Spiritual perfection is an illusion. Simply be human.

A few posts ago, in "Allow cosmic mystery to live, not killing it with religion," I talked about what I didn't like about Tim Freke's book, The Mystery Experience.

Now I want to share some passages that made me think right on when I read them. Yes, I had a few quibbles with what Freke said, but in general I agreed wholeheartedly with him.

After embracing forms of spirituality that emphasized detaching from the world to reach a state of transcendent perfected enlightenment, Freke has seen the light. Not a heavenly radiance, but the illumination that comes from embracing what really is, rather than what is imagined to be.

Here's some quotes from his "A Lover of Life" chapter that I read this morning:

Enlightenment is often understood as an egoless state in which we're fully self-realized and permanently awake. We're free from the cycle of rebirth, so we don't have to reincarnate into this troublesome human existence. 

Most people I meet don't really think they could ever achieve such an elevated state, but they often believe that some great master somewhere has made it to the winning post. 

I no longer see the spiritual journey in this way. I don't aspire to arrive at some ultimate state. The idea of eradicating the ego seems misguided and holds no attraction. My experience of awakening makes me want to fully engage with the human adventure, not escape it. ...I don't aspire to be an enlightened master, rather I aspire to be a humble 'lover of life.'

...I want to suggest that the purpose of the spiritual journey is not to arrive anywhere, but rather to engage with the adventure of life in a new way, so that the evolutionary process unfolds powerfully within us.

...Many people think that the journey of awakening is ultimately about achieving some sort of spiritual perfection. But I want to suggest that to be human is necessarily to be imperfect. We all have our flaws and foibles... even the best of us. Everyone who can walk, sometimes stumbles. The greatest musicians can hit bum notes.

...It's embracing the glorious imperfection of personal existence. It is creatively engaging with the ambiguity of being human.

To aspire to become a lover of life is to aspire to become wise by accepting we'll sometimes be foolish. It's recognizing that we'll always make mistakes because of our lack of consciousness. This is the process of evolution. If we didn't err, we'd never learn. And if we didn't learn we'd never grow.

Indeed, it seems to me, if we're not continually making mistakes we're getting too comfortable and should be taking more risks.

To become a lover of life we must be willing to be a foolish lover... a lost lover... a vulnerable lover... a lonely lover... a broken lover... a frightened lover... a flawed lover... a wounded lover... an inconstant lover.

We must be willing to love being human, with all that this entails. 

"A foolish lover." Made me think about some of my own writings about the joy of foolishness:
I'm an ignorant fool (happily)
God calls me a fool. I agree.
Taoism -- a philosophy for fools

Comments

[tucson]

I think there is "enlightenment" but I don't think it has anything to do with what is commonly associated with the term like egolessness, spiritual perfection and bliss... or their opposites.

All descriptions and discussions fail to touch it because it is not relative and therefore is a paradox in any reasoning or language context. You can't use mind to seek something from mind because mind and the object of its search are one.

When we try by an act of will to be in the moment, to seize the present, all we are doing is putting our attention on the more recent past. You are there when you don't know it.

[Juliano]

Yes I LOVE that too! If I was to choose a myth--a story which reaches deep I would just the one about the son/lover of the Goddess. For this son/lover is associated also with the psychedelic vegetation which ones plucked 'sacrefices 'hirself' and then we ingest and hey presto s/he is born again as the LOVER of the Goddess, which is nature in all her depths, and where there IS no patriarchal concept of 'pure' versus 'impure' which has bred and breeds SUCH evil via ignoreance.
And from these deep ecstatic experience we integrate into day to day life, and so it goes.

[Adrian Mendoza]

I think the word "ego" is the greatest lie the people who comtrols the world has invented. I agree you don't have to get rid of your ego, if you get rid of your ego you become a sectarian (commonly, and the promise to get rid of it is what attracts people the most to sects). Why get rid of what we call "ego"? Well if we get rid of it there's no possibility left of personality traits, without personality there's no possibility of rebellion, and finally without rebellion you have the world you want, full of sheep under total control.

Live your life, don't worry, if there's something after you die you will surely find out, why are we all in such a hurry of finding that out when iti is inevitable? That's what I think, I live, love, hate, everything, because I think I will only have a chance to do it, just one life folks, just one.

Brian thank you so much for your brilliant (as usual) post.

[Matjaz]

There's almost as many definitions of ego as there are spiritual teachers.
I think Freud made a big mess introducing his version of it.
Why don't they just say it like it is. Ego is a latin word for 'I' and that's exactly what it means. Get rid of 'I' and there's no more you. *shrug*