Simone Weil On Temptation, Discipline and Completeness

Alan: Biblical references to "perfection" are misleading as are most English references to "perfection." 

Since the word "perfect" has been corrupted by connotations of "mathematical," "symmetrical" or unfailing precision, all biblical uses of the word "perfect" would be more accurately translated as "complete." http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=perfect

Until World War I, biologists used the words "perfect" and "imperfect" to refer to developmental stages of creatures that reproduced sexually. 

The "perfect" form of a sexual creature had completed its sexual development and was now able to reproduce. 

The imperfect form whose sexual development was not yet complete remained unable to reproduce.

"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice.  The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization.  We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal.  Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good.  The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”  

"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton

"Is Perfectionism A Curse? Paul Ryan Tells The Truth"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/09/paul-ryan-tells-truth.html

Religion and Perfectionism

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/11/religion-and-perfectionism.html

Perfectionism As A Crippling Imperfection

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/07/perfectionism-as-crippling-imperfection.html

"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. 

The one who fears is not made perfect in love." 

1 John 4:18

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+4%3A18&version=MSG

"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." 

Matthew 5:48, King James Version

Alan: Complete contextualization of this well-known passage exhorting perfection demonstrates that "completeness" is God's intended meaning and not any sort of "precision."

Here are links to Matthew's complete context, the first from the King James Version, the second from The Message translation, published in 1993, which I regularly find most insightful. 

Matthew 5:38-48

King James Version

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+5%3A+38-48&version=KJV

Matthew 5:38-48

The Message
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+5&version=MSG

Simone Weil on Temptation, the Key to Discipline, and How to Be a Complete Human Being

"The nature of moral judgments depends on our capacity for paying attention,"Susan Sontag wrote in contemplating our moral responsibility as human beings. This relationship between morality and attention was a primary concern for French philosopher and political activist Simone Weil (February 3, 1909–August 24, 1943) – one of the most incisive thinkers of the past century, who dedicated her short life to the dual task of refining the truth of the human experience and alleviating its suffering, then pursued that task with the uncommon combination of transcendent idealism and piercing lucidity. Her ideas influenced such luminaries as Sontag, Iris Murdoch, Flannery O'Connor, and Cornel West. At the age of nineteen, she placed first in France's competitive exam for certification in "General Philosophy and Logic"; Simone de Beauvoir placed second. Albert Camus – himself a man of strong opinions on our greatest moral obligation – referred to her as "the only great spirit of our times." But what makes Weil's mind so miraculous is that no matter the passage of time and the changing conditions of each era, hers remains one of the great and necessary spirits for all time.

Her death was a continuation of her life – that grand act of love and sympathy for the suffering of others: After joining the French Resistance in London and toiling tirelessly for the cause, she came down with tuberculosis; in a remarkable gesture of solidarity, despite the doctor's orders to eat heartily, she consumed only what was rationed to her compatriots under the German Occupation. Most scholars believe that this sympathetic starvation was the cause of Weil's death. Although other theories have emerged, her first Englishbiographer, Sir Richard Rees, puts it best in concluding: "As for her death, whatever explanation one may give of it will amount in the end to saying that she died of love."

The deliberate architecture of Weil's character comes alive in First and Last Notebooks (public library) – a rare, revelatory, and infectiously unselfconscious self-portrait of this extraordinary mind-spirit. As Rees writes in the introduction, she "is not so much making notes as meditating, coherently and lucidly, with a pen in her hand."

In 1933, shortly before taking a yearlong leave of absence from her teaching position to labor incognito at a car factory in order to better understand the struggles of the working class, 24-year-old Weil penned a notebook entry reminiscent of young André Gide's rules of conduct, capturing the incredible moral vigor and ethical ambition with which she set about becoming the person she aspired to be – the person she ultimately was.

Weil writes:

List of temptations (to be read every morning)

Temptation of idleness (by far the strongest)

Never surrender to the flow of time. Never put off what you have decided to do.

Temptation of the inner life

Deal only with those difficulties which actually confront you. Allow yourself only those feelings which are actually called upon for effective use or else are required by thought for the sake of inspiration. Cut away ruthlessly everything that is imaginary in your feelings.

Temptation of self-immolation

Subordinate to external affairs and people everything that is subjective, but never the subject itself – i.e. your judgement. Never promise and never give to another more than you would demand from yourself if you were he.

Temptation to dominate

Temptation of perversity

Never react to an evil in such a way as to augment it.

In an entry shortly thereafter, she adds:

Refuse to be an accomplice. Don't lie – don't keep your eyes shut...

Some days later, Weil revisits this moral framework and considers the particularly problematic issue of time – that peculiar dual pull of hurrying and waiting, that elastic ongoingness:

Two internal obstacles to be overcome

—Cowardice before the flight of time (mania for putting things off – idleness...)

Illusion that time, of itself, will bring me courage and energy.... In fact, it is usually the contrary (sleepiness). Say to yourself: And suppose I should remain always what I am at this moment? ... Neverput something off indefinitely, but only to a definitely fixed time. Try to do this even when it is impossible (headaches...). Exercises: decide to do something, no matter what, and do it exactly at a certain time.

You live in a dream. You are waiting to begin to live....

This discipline, she goes on to reason, is best cultivated through the transformative power of habit. Echoing William James's memorable wisdom, she writes:

One must develop a habit. Training.

Distinguish between the things I can put off, and those [I cannot].

Begin the training with small things, those for which inspiration is useless...

Every day, do 2 or 3 things of no interest at some definitely appointed time.

Reach the point where punctuality is automatic and effortless. – Lack of flexibility of imagination. An obstacle to be methodically overcome. The second screen between reality and yourself. Much more difficult. What is needed is something quite different from a methodical training... But precious.

She considers the trifecta of faculties necessary for attaining the optimal habit of mind:

Discipline of the attention for manual work – no distraction or dreaming. But no obsession either. One must continually watch what one is doing, without being carried away by it. Another kind of discipline is needed for using the ind with support from the imagination. And yet a third kind for reflection. You scarcely possess even the third kind. A complete being possesses all 3. You ought to be a complete being.

Complement First and Last Notebooks, which is deeply out of print but well worth the hunt, with young Leo Tolstoy's search for moral direction, André Gide's rules of conduct, and Susan Sontag on what it means to be a moral human being.