Pursuing ideals

[moon777light]

How do you guys balance pursuing ideals/having goals in spirituality and not getting caught up in them? Because when we pursue a goal, we see that we want an image that is not occurring in our current reality, and this leads us to getting in a state of feeling dissappointment which leads to suffering/emptiness.

If i hold no goals, then i wont have expectation, and wont have dissappointment and less suffering. But i wont go anywhere, it will be super hard to progress, it would takes decades to move a few steps forward. If i hold goals, i can progress, but holding goals in spirituality isnt the same in something else like fitness or school. 

[Forestluv]

I think there is a balance between the journey and the destination. As well, between being grounded and flexible.

 For example, someone might have a goal of running their first marathon next year and breaking 4:00 hr. If they dumped that goal after two weeks of training and started creating and dumping new goals every other their week, it’s not so great. They are like a doll flopping around in the ocean with no direction.. Yet I also don’t want to become hyper-focused on the outcome or have it become my identity. For example, what if my body started accumulating fatigue and minor injuries and I was so obsessed with the goal that I pressed on and seriously injured myself and tumbled into a dynamic about how I can’t follow through on goals and what will people think of me. . . .Yet the underlying fundamental goal was to have a goal that would excite me in which I could get in great physical shape, make new friends in the running community and travel. With this awareness, if minor injuries surfaced I would likely think about doing cross training such as cycling and yoga - since the deeper goal is to get healthy and have friendships in healthy communities. How that is expressed my change over time.

[Truth Addict]

By pursuing authentic goals. But first, 'authentic' must be found.

[WelcometoReality]

@moon777light The danger with goals in spirituality is that we might cover up something in order to get to something else.

If I want to become more loving toward other people, I might cover up the anger I'm feeling and "act" loving instead of examining the root cause of the anger.

I might also want to examine the reason I want to become more loving. Is this to please everyone else? Or is it based on the belief that a spiritual person is supposed to be loving and kind?

Examining one's goals might reveal ways we are deceiving ourselves.

[moon777light]

@WelcometoReality exactly! gotta dive deep haha but what if when we uncover the true reason we go after enlightenment ( to felel better about ourselves etc) do we leave the goal?? to we find a new approach to fufill that need, try to devise another reason that isnt ego derived?

@Serotoninluv thank you <3 

 

[WelcometoReality]

3 hours ago, moon777light said:

@WelcometoReality exactly! gotta dive deep haha but what if when we uncover the true reason we go after enlightenment ( to felel better about ourselves etc) do we leave the goal?? to we find a new approach to fufill that need, try to devise another reason that isnt ego derived?

 

All reasons are manufactured by the mind and as we start to wake up from those 'authentic' action (like @Truth Addict talks about) will take its place. Maybe there is action toward a deeper spiritual realization maybe not. It's not really for one to decide. It just gotta feel like the right thing to do.