Again, we are seeing a kind of false distinction here in the terminology being used. Really what you are describing is a choice between being loving to others or being loving only to the self. Pride can be a form of love bestowed to the self. Selfish pride is a lowering of vibration to see value in the self in a self-serving way. In a sense what needs to happen for all beings is to strike a balance between serving the self and serving others in a way that honors all, but it is not serving the self through pride alone but through self-love which takes many forms, not only reveling in one’s achievements but also bestowing love when one is in the wrong, when one has failed at something, when one has made a poor choice and sees it has caused harm in some way. What is needed in all such circumstances is a certain measure of self-love which will be the best fuel to correct the wrongful choice.
All too often making a misstep will bring self-recrimination as a kind of self-punishment leading to self-denial of love and self-respect, and that can be quite damaging. There needs to be due regard and a reckoning when one has made a misstep and to take some corrective action rather than to serve the ego still and be uncaring and insensitive to problems that have been created. So this is a kind of a philosophical discussion that we fear might begin to miss the point by being too categorical and not a fuller description of the competing emotions and their consequences.
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