' Human Pride '...

Man's pride and satisfaction in what he knows limits the scope of his
vision.

Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

One wishes to be admired for his clothes, his jewels, his
possessions, his greatness and position, and naturally when this
desire increases it makes a person blind and he loses sight of right
and justice. It is natural that the desire for things that gratify
vanity should have no end; it increases continually. The tendency to
look at others with hatred and prejudice, to consider them inferior
to oneself, and all such tendencies come from this ego. There are
even cases when people spend money in order to be able to insult
another. To make someone bow before him, to make him give way, to put
him in a position of inferiority, to make him appear contemptible,
sometimes a person will spend money. The desire for the satisfaction
of vanity reaches such a point, that a person would give his life for
the satisfaction of his vanity. Often someone shows generosity, not
for the sake of kindness, but to satisfy his vanity. The more vanity
a person has the less sympathy he has for others, for all his
attention is given to his own satisfaction, and he is as blind toward
others. This ego, so to speak, restricts life, because it limits a
person.

All the knowledge that man possesses he has acquired by belief. When
he strengthens his belief by knowledge then comes disbelief in things
that his knowledge cannot cope with, and in things that his reason
cannot justify. He then disbelieves things that he once believed in.
An unbeliever is one who has changed his belief to disbelief;
disbelief often darkens the soul, but sometimes it illuminates it.
There is a Persian saying, 'Until belief has changed to disbelief,
and, again, the disbelief into a belief, a man does not become a real
Muslim.' But when disbelief becomes a wall and stands against the
further penetration of mind into life, then it darkens the soul, for
there is no chance of further progress, and man's pride and
satisfaction in what he knows limit the scope of his vision.