival to strictly a corrosive comparison of ourselves in relation to others. Americans are trapped in a society where most are so fixated on elitism, that it leads them to stress over their success, progress, or self- perception relative to others. Whether it is in education, business, or socially, individuals are envious and jealous of other’s accomplishments and possessions to an extent where it leads our culture to ignore individuality. No matter if it is blatant or subterranean, a form of resentment is present, and it pushes one to be in constant competition with others. This type of mindset is what limits or even affects…

    • 1321 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Viola Davis Essay

    • 241 Words
    • 1 Page

    Today's society has played and important part in shaping our lives in so many ways than we realize, from personal lives to how we interact with others in our daily routine. Therefore, it has a direct effect on how we perceive ourselves, others and how we value ourselves compared to our…

    • 241 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Only a scare amount of people are destined to be the President of the United States, to be astronauts, to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, or to find a cure for a terminal disease. All of us are capable of significant accomplishments and achievements throughout each of our lives. As Mother Teresa or St. Teresa of Calcutta states this quote, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love,” it signifies extreme importance through society in which people accomplish things rather large or small; love is always present during the accomplishments not matter the size of the achievement. Not everyone is exposed, or afforded, the opportunity to do great things; whether fame, money, or motivation tend to get in the…

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Beauty By Jane Martin

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Andrea Isaacs December 2, 2014 English 102-BD Fall The Search for Happiness In today’s society we live in a world were the media has the opportunity to attract us into wanting more than what we already have. We always feed into our desire just to satisfy our happiness. Many of out interpretations of Success and beauty comes from the images we see everyday. One’s unhappiness is cause by the jealousy of others and discontent within our lives.…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Reality

    • 1831 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Today, people are born into a generation where people care only for themselves more than ever. People want the best and nothing but the best. In Jean Twinge’s essay, “An Army of One: Me,” it focuses on the self-esteem that people have and how it is related to the happiness in which people want to feel. Having high self-esteem will contribute to being more confident, which will lead to an individual taking on their goals head on. Also, both Leslie Bell’s, “Selections from Hard to Get: Twenty-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom,” and Daniel Gilbert’s, “Immune to Reality,” offer insight on the matter of pursuit of happiness. Each individual has their own way of knowing when they are happy and only they will know when the feeling is reached. When self-esteem is dependent on competence, individuals invest a great deal of effort in their accomplishments and success in order to validate themselves, which leads to the state of feeling happy.…

    • 1831 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To me, humility is not a tangible item, but rather a way of life. And while I have made significant progress in my journey, there is always more to learn. Just like in sports, there is no end goal. Humility is not something that can be accomplished, but I can work towards staying humble day to day and person to person. That is what motivates me – freely I have been given, and freely I will…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When you Google the word humility or even look it up in the dictionary the definition is still the same. “ Humility: a modest or low view of one’s importance; humbleness”. The power of humility in the world around us is very strong. We may doubt ourselves and appreciate the good in us but no good ever comes from bragging about who you are. Yes, you should be abundantly proud of who you are, but in order for people to acquire the ability to help others you need not think of yourself but instead you must think of those around you and how you can best help them.…

    • 325 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Everyone in the world is unique. Some people have great talents and skills, and some don’t. Unfortunately, I belong to the latter group. However, there is one thing that sets me apart from other candidates applying to the University of California. That is humility. There are some different ways to define humility. To me, humility is “the quality of not being proud because you are aware of your bad qualities.” For instance, sometimes when I got higher grades than my friends, I did not walk around and brag too much about my grades. Instead, I kept it for myself and tried to act as a normal person. I always told myself that my friends could have got higher grades than me the next time. As a result, there was no need to be excited about this. Moreover,…

    • 291 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics