16 January 2015 2 Comments

Managing Your Energy, Part 33: Faults, Flaws & Perfection

Contemplate this statement: “Personality is a vehicle for development of the soul.” (source unknown)

We use our dilemmas, quandaries, incapacities, dramas, faults, power struggles, and areas of blindness right alongside our strength, beauty, positive will, aspirations, compassion, creativity, and generosity. These attributes bring one another into focus and develop awareness. Our difficulties hone, exercise, and strengthen positive motivation, bringing us closer and closer to accepting the realities of life as it is.IMG_0344

Through full engagement we gradually come to an unconditional enough acceptance of Life to truly Love.

When we are smart, we use our suffering wisely; to build consciousness, consolidate insight, and develop comprehensive values.

I get to say these things because I walk the walk. I had an intense day yesterday, the dregs of old wounds active, painfully on the brink of a huge energy shift. It was physically and emotionally painful. Yet I did the Work I needed to do, so today I am more alive and inspired than I’ve been in a few months. My experience felt like some sort of initiation, and my energy systems are different. I could have wasted that intensity and cast myself into a lingering unpleasant condition by failing to call forth my better values to make healthy choices.

Our potential experience of divine perfection coexists with our humanity. It does not obliterate our humanity. In other words, we become able to experience divine perfection right alongside being flawed and having foibles. The one does not interrupt the other.

Every stage of human or spiritual development confers a different set of challenges.

As we progress spiritually we gain greater and greater self mastery. This does not mean that we cease to have challenges. If you’ve ever used sandpaper to make wood smooth, you will have noticed that once your surface is as smooth as you can get it, the next finer grit initially scratches it up and makes much more dust. The end product becomes smoother, subtler, and more refined. The same holds true doing Inner Work. As we refine ourselves we initially find more to do. We may seem like a mess, yet we are improving through the process.

Like wood, we also have knots. Our characters, natures, and egos have hard patches that don’t sand well. We may require a file. Other people and difficult life circumstances are required to address our knots. Certain people and circumstances can be like files. It is important not to feel that we are flawed because we have knots.

Powerful people usually have intense energy and personalities. Some lives and purposes require ego strength to manage their challenges.

Having a difficult personality can feel like a permanent flaw. When we can view ourselves with an understanding of what we need to learn and the burdens we carry for soul purposes, we see why we require strength.

Challenges also increase as does our strength. I remember complaining to my spiritual teacher in my twenties, saying, “The stronger my back gets the more they heap upon it!” He laughed and said, “Well then the load remains about the same.”

A weak personality can be just as much or even more of a hinderance as a powerful one. Our challenges may be less obvious to others, and our flaws may be harder to put a finger on. Weakness shows up less dramatically than unrefined power. Errors of omission cause different problems than the errors that we enact boldly on the stage of life.

My eighth grade choir teacher used to say, “If you’re going to make a mistake, make a loud one!” Similarly, the spiritual teacher Meher Baba said that when we make mistakes whole-heartedly we learn from them effectively and are less likely to repeat them. Bringing ourselves fully into what we are doing is practically always the Highest Option. When it is not, we probably need to do something else.

What are YOUR myths about spiritual growth?

How do you hold yourself back from full self expression?

2 Responses to “Managing Your Energy, Part 33: Faults, Flaws & Perfection”

  1. "Personality is a Vehicle for Development of the Soul.” – Positive Energy Guide

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