Can we accept ourselves and others 100%, knowing we are full of “faults”? Yes, you can and you will!

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

 

Yesterday I wrote about “100% full acceptance of someone”, and sometime back I also mentioned “identifying and recognising bozo behaviour”.  I.e, can we accept 100% someone who has “faults” or “unsatisfactory” unwholesome thoughts, speeches or behaviours?  Can we accept someone who has committed serious crimes?

 

Is there a logic gap here?  Someone asked how can you accept someone 100% and still identify unwholesome thoughts and behaviour in the same person? Isn’t that illogical?

 

The unwholesome thoughts, speeches and actions are not at the core of our being. They are adventitious, which means that they are not the inherent me. They are simply external stuff which got attached to me, just like dirt on my skin, they are not part of me, they are just temporarily attached to me and they can be removed with skill and effort. In fact they can be removed 100%.

 

You can probably see it another way. Say you have a baby who has just pooed and vomited all over himself. You would not say to yourself, I don’t accept this beautiful baby 100% because it’s stinking of pooed and vomit, would you?  Or your handsome 7 year old boy who has been playing outside and covered with cow shit. You wouldn’t go up to the boy and tell yourself, I can’t accept my boy 100%. You wouldn’t do it because you know very well that the poo, the vomit and the cow shit are adventitious, which means that they are not at the core of being of the baby and boy. They can be removed totally.

 

So in this model, our drug addict alcoholic rapist friend who is in jail, we can still 100% accept him and embrace him as a fellow human being, but at the same time be clear that he is still full of “cow shit” which is adventitious to him, which can be removed.  We can accept a person 100%, in spite of, or even because of, the cow shit on him.

 

When we accept him 100%, we are saying that transformation is possible. In fact not only possible, he can develop his infinite potential like all sentient beings.

 

Let’s say we love the Evian water. Evian water is clean, fresh and pure. But what if it’s mixed with disgusting polluted mud. The water is really not good tasting and looking or smelling as before it was polluted. But we all know from our science lessons that all the crap is adventitious to the water molecules part. The water molecules and crap are not one and the same. They are separate things. We can actually use the right tools and technology to removed all the pollutants and bring the water back to the exact original clean, fresh and pure Evian state.  

 

So by accepting 100% the muddy Evian water, we open our heart to the potential of bringing out the pure Evian water from the muddy water.

 

This model sounds outrageous.  To most people, they struggle to accept themselves and others 100% because they do not see the unwholesome stuff as adventitious and  they are shocked by the suggestion that every human being has the potential to have all the unwholesome bits removed, all the neurosis removed and have the potential to be infinitely loving, kind, generous and only positive states of mind remain.  It doesn’t happen overnight. Just like muddy Evian water doesn’t suddenly become pure, fresh and clear. But the potential is there in every bottle of muddy water. However muddy it is, the potential is still there.