One of my "guilty pleasures" is an American TV show called "Nip/Tuck." It's often interesting, a strange combination of well-written drama, soap opera, and scathing satire, with much to say about the fixation so many in modern society have with physical beauty and its relationship to their feelings of inner beauty and self-worth.
Anyway, the fourth season of this show just started here in France, and I found myself watching the first episode the other night, just after reading some articles written by "neo-advaitan" teachers. So I found myself pondering some things, which I will share here to see if anyone else has anything to say about them. In many, if not most, spiritual traditions, much is made of the ways in which we are *not* perfect. The image presented of the spiritual seeker is of a person who endeavors to eliminate the parts of himself or herself that he doesn't think are "right." We are taught that the self (or, in NewAge-speak, the "small self") is NOT "us," that it is an illusion or an imperfect reflection of the "real" "us," the Self. We are taught that we have to "work on" eliminating ego and the parts of our self that aren't in line with what we think of as an enlightened being. All of this stuff sinks in, and we (as seekers) often find ourselves focusing on (and thus, following the "What you focus on you become" dictum, *becoming*) our own "imperfections" and the constant struggle to overcome or eliminate them. In a very real sense, the spiritual path becomes a way of performing "self-surgery," trying to do a "face lift" on the parts of our selves that we feel uncomfortable with, performing a "tummy tuck" on our selves when we start to feel that we've been lazy, getting "spiritual botox" injections by going to see charismatic teachers and getting another hit of their shakti to boost our own shaky self-esteem and sense of connection to the spiritual. Compare and contrast to the first perception that almost everyone has when they have a flash of enlightenment. That perception is, "This enlightenment is not new. It has always been present, at every moment of my life. The only thing that has changed is that now I *realize* that it is present, and that it has always *been* present at every moment of my life." Before enlightenment, chop wood and be one's self. After enlightenment, chop wood and be one's self. The self has not changed. The only thing that *has* changed is that the self is now perceiving itself as Self, 24/7. With this realization in mind, what was it about the supposed "imperfections" in our self before realization that is NOT still present post-realization? Anyone who has had a strong and lasting set of realization exper- iences knows that they didn't suddenly become "perfect" after realization; instead they became aware that they had always *been* perfect (at least in the sense that they had always already been enlightened). Anyway, just as a topic for possible discussion here, it seems to me that our time as seekers might just be better spent in trying to become *comfortable* with our self than it is trying to perform "cosmetic surgery" on that self to make it more "perfect." Everyone I've ever met who seemed to be enlightened or close to it was, above all, comfortable being themselves. Some people think that this is an attribute of enlightenment, something that happens *after* realization, one of the "perks" of enlightenment. These days, I tend to believe instead that being comfortable with one's self is one of the prerequisites of enlightenment.
