Paradox and submission

I'm posting a quote I found recently....provocative, and not something a free spirit like me really likes to hear, but a powerful suggestion for the spiritual path.

"Because paradox is at our very core, the spirituality of imperfection suggests that only be embracing the dark side of our ambiguous natures can we ever come to know the light. We find ourselves only by giving up our selves, we gain freedom by submitting to the will of others...Saints and sages throughout the centuries have maintained that it is in the willingness to give up the self and give in to others that the road to human wholeness can be found. And for those who would give up "self" the first step is to give up certainty."

Ernest Kurtz The Spirituality of Imperfection

The photo is of my dear friend Michael Sawyer, a few months before his death from Parkinson's. He deeply embodied this way, in his willingness to submit to the many indignities of his disease, in his humble acceptance of dependence, and in the way he embraced all the paradoxes of being human, the dark and the light.

To see some of Michael's wild psychedelic Buddhist art, go to Michaelsawyerart.com