Perfectionism

Tara: Buddha of Compassion

At the outset of this meditation, it was thought that absolute ideals were far beyond our attainment, or even our comprehension; that we would be sadly lacking in humility if we really felt that we could achieve anything like absolute perfection in this brief span of earthly existence. Such a presumption would certainly be the acme of spiritual pride.
    Reasoning thus, many people will have no truck at all with absolute spiritual values. Perfectionists, they say, are either full of conceit because they fancy they have reached some impossible goal, or else they are swamped in self-condemnation because they have not done so.

The Best of Bill

Humility, p. 48

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I can get philosophical about this question of perfection and ask, what is spiritual perfection? Without going off into my brain to seek out a pure and mathematical answer, the best I can do is to rest on an image of that which is perfect: in practical terms, what is that? Supposing that image is Christ, Buddha or any one of a handful of other embodiments of spiritual and practical ideals, can I make sense of the qualities embodied therein without getting mired in pithy morality?  I’d have to be a mad man to suppose I could ever be equal to any one of these because even the image is an abstract that doesn’t have to do what I must in my daily affairs. Was Christ ever an unable to quit drinking? Or was Buddha ever a junkie? How am I to suppose I could ever attain what they did in their lives?
   
    We witness the behavior of “slippers” and their peculiar behavior; it would be easy to judge them and question why it is that they go back time and time again to self destructive addictions. Wouldn’t it be better to ask, why can’t cripples heal themselves?  The rest of the world might never understand but we who have overcome should know better. How many of us, who have been addicts or alcoholics, would have ever been able to find peace in our lives without a spiritual awakening? I now know that the best I can do for others who suffer is to set aside judgment and to offer the compassion I have been shown. After all, it was the grace of God that got me where I am today and not because I was so damned strong and morally perfect.

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