You Don't Have to Be Perfect (All The Time)

Source: mashedpotatobulletin.com

A Hindu story about the god Indra goes:

The Hindus tell a tale of one of the great gods — Indra — who, following a caprice, incarcerated himself in the body of a pig. He took unto himself a pig mate, and raised a brood of little pigs. He lost all sense of his own identity, and was thoroughly hypnotized with the idea that he was a pig. The fellow-gods, grieved at his illusion and his pitiful state, called upon him to come out of the pig-state, telling him that he was a great god and not a swinish creature wallowing in the mud. He grunted out a denial, saying: “I am a pig, not a god—let me alone!” They persisted, and he continued to repel them. They killed his pig-mate, and his little pigs, but he squealed out his sorrow and rage, and tried to destroy the gods in his wrath.

Finally they killed his pig-body, as a last resort, and lo! Indra, the god, stepped forth in all his glorious power, and laughed in astonishment when he realized the extent and degree of his late illusion.” By this parable, the Hindu teachers impress upon their chelas the fact of their Real Self. (excerpt from The Arcane Formulas by William Walker Atkinson)

And I suppose that one of the chains that prevents us from realizing our Real Self is the fear of being wrong. I sometimes think that it's the fear of being wrong that fuels a lot of the conflicts in our lives.

Why do I say it's a driver for conflict? Because being wrong is usually punished. In school, it can get you an "F." At work, it can get you fired or demoted. Contrast this with the fact that those with the fewest mistakes get the A's and the honors, and at work, minimal mistakes get you the fast track to promotion (especially if you can successfully let someone else take the fall for your mistakes) and it's easy to jump to the conclusion that "being right" is the only way to get ahead or be rewarded.

It's just my opinion, but I think most people subconsciously think and act that way. Maybe that's why it's harder for people to back down when they get into a public confrontation, because backing down means being wrong, and being wrong doesn't work out so well in school or at work.

It's okay to make a mistake, just try not to repeat it. It's just a marker for learning, but it never takes away anything from You, the Spirit. Your personality might react, but just remember the story of Indra above.

I'm not saying we should avoid striving for excellence. We should. After all, there are activities that, if botched, could harm a lot of people if not get them killed. But we should also have a reasonable acceptance that everyone is fallible. Trying to avoid getting something wrong can be as stressful, if not more so, than actually getting it wrong in the first place when done from the point of view of trying to avoid judgement from others.

Let me ask you this. How many people do you know are emotionally mature enough to realize that being wrong does not diminish their worth as a person?

Life is more than about being right or wrong. The great hermetic Franz Bardon once said, "We must enjoy the good, and learn from the bad." And while bad things may happen from making mistakes, it doesn't change the fact the we are eternal Spirits, still part of the Divine, and still loved by God. And I think if we can remember that realization in our everyday encounters, differences among people can become an opportunity for dialogue and learning, rather than as an arena for conflict and character assassination.