Enlightenment Doesn't Mean Sainthood

I’d like to talk about the myth of sainthood. It is important that you understand that some of the things you believe about enlightenment are myths. The idea of someone becoming a saint in their behavior is quite a myth. Sainthood is something that many of you hope and strive for, and yet, it is quite unattainable, because you will never cease to be the imperfect human being that you are. And it is important to accept this. It is possible to be very far along the path of awakening and still suffer over not being perfect enough.

There is no perfection in the human form. It is not possible to be perfect, because you are not meant to be perfect. It is not part of your design to become perfect as you advance spiritually.

What I mean by perfect is perfect in your behavior: never getting or feeling angry, always behaving kindly and compassionately, always feeling happy and loving. It is not your fault, no matter how far along the path you are, that you are not always happy or loving or kind or considerate.

The human aspect of yourself can reassert itself at any time. The ego is never gone permanently. As you evolve, the ego falls farther and farther into the background, while the divine self comes forward and becomes what lives your life and what you experience yourself as. How far back the ego falls depends on your spiritual advancement. And yet, it is always possible for your ego to come forward again and for the divine self to fall into the background.

For someone who is advanced spiritually, the ego remains in the background much of the time, and when it does come forward, it doesn’t stay forward for long or in a way that is harmful for very long. But the ego can still come forward quickly and unexpectedly and take over your speech and action and then recede again into the background. If you are less advanced, the ego may come forward and stay forward longer and produce more harm and difficulties than if you were more advanced.

It is important to realize that the potential always exists for the ego to be in the forefront so that you don’t pretend you are not involved in ego when you are. That is another trap. If you believe you are so spiritually advanced that everything that comes out of your mouth must be divine speech and not ego, then you won’t see or admit to the moments when the ego, and not the divine self, is speaking. You would say: “No, that can’t be the ego because I’ve vanquished the ego. It can’t come back anymore. You must be wrong.”

This is what happens with some spiritual teachers: They believe they are beyond ego and that everything they say must be coming from the Truth, when in fact, no one’s speech or actions always come from the Truth. There isn’t a single person now or ever who has not had the potential to give voice to the ego, regardless of how advanced he or she is. So, it is important to be on the lookout for this and be humble enough to admit that it can happen to you.

But as you are being humble about this and admitting this, also don’t be hard on yourself for it, because it is perfectly natural for this to occur from time to time. The natural evolution is for this to occur less and less, but it still may occur. Vigilance is always necessary. You need to be on the lookout for when the ego has slipped into your speech and actions. You are never completely free of the potential for the ego to dominate.

This is fine. This is as you were designed. You were not designed for the ego to completely disappear and for you to become other than you are. As you awaken and traverse the path toward full enlightenment, you still have a personality, and that personality can easily slide into negativity, as the ego comes forward and takes it over.

Some people have very difficult personalities. They were born with a certain imprint of, perhaps, impulsiveness or impatience or some other negative quality deeply entrenched in their psychological makeup, perhaps from previous lifetimes or encoded in early childhood from their various experiences. Unless someone has worked through those psychological issues, they may remain somewhat intact even though the person has advanced spiritually.

Without applying yourself to your psychological issues, they won’t necessarily disappear as you advance spiritually. This is why you see teachers who are ornery or who abuse their power or who have qualities you wouldn’t expect in someone who is spiritually advanced. This is what I mean by saying that human beings are not perfect. They have characteristics, qualities, that are part of their conditioning that are not easily overcome, not without a lot of effort.

Most people don’t put in as much effort as would be needed to completely clear these issues. So, don’t be surprised if the teachers you meet have quirks or negative qualities and even a potential for abuse because of psychological issues that haven’t been completely seen and cleared, either due to a lack of willingness or a lack of understanding about how to do that.

Your world is quite limited in its knowledge about how to clear these things. You don’t really have the means or know-how to do this just yet. You have developed some means and some capacity to overcome your psychological issues, but in the future, you will discover much more effective means, and you will all become more, you could say, perfected human beings.

But it still takes a willingness to work out these issues and to put some time and energy into doing that. Not everyone on the spiritual path is inclined to do this, and yet, they may have found spiritual technologies that allow them to advance spiritually without advancing psychologically.

This explains why some people are imbalanced in their development. They may be advanced spiritually and not so advanced emotionally and psychologically, humanly. And that causes difficulties in their lives, especially in their relationships. That is the reason for the abuse of power you too often see in spiritual teachers.

So, while it is suggested that you strive for greater perfection, greater goodness, kindness, compassion, love, and peace and to express those in your life, it is also important to understand that you will naturally fall short of expressing these as much as you would like, because there is a strong momentum in the conditioning to behave as you have in the past, and this momentum is not easily reversed.

So, by all means, strive to be better human beings. But do not be hard on yourself when you fail to live up to an ideal that you may have—because you will fail. And then, it is perfectly fine to forgive yourself and move on and do your best. That is all that is expected—for you to do your best, to forgive yourself, to forgive others, and try again.

I hope I’ve made it clear that you are deeply loved whether you are expressing the divine self or not. We have deep compassion for the situation you find yourselves in, in being human. It is very difficult to be a human being. It is very difficult to live up to the ideals that we speak about in our teachings, the ideals of love, peace, kindness, and compassion. These are ideals to strive for, but please be kind to yourself when you do not live up to them, while continuing to strive for them.

This is not to give you an excuse for your imperfections, for you to say, “Well, nobody’s perfect!” and then continue your imperfect behavior, but to encourage you to be gentle with yourselves about your imperfect behavior, while continuing to strive toward expressing the qualities that will make you truly happy.

It is, after all, for your own happiness that these teachings are given. It is for your happiness and the happiness of all. We wish for you to be happy, so we wish for you to be both gentle with yourself when you make a mistake, when you identify with the ego, and we wish for you to know the truth—that you will only be happy when you go in the direction of your divine self.

So, please stay the course on your spiritual path and be compassionate toward yourself and others. You are deeply loved. Please know that we are there for you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your openness. We are with you always.