Pride

Pride or arrogance (Skt. māna; Tib. ང་རྒྱལ་, nga gyal; Wyl. nga rgyal) is one of the main destructive emotions and one of the fifty-one mental states defined in Abhidharma literature. According to the Compendium of Abhidharma, it belongs to the subgroup of the six root destructive emotions.

Definitions

In the Khenjuk, Mipham Rinpoche says:

• Tib. ང་རྒྱལ་ནི་འཇིག་ལྟ་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་སེམས་མཐོ་བའི་རྣམ་པར་ཁེངས་པ་སྟེ། གཞན་ལ་མ་གུས་པ་དང་སྡུག་བསྔལ་འབྱུང་བའི་རྟེན་བྱེད་པ་དེ་ལ་དབྱེ་ན་བདུན་ཡོད་དོ།
• Pride is being full of oneself and thinking one is better, which arises based on the view of the transitory collection. It creates the basis for disrespecting others and for suffering to arise. It can be divided into seven types. (Rigpa Translations)
• Arrogance is the conceited attitude of superiority based on the belief in the [transitory] collection. It creates the basis for dis-respecting others and for the occurrence of suffering. It can be divided into seven types. (Erik Pema Kunsang)

Subdivisions

Seven kinds of pride (Tib. ང་རྒྱལ་བདུན་, Wyl. nga rgyal bdun)

1. the simple pride (nga rgyal tsam) or lesser pride (nga rgyal chung) of thinking that you are the same as your peers
2. the greater pride (che ba'i nga rgyal) of thinking that you are better than your equals
3. exceeding pride (nga rgyal las kyang nga rgyal), i.e., thinking you are even better than those who are great
4. the pride of thinking "I exist" (nga'o snyam pa'i nga rgyal)
5. blatant pride (mngon pa'i nga rgyal), i.e., thinking you have greater qualities than you actually possess
6. the pride of thinking that you are slightly inferior (cung zad snyam pa'i nga rgyal), i.e., thinking you are slightly inferior to those who are great, but that you are excellent nonetheless
7. unfounded pride (log pa'i nga rgyal) i.e., taking pride in what is actually a fault

Alternative Translations

Arrogance (Erik Pema Kunsang)

Further Reading

• Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang, A Guide to the Words of My Perfect Teacher, translated by Padmakara Translation Group (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2004), pages 268-269.