Well, I don't know how anyone else sees this, but I do not see two things here.  These qualities are the result of losing the egoic self. I used to think if I attained these qualities first, then I would have the tools I needed to become who I am. I don't think that now.

You've asked a lot of questions. When you ask of humility and whether it's a self serving experience, I don't know what you mean. Can you clarify?


In my own experience humility is just the abandonment of my inflated sense of self. It doesn't mean that I see myself as less than anyone but rather that an equanimity is achieved. When I see we are all One, the thought: I am not like that person or that person, whether it's a quality I don't like or one I envy, I see we are all the same. There is no quality that I have experienced that others have not and vice versa. My own ambition, my own jockeying for approval is what keeps me from oneness, humility or deflation of my fantasies of myself is the antidote.

No, you didn't ask too many questions at all! I am willing to explore this as long as you care to! I am discovering myself too and find this a perfect opportunity. What is it that you see?

There is an exercise I do at my school where each student looks towards someone near them, points their finger out, and  says "I am pointing at mysef".  It is both an exercise put in place to signal the commoness of man and also to physically point to the phenomenon of life "showing up" a little different.  I think "moving beyond myself" is letting go of the idea of a 'self", similar to the 'inflated self" as Gin wrote.  Once you acknowledge life's  possibilities far greater than just "you" , this "movement" is simply recognizing our shared "one life" showing up as two (two forms, maybe a woman and a man, maybe two different names, two different colors).  Life, all forms, is still one life. 
 As I personally navigate through life, whether I practice it or not, I truly I find it most beneficial to let go of defining myself.   From this, I experience less suffering, as personal effort no longer exists.  Life becomes shared, more rich, deeper, and full of more possibilities.

Rumi once said:  “The mind does not respect anything”.

I believe that we limit our consciousness by the illusion of things instead of the truth of all things. I have deliberately observed this in my own experience.

Once we move beyond all things, the reason of all reasons, the cause of all causes, where would we be? Floating in unlimited spheres …oh how free we could be!