268. Bluffing.

It is the function of bluff and bluffing to redress the balance between one's own inadequacies and the other man's superiority and as this cannot be done in actuality, but only by psychological means which are independent of tangible resources, it is a weapon peculiarly suited to a man who is on the run.

261. Pride

Pride is a false sense of worth that derives from something that is not organically part of your Self. It comes from Ahankara - the identification by the mind of your Self with some external thing in the Creation. It gives emphasis to the superiority of a person's status in the eyes of others. There is fear and insecurity in pride because when you aim for status and being highly esteemed and achieve it, you are automatically involved in fear of losing that status. Protection of status then appears to you to be your most important need and this creates anxiety. Pride is very different from self-respect. All respect, including self-respect, springs from knowledge and memory of the Self and your origins and home in the Self. The less you are grounded in the Self, the more imperative is the need for pride. One is proud when he identifies with the ego. The core of pride is Self-rejection.

200. Superiority and True Nobility

There is nothing noble about being superior to some other person. True nobility lies in your being a superior person to your own former self. This is the practice of CANI or Kaizen. You must run your own race against yourself. It does not matter what other people say about you. What is important is what you say to yourself. You can do whatever you want to do so long as it is correct according to your conscience and your heart. Therefore you have a duty to keep your conscience informed and sharp and your heart open.

Never be ashamed of what is right. Decide what is right after appropriate study and stick to it.

Never get into the petty habit of measuring your self-worth against other people's. All such comparisons are odious. Every second you spend thinking about someone else's dreams is time taken away from your own. Always plough your own furrow and keep your nose out of other people's business.