Not Broken, Not Perfect

Philosophically, we are at war in our attempts to understand our past and who we fundamentally are as humans. One point of view believes that we are broken in some way--by trauma, childhood, karma, and other things. The brokenness keeps us in a state of being incomplete or in need of healing or just one ayahuasca retreat away from total realization. The other point of view believes that we are and always have been, perfect. We were never broken and can't be. Life is actually perfect! We just need to remember that perfection. Yeah, that's what's wrong with me! I just forgot to remember that everything about me is perfect--sigh.

Models of thought that see us humans as vessels forged of trauma may fall into the pit of brokenness. You are broken. Something is broken.

Models of thought born of a non-dual perspective enforce the position that everything was always perfect. The "All" is what it is, and It is perfect. You are perfect. This physical life is happening, but it is just part of a wave of experience that is part of everything that is perfect. Your thoughts about it are getting in the way. The greater whole is perfect.

We choose one of these at our peril! [so dramatic] Because choosing one can lead to endless fixing; always having something to fix. Choosing the other can lead to spiritual bypassing and ignoring the body and the real experience of life that one is having.

I choose both.

We as humans do not need fixing and we are perfect. We are infinite souls and we are animals on the planet Earth. We need sunlight, air, water, food, sleep and other people. Other people is very important point. Humans thrive in relationship with other humans and with the greater world. We completely depend on other human beings for many years after we start breathing on our own. We literally are kept alive and learn how to survive from other humans.

And, we need other humans for more than survival. Other humans share relationship with us, and in the context of relationship, we do not "ascend" away from our physical circumstances, we move into intimacy with them. In relationship, we do not (hopefully) always try to fix others or ourselves, but provide the relational environment where that which is already whole and perfect can be loved and become lived, embodied, and real. Because we are "whole," and we are undeniably in the process of being human, we accompany each other through this life, and we accompany ourselves. We are a good friend to ourselves. We have love to give and share. We (re)become beings who understand that the nature of reality is 'whole,' 'perfect,' and 'love,' that then interact in relationship so that despite the circumstances of life, we can realize this wholeness.

Healing emerges through time, relationship, and embodiment.

Healing emerges in the context of love, grace, safety, and hope.

I believe that this is the path of awakening. Not denying any part of our nature or the nature of reality, but loving what is. Loving what is in life, what is in us, and what we share between us.