Spiritual pursuits often involve a degree of arrogance, which must be overcome. However, it would be ideal to avoid involvement altogether if possible. While it's relatively easier to avoid arrogance in interactions with others, it's often difficult to recognize arrogance in oneself.

Arrogance tends to persist until a certain level of progress is achieved. However, the arrogance of thinking "I should understand" can be a significant pitfall for intellectually inclined individuals. When people believe they are spiritually superior or possess spiritual potential, they often struggle to accept their current state and resort to rationalizations to reinforce their self-perception. These rationalizations are often so sophisticated that they can involve not only the individual but also others, creating a complex web of logic.

In reality, these rationalizations often mask the fact that the person has not yet reached the next stage of development. This can lead to stagnation and hinder growth.

The foundation of spiritual practice is to see things as they are, including one's own strengths and weaknesses, achieved and unachieved states.

However, spiritual arrogance can prevent individuals from seeing their true state, creating an illusion that they understand.

These are all illusions that must be overcome. While self-awareness is crucial, sometimes a strong shock is necessary to realize this.

To overcome this, it's essential to adhere to the fundamental principles of spirituality: concentration, joy, tranquility, bliss, and oneness. When one transcends the realm of rational thought and understands things from the perspective of oneness, the mind becomes a tool for explaining oneness. When the mind is used for self-justification, it hinders growth, but when oneness takes the lead and uses the mind, the expression becomes entirely different. This is not just a theoretical concept; it is something that can actually happen.

Specifically, it is necessary to overcome the doctrines and dogmas of religions and sects. While these teachings may contain elements of truth, the direct understanding gained by ascending to a higher vibrational level transcends the limitations of verbal and logical comprehension. However, many people mistakenly believe that understanding the doctrines is equivalent to enlightenment. This misconception is often rooted in the individual's own arrogance, as they pretend to understand things they do not. This can lead to a false sense of superiority and even manipulation of others.

While the vocabulary and expressions used in different teachings can be learned and used to create seemingly profound arguments, it's important to recognize that each perspective represents only one facet of the truth.

When one truly achieves oneness, they realize that everyone, even without realizing it, has already attained enlightenment and that no one is inherently special. This realization makes it impossible to engage in proselytizing or manipulation. Therefore, anyone who claims to be enlightened should be viewed with skepticism.

Some sects may intentionally instill the belief that individuals are less spiritually advanced than they think, which can be misleading. In reality, many people, especially in Japan, possess a certain level of spiritual awareness from birth. When such beliefs are imposed, it is often due to the arrogance of the guru, who may feel insecure about their own lack of understanding and project that onto their disciples. Furthermore, long-term disciples may perpetuate this belief to justify their own positions, creating a hierarchical structure. This is a distorted form of spiritual practice. It is important to reject such imposed values and continue to strive for a genuine understanding of reality.

Depending on the school of thought, there are various distortions, and while each uses different words, they often contain some truth. However, fundamentally, it's not a very complicated matter. The problem is that if you get stuck somewhere along the way and your growth stops, your mind (the thinking mind) will twist logic, rationalize itself, and deceive itself, further hindering growth. The ego, which would be better off gone, still remains and is resisting through self-justification. Although different schools of thought say various things, this pattern is the same.

And to overcome this, you simply need to actually reach oneness.