spiritual achiever

My exterior is calm and collected. I'm in control and things seem to always sum even steven. My inner world is one of extreme polarity that vascillates between going all in and being ultra locked down. Self-discipline is not a problem for me if I'm on the path of purification. I learned long ago how to use and control the mind to accomplish those goals. Conversely, when the kids are let out of the cage to play it's hard to get them back in, just like thing one and thing two from Dr. Seuss' Cat in the Hat. They are adventurous, playful, lustful, and bent on self-destruction by living in the moment and not caring for consequences. The future me has to clean up, usually the next morning and then suffer from the lack of sleep from the outpouring of frivolity and lust.

I think it is instructive as a template for life and the spiritual path. We humans tend to go all in on the spiritual path, so much so it sometimes becomes off putting for others to tolerate. Ego gets involved and we embrace the identity of one who is enlightened and will elucidate pearls of wisdom. We assume the pose and start stinking of righteousness or is that incense? There has to be balance. Be spiritual but be a rascal, play, and drop the serious pretence. I've been reminded many times to play while on this path.

The collective consciousness of humankind goes through these same struggles as well and we always manifest the extremes in all of our endeavours. We explore all the way to the edge. Eventually being holy and pure leads to righteousness and then forcing others at the point of a sword to become righteous like yourself. The infidel is not to be tolerated or shown mercy. Going full on into hedonism leads to deviance and is a path to darkness as we can't escape the universal truth that with the high comes the low. Maybe that's why we anthropomorphize these traits as god and devil?

Ram Dass addresses the goal of total purification in spiritual pursuits. He exclaims celibacy, instead of making you pure, just leads to being a horny celibate. Pretty funny and full of truth. This idea can be extended out into pretty much all aspects of our existence and ties in with my point about these extreme polarities that seem to plague us. It goes back to being told while on the spiritual path to remember to play. Seriously you must play! I think the Buddha was getting at something when he talked about the middle way! The pre-Columbian master shamans of the Andes mountains knew about this need for balance and called it tinkuy. They designed their whole construct and Mesa around reconciliation of the opposites and extended it out to the woman and the man in order to bring them together within unity. Unity recognizes differences and harmonizes them. We appreciate all for their differences as that what makes the game interesting.