The three logismoi of the intellectual realm are the thirst for glory, envy, and pride (hybris).
Thirst for glory is constant boasting in the presence of others. One does everything purely to be seen by people. Evagrius puts it this way: “The thought of the thirst for glory is a truly difficult companion. He likes to come forth in persons who desire to live virtuously. He awakens a desire in them to tell others how hard their struggle is. In this fashion they seek honor from others. Such people like to fancy themselves, for example, curing women…. They imagine that men and women are knocking on their door, hoping to .meet them and talk with them, forcing them to come along if they hesitate.”
When I have a thirst for glory I am constantly thinking about others and their opinion of me. What effect am I having on them? Do they approve of what I do? I don’t stand by myself; I make myself dependent on the judgment of others. Indeed, I am forever thinking up ways of making my next appearance on the stage as effective as possible so that I may get properly applauded.
Naturally it does all of us good to be acknowledged and confirmed. And it would be hypocritical to think that we are completely untouched by recognition and praise. The thirst for recognition creeps into everything, even our most pious actions. The point is not to become entirely free of it, but to relativize the thirst for recognition, so as not to make ourselves dependent upon it. We ourselves sense how painful it is, for example, when sixty- and seventy-year-olds are still wholly focused on what others think and expect. That isn’t life, but having our lives lived for us by somebody else.
Envy makes its appearance in continuous comparisons with others. I can’t meet another person without comparing myself with that person. I immediately begin to appraise people, to value, devalue, and revalue them. I look for their weak points or downgrade their performance as inhibited or morbid, their success as illusory, their intelligence as weak, etc. And conversely, when I don’t succeed at this, I devalue myself and put others on a pedestal.
In envy too I am not standing by myself, I am not content with myself, I have no sense of dignity. I recognize my value only by comparison with others. This is very exhausting. It either forces me to surpass others or plunges me into depression because I see no chance of holding my own with others.
Hybris, or pride, blinds people. Proud persons have so identified with their ideal image that they refuse to look at their reality. “The demon of pride is the cause of the worst fall a person can have. For pride seduces people into seeking the ca use of their virtuous actions not in God but in themselves…. In the end the proud come down with the worst possible sickness; they become mentally deranged, succumb to madness, and fall prey to hallucinations that make them see whole hosts of demons in the skies.”
In hybris people exalt then1selves so far into the fantastic world of their own ideals that they lose touch with reality. This makes them delusional. C. G. Jung calls this attitude inflation: we pump ourselves up with ideals and notions that we aren’t entitled to. Inflation always occurs when we identify ourselves with an archetypal image, for example, of the prophet: “I am the only one who can see through it all, who dares to say the truth.” Or with the image of martyr: “No one understands me; I just have to suffer, because, like Jesus, I’m so different, because I alone stand up for the truth.” Such words often have a pious ring to them. But behind them is hybris, wanting to be like God or like people whom God has given a special call.
Indeed, this sort of hybris blinds us. As a prophet I’m blind to .my own reality. I tell the world what’s right, but I don’t know myself at all. I refuse to look at myself. Jesus heals the man born blind by spitting on the ground and lovingly rubbing the day into his eyes, as if to say: “You too, after all, have been taken from the earth. Reconcile yourself with the dirt that’s in you, with your shadow side. Be a human being, and then you can see again. As long as you deny your earthliness, you won’t be able to see.”
~Anselm Gruen, Heaven Begins Within You: Wisdom from the Desert Fathers
