Until we can look at someone and see the perfection that is at their core, we are not seeing them clearly. As humans, we all carry some unhealed emotional wounds within us. We all have some weaknesses of personality along with our strengths and gifts. However, if we identify ourselves or others with limitations or unresolved issues—rather than with the essential goodness and wholeness that is within each of us—then we are only seeing at a superficial level.
In traditional addiction recovery programs, people are asked to repeatedly affirm their identity as being their addiction. I would like to suggest that it might be more beneficial and healing for people with addictions to repeatedly affirm their inherent perfection. I am not suggesting that anyone be in denial about their addictive behavior. It is a vital step to acknowledge and name that which we wish to change about ourselves. But I do want to point to the higher truth of our essential identity, which is our inherent wholeness. Another common practice is to focus on “defects of character” which need to be removed. I would like to offer a different perspective. It has been said that defects are simply assets with the volume turned up too high. In those terms, the conversation shifts to balancing traits rather than removing “defects.” In my experience, this is not only a gentler relationship to self, but a far more effective one. Repeating a negative affirmation, sometimes for years on end and continually referring to oneself as a disease or seeing oneself as defective, has the potential for producing a negative impact on one’s self-image and life. I am grateful to be part of the creation of a new paradigm in treatment where this positive focus is becoming more accepted and celebrated.
The gift of any spiritual teacher is that they know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that perfection is at the core of each and every person. A spiritual teacher is anyone who has absolutely come to know their own true identity as pure love, light, and wholeness. Living an awakened life means knowing that our essential wholeness can never be lost, even though it might be covered over or seemingly forgotten. Our wholeness, the source of unconditional love within, is always available to be revealed to us as the ultimate truth of who we are.
