MODESTY

Modesty (appicchatā or hiri) is the quality of being unpretentious about one's virtues or achievements. In some religions, humility, self-abasement even, is considered good because it indicates recognition of humankind's sinfulness and a genuine fear of God. In Buddhism, to assess yourself above your actual worth is pride (māna), while to deliberately undervalue yourself is a kind of reverse pride. Humility is to underrate your true worth while modesty is to know your true worth without being proud or self-satisfied. Genuinely modest people are able to see themselves as they really are and rejoice in their good qualities without becoming vain or self-promoting, and acknowledge their faults without shame or self-loathing. Once, the Buddha mentioned to some monks that his lay disciple Hatthaka had seven wonderful and marvelous qualities; these being faith, virtue, propriety, self-respect, learning, generosity and wisdom. Later, when Hatthaka learned how the Buddha had praised him he commented: 'I hope there were no laypeople around at the time.' When this comment was reported back to the Buddha, he remarked: 'Good! Very good! He is genuinely modest and does not want his good qualities to be known to others. So you can truly say that Hatthaka is adorned with this eighth wonderful and marvelous quality - modesty' (A.IV,217).