SELF-DELUSION

Nothing gets in the way of spiritual development quite as much as self-delusion. It can stop your personal growth or slow it down to a crawl. In some cases, it can even reverse progress.

Those who delude themselves are not necessarily lacking in intelligence. In fact, the more intelligent they are, the more ways they will find to delude themselves. Your mind has no defense against itself, so you can easily become your worst enemy.

One way to detect self-delusion is to be on the lookout for denial. Someone who is angry but denies it is deluding himself. Another example is someone who is dissatisfied but continues to insist that everything is great. The more powerful the self-delusion, the louder and more aggressive the insistence will be. Watch for this kind of behavior in others and, more important, in yourself.

The Tao Today

Do a quick self-assessment to see if you are in denial of something. Are you refusing to face reality in one aspect of life or another? Are you turning a blind eye to your own faults? This is one of the most important and most difficult tasks in the internal work of Tao cultivation.

The Tao of Joy Every Day

~ Derek Lin