Ideals and Perfection

 

Ideals and Perfection

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In India we are taught values on how to live idealistically very early in life. It is part of the culture, at least it used to be so. Today, with the spread of westernisation, western values are taking over and the traditional ideals are giving way to what is known as the woke culture! We are all brought up in such a way that everybody has become idealistic. Nobody is realistic. We are brought up in such a way that we think we have to become somebody, sometime in the future. An image is created and we have to try and become like that image! That itself creates tension in us because we are expected to become something which we are not.

Because we are not living up to the expectation, that ideal becomes a kind of condemnation of our life and we live in continuous tension. Whatsoever we do is imperfect as we have an ideal of perfection to live up to! Whatsoever we attain will never be fulfilling because we have an insane expectation which can never be satisfied.

In spirituality we practice becoming one with ourself, we do not practice perfection as perceived in the material world. Never try to be perfect otherwise all we do is create anxiety. We live in a world full of problems, why create more for ourselves. Life’s problems can always be solved, but problems that idealism gives can never be solved.

A perfectionist is neurotic. And not only is he neurotic, he creates neurotic trends around him. So do not be a perfectionist, and if somebody is a perfectionist around you escape away from him as fast as you can before he pollutes your mind.

All perfectionism is a sort of deep ego trip. Just to think of yourself in terms of ideals and perfection is nothing but to decorate your ego to its uttermost. A humble person accepts that life is not perfect. A humble person, a really religious person, accepts that we are limited, that there are limitations. Not to try to be perfect is to be humble.

And a humble person becomes more and more total because such a person has nothing to deny, nothing to reject. He / She accepts whatsoever he/she is, good, bad. And a humble person is very rich because such a person accepts his/her wholeness; anger, sex, greed, jealousy — everything is accepted. In that deep acceptance a great alchemical change happens. All that is ugly by and by disappears on its own accord. Such a person becomes more and more harmonious, more and more whole.

Perfectionists are the chosen people of God. In fact, the day we understand that we are creating our own misery because of our ideas, we break all ideas. Then we simply live out of our reality — whatsoever it is. That is a great transformation. No point in trying to be God’s chosen people, just be human!