idealism

We seem to have a tendency to form certain idealistic visions of the world because we can see the potential of ourselves and other people. It differs by person but tends to involve identifying and pursuing the perfected embodiment of the thing or person, whatever our conditioned subjectivity has concluded is good and worthy in it. We can sometimes hone in on these qualities to the point of excluding or dismissing everything else.

It seems to be fine to share and move towards these ideals, unless we expect things/people/ourselves/the world/life to conform to the idealized visions, rather than allowing them to be as they actually are right now, in their totality. The good, the average and the bad, the full reality of them in all their seeming imperfection.

If we're not aware of the tendency to reject the whole and project our ideals, we risk becoming resentful and controlling. Trying to force things to consistently embody our internal visions and becoming increasingly intolerant and frustrated when they stubbornly remain as they are rather than as we see they could be. Our pursuit of the envisioned ideal then causes us to suffer and create suffering rather than uplift and inspire.