Maybe we start out complete but our eyes are blinded at birth. Our path through life is finding our way and uncovering who we really are. We don’t add new skills and become something we actually just uncover who we were to begin with.
The spiritual journey does not consist in arriving at a new destination where a person gains what he did not have or becomes what he is not it consists in the dissipation of one’s own ignorance concerning one’s self and life and the gradual growth of that understanding which begins the spiritual awakening the finding of God is a coming to one’s self. – Aldus Huxly
I read this quote in one of Dr. Wayne Dyer’s books “The power of intention”. It really struck me. It reminded me of a quote I read once from Michelangelo:
In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.—Michelangelo
We often see our careers and life as additive. That we begin as an empty vessel and learn new skills, acquire new talents, and become more. But this view is very different. What if our lives are really a struggle to become what we already are? What if we were born a complete being but that truth is hidden from us. Each choice we make and interest we find is just another layer being peeled off to show the person hidden within?
Not unlike the block of marble, we are hidden within the rock and just need to learn and grow to “hew away the rough walls that imprison” us.
Definitely a different view on life that I hadn’t heard before…
