More notes from a poor monk
Humility is, first of all, the antithesis of all kinds of arrogance and improper pride. In the humble person, there is no desire for power or ego-glory, but only a responsiveness to value. Such a person is not concerned with personal glory, but with the glory of the objective value, of that which pleases God, and therefore with the glory of God as well.

Goodness (which is part of the "truth" of any thing), as inherent in anything, is what attracts the humble person. Its intrinsic beauty, i.e., the beauty in the thing itself touches the heart of the humble person and is a delight for him/her. [Here, it must be noted, we are not speaking of beauty in the physical sense, though even such beauty affects the heart of the person. There are all kinds of beauty in the world, on all different sorts off levels.] In the humble person, there is a devotion to goodness which enables him to participate in the harmony of all kinds of values. Such a person is bright, serene, properly confident, and free from the corrosive poison that eats at the heart of the arrogant and improperly proud individual.

We have here mentioned "improper" pride. There is also a "proper" pride, one, for example, which fills the heart and mind of a person simply because he or she is a human being. Proper pride enables us to walk with our heads held erect, though not imperiously. Proper pride forbids us to be servile, to live in some kind of "slavery" or improper subordination to another. The "correctly" proud person (who is also the humble person!) is one who is awake to moral consciousness and "proud" to have awakened, but this proper pride is not arrogance, it is not stiff-necked and hard-headed, nor is it filled with its own importance. Therefore, it should be clear that proper pride does not contradict humility.

This respect and reverence for values that we have mentioned above underlies justice, veracity, faithfulness, and even purity --goodness, in general. All these virtues derive from the basic central awareness of value and the readiness to live in harmony with these values. Here, it is clear that humility is the basis of all virtue, as we mentioned in our last consideration.

Goodness, then, is intimately connected to humility and proper pride, and we shall see more of this as we continue.