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29-10-2016, 05:40 PM
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Deactivated Account
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 232
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Striving To Be Perfect Vs. Acceptance
I've come across these two (seemingly) contradictory ideas about spiritual growth. How much of our spiritual journey is about self improvement and how much is about self acceptance?
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29-10-2016, 06:04 PM
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Master
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 1,206
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It is both! You are pushed to know your inner truth and once you know more of your inner truth you relax and accept yourself. You accept yourself towards the end journey.
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29-10-2016, 06:30 PM
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Master
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 3,089
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Where did the idea of acceptance come from? I've found it isn't spiritual but teaching. You heard it, maybe something you were told. Remember hearing it? Many times? It isn't spiritual, it's a negative idea we accepted, it's physiological, the idea you were given that you thought you thought. 
Striving for perfection isn't an opposite in this case, it is simply a reflection or mirror. It is a continuation coming from seeds we (didn't) plant and harvest. |
29-10-2016, 06:48 PM
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Moderator
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Southwest, USA
Posts: 25,134
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Acceptance is a form of peaceful existence with what is in that moment, ie...
car gets a dent..ok...a storm ruined our wedding plans...ok.
I am mad right now...ok...I'm discouraged right now...ok....
Somewhere in there the wise person sees the perfection.
It's a paradox to be sure....accept or be encouraged to seek a better
feeling feeling....thus,
the bad feeling WAS perfect and should be accepted as such...to
effect change! 
Vespa is right, it is both. 
__________________
.*I'll text in Navy Blue when I'm speaking as a Mod. :)
Prepare yourself for the coming astral journey of death by daily riding in the balloon of God-perception.
Through delusion you are perceiving yourself as a bundle of flesh and bones, which at best is a nest of troubles.
Meditate unceasingly, that you may quickly behold yourself as the Infinite Essence, free from every form of misery. ~Paramahansa's Guru's Guru.
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29-10-2016, 07:40 PM
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Pathfinder
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: The only way is Essex!
Posts: 68
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Pure acceptance is the catalyst of genuine transformation. I have no idea what "perfection" is except as a goad that creates a judgemental attitude towards myself and towards others.
"Mutual forgiveness of each vice opens the gates of paradise" ( William Blake )
"Acceptance" has a wide spectrum of meanings throughout the various Faiths. From "grace" in Christianity to the words of the zen master who said that if we wish to know the truth then cease to cherish opinions. If thought is given to both, if we live in both, we find and know acceptance. Which is not a passive attitude, but transformative.
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29-10-2016, 08:01 PM
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Deactivated Account
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 232
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by vespa68
It is both! You are pushed to know your inner truth and once you know more of your inner truth you relax and accept yourself. You accept yourself towards the end journey.
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I have to wonder if we don't have that backwards, that self acceptance doesn't come until after all the striving. It's my experience that striving for perfection is an insatiable thing and that we never actually reach that state of acceptance. Maybe you come to a better understanding of your inner truth once you accept yourself. |
29-10-2016, 08:02 PM
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Deactivated Account
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 232
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by lemex
Where did the idea of acceptance come from? I've found it isn't spiritual but teaching. You heard it, maybe something you were told. Remember hearing it? Many times? It isn't spiritual, it's a negative idea we accepted, it's physiological, the idea you were given that you thought you thought.
Striving for perfection isn't an opposite in this case, it is simply a reflection or mirror. It is a continuation coming from seeds we (didn't) plant and harvest. |
I'm not sure what you mean by this? |
29-10-2016, 08:26 PM
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Deactivated Account
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 232
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn
Acceptance is a form of peaceful existence with what is in that moment, ie...
car gets a dent..ok...a storm ruined our wedding plans...ok.
I am mad right now...ok...I'm discouraged right now...ok....
Somewhere in there the wise person sees the perfection.
It's a paradox to be sure....accept or be encouraged to seek a better
feeling feeling....thus,
the bad feeling WAS perfect and should be accepted as such...to
effect change!
Vespa is right, it is both. |
Lol. Yes! Though, trying to accept things as they are doesn't seem to work. |
29-10-2016, 08:34 PM
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Deactivated Account
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 232
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by kingfisher
Pure acceptance is the catalyst of genuine transformation. I have no idea what "perfection" is except as a goad that creates a judgemental attitude towards myself and towards others.
"Mutual forgiveness of each vice opens the gates of paradise" ( William Blake )
"Acceptance" has a wide spectrum of meanings throughout the various Faiths. From "grace" in Christianity to the words of the zen master who said that if we wish to know the truth then cease to cherish opinions. If thought is given to both, if we live in both, we find and know acceptance. Which is not a passive attitude, but transformative.
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Yes! I feel like society puts the emphasis on striving for perfection, and acceptance comes later, after we've achieved everything that should make us "acceptable". Whereas, maybe the emphasis should be on pure acceptance. That's a good saying, cease to cherish opinions. I like that. |
29-10-2016, 08:41 PM
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Master
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 1,206
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by thebeautifulsacred
I have to wonder if we don't have that backwards, that self acceptance doesn't come until after all the striving. It's my experience that striving for perfection is an insatiable thing and that we never actually reach that state of acceptance. Maybe you come to a better understanding of your inner truth once you accept yourself.
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Yes I agree that is why I said it happens at the end of our journey. Complete self acceptance would mean enlightenment. But we can still have some more self acceptance as we work through smaller things. Some people go through a spiritual awakening and that is when the soul development goes super fast. But this is more rare. |
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