Seeking Perfection

[bansy]

This is clearly the danger anyone sets out for themselves whatever their aim is.

If you go into the World Cup Final, you're aiming to win, but if you (and your team) fail to make it pass the second round, you've failed. You miss the penalty kick, and you're doomed.

The expectation of perfection is our downfall, and also our road into ego and arrogance. Maybe we just don't like others being more perfect than us, that's from our own viewpoint.

Many BKs seem to feel threatened from not being perfect or doing things that show their weaknesses, not understanding that at that particular moment in time, they are "perfect" as they can be, but can improve. But rather than looking inside, they look outside for approval for their perfection, whereas others slight towards looking at their imperfections, so one begins to also look at oneself with imperfections.

We look for the perfect partner, the perfect result in the maths test, the perfect horse, the perfect golf drive, etc. We look to God to make us perfect, but is not the answer to perfection also of your own setting. Do your leave your perfection in God's hands or are you happy with your situation ?

If I don't look like Lakshmi and Narayan now, what is my expectation of perfection. Is this your ultimate aim.

If I accept my imperfections today, then I am perfect as of today. I make a step in time to adjust. When you accept the imperfections of others, you're making a perfect choice.

Does seeking for perfection drive one mad or not ?

[arjun]

Sister Bansy,
Om Shanti. If one strives to become soul conscious and if one observes the perfect picture of Lakshmi Narayan (living or non-living), then one would never go mad while striving to become like Lakshmi Narayan. There would be negative effects only when one becomes jealous of the other souls in the race. That is why Baba says in the Murlis that one should participate in the race and should not 'rece' (i.e. become jealous).

In the advance knowledge Baba has told us that although all of us are striving to attain the highest post, but all the souls would become numberwise perfect at the end and will be fully satisfied with their level of perfection.

With regards,
OGS,
Arjun

[john]

Does seeking for perfection drive one mad or not ?

I think it also depends on the time scale, if you look for permanent perfection in a short period of being as a Brahmin, I think you will become fustrated.

[aimée]

Anger is a sin, lust is a sin, ego is a sin, is lack of faith in the self, or self respect a sin? when we see our state at the end of the cycle and see what we have to become, we need a pretty good dose of self respect not to ... loose it!

[sparkal]

We are already perfect. That is what Om Shanti means.
I AM a pure peaceful soul.
The emphasis should be on the AM.
It is just a play, a little drama, we collect weaknesses on the way and get lost in the illusion that we actually are these weaknesses. Why we should be giving ourselves a hard time for something which was pre destined in the first place is something that we all need to think about.
If this sounds too good to be true, well, we just need to aclimatise to the idea and lighten up. All of us. We have a license to do so. If only we could have faith in this.
Accept the weaknesses, but focus on the positive, according to our capacity.
As the teacher says, RACE BUT DON'T COMPETE.

[aimée]

I 100% agree on this Sparkal, the path is to discover how perfect we are...

[bansy]

Should one not be satisfied/accept one's imperfections ?
Is that the sign of self-respect and loving ?

In the Advanced Knowledge Baba has told us that although all of us are striving to attain the highest post, but all the souls would become numberwise perfect at the end and will be fully satisfied with their level of perfection.

I guess we will not know our level of perfection until we become satisfied with who we are.

[sparkal]

Level of perfection on the world stage while playing our roles is one thing.
Level of perfection before we ever entered this drama is another. Then there is experiencing our complete angelic master almighty form one minute, then having dodgy thoughts towards someone not long after.
We came naked and will return the same, kind of thing.
For me, the experience suggests that we are all the same, when in the Soul World. Hence, we are all number one.
I don' t mind being the last number, in fact, if anyone out there has it, I would like to make an offer for it. A real collectors item.
Like the others, it will be loaded with fortune.
Accepting our weaknesses is a very important part of making progress. They are not going to go away entirely, the aim is to have them sitting obediently by our side, like a dog.
And, no using one of those extending leashes now.
Have mercy on the self.

[freedom]

perfection ... who is perfect now? why do we look for perfection? because they showed us the pic. of Laksmi and Narayan, but like Jesus or Budha..who has ever met them that is here now? we strive for love..all the time..love for ourselves, love for others..love for our planet..but now it is so difficult to see this 'love' anywhere..it is only inside of us... :roll: not easy...not the way BKs taught me...hey....world cup is a game...a big game...(not easy for me to see brazilian players with love right now...) :cry:

Love to all. :wink: .keep searching..we are very very loving human beings...keep loving..yourself first... :wink:

[aimée]

Perfection is also individual. Everyone has an idea of perfection. For example my vision of the perfect world is without golden palaces and viman, and kings and queens and their subjects (hierarchy again!...), but nature serving us. In the museum of the Prado in Madrid, there is a paint of paradise, just nature, non threatening animals, softness and plenty. Then someone asked me to find Adam and Eve, I did not know they were there first place, then I needed some time to find them. Tiny happy little naked beings, surrounded by all this beauty, why is there a need for golden palaces and constructions, and schools, again! Perfection for me is just constant happiness, and knowing that no one is lower and higher than anyone else, even when later there will be kings and queens. Has drama created a world with equality or inequality? Apparently at the end, everyone will be thinking that their role in the drama is the first one, even those who have only a few lives to live in it, because they will think they would rather rest for as much as possible in Paramdham, than living in this mad world...

[howiemac]

my vision of the perfect world is without Golden palaces and viman, and kings and queens and their subjects (hierarchy again!...), but nature serving us.

mine too

why is there a need for Golden palaces and constructions, and schools, again!

there is not - palaces sound Silver Aged to me, and schools Copper Aged..

Perfection for me is just constant happiness, and knowing that no one is lower and higher than anyone else, even when later there will be kings and queens.

So you are suggesting that there is a true Garden of Eden paradise before all the pomp and circumstance of Lakshmi and Nariyan, their fabulous palaces and magical vehicles, and all their adoring family and subjects? Makes perfect sense to me, and explains quite a few things :)

Apparently at the end, everyone will be thinking that their role in the drama is the first one, even those who have only a few lives to live in it.

This makes pefect sense also - each of us only knows what we experience in the drama. So Brahma Baba and his clan can have their shallow and bejewelled Golden Age in what might be our Silver Age? A fascinating thought! :wink:

[sparkal]

We are back to these trance visions of the beginning here again.
I don' t know, if Shiva put you in a space where your ultimate utopian fantasies materialised around you, perhaps that is what these young Indian girls of the time would experience in this situation.
Dream on.

[aimée]

this is not vision, this is what I imagine according to Baba's (in Virendra Dev Dixit) clarification. He said in one of them that there will be no need for golden palaces. In an unlimited way they mean the gathering of golden bricks, the souls in their purest state. nature will provide for us.

I agree that visions are not a mean to predict the future because they are uncertain.

[bansy]

Children would often draw a picture, say of a cat or dog, which to an adult looks totally hideous, but to them it is perfectly okay. How many times have children drawn pictures of their mother and f ather and aunts and uncles and teachers etc, and they (kids and grownups too) loved it believing it perfect, even if the colours are wrong. (I mean, if anyone actually meets a real lifesized mouse the size of Mickey, would you faint ?) And you would not dare say anything wrong with their drawings, because it came from a pure mind and a pure heart.

So if your mind and heart is pure, your very definition of perfection can be what your inner self makes it to be. Maybe you do not need an "image of perfection" to compare with how to be perfect. After all, we think of God as a point of light, but yet we actually cannot see Him and souls are "invisible", so how can we actually say God and souls are points of light ? Are we being body conscious again (could be the start of another thread...is the soul a point of light ?).

(PS Maybe the automatic uppercase editing is not always good. I wanted to type "f ather "with the lower case, because I am referring to lokik f ather but it came out as F ather. So the only way around this is to have a space after the first character)

[aimée]

It's a way to see things, but for me, none of us are pure, or can at the moment reach our purity within us, because there is such a thick layers over us, called "civilisation", or variety. God for me is the model to stay on the right tracks. If we take the example of art and painting. At some point what was considered as beauty was the expression of a landscape, or people, the gentleness, life, colour. Now what is considered as ultimate art, is a cow cut in slices, the crude sight of the bed of an artist, a plastic leg kicking...this is considered as beauty for some.

All is so subjective, we are influenced by so many differents opinions, impressions, presentations... the only way to take off from this jungle is to get to the only objective mind, the only souls that never took birth through the womb, and therefore never got influenced by anyone, that is the ultimate purity. I think we are so imbibed with diversity that we cannot even understand what purity is. This is not a negative comment. Because I have reached my most impure state, but I also know it is bound to be, and I know I soon will reach my purest and happiest state...

About the idea of the soul, it is invisible, but you can recognize it with the third eye of knowledge, it is like a microchip, with the memory of the cycle, our sanskars, our mind and our intellect. Shiv is the only one who has no sanskar or mind, so nothing can influence him.