Originally Posted by Andante

Well, sure. Don’t we all! Progress, not perfection.

For me at least, the point is to try to strive consistently in a direction towards the sort of ideal represented by Bill’s “spiritual axiom,” while acknowledging that it’s a rigid abstraction that is neither attainable nor even desirable in the real world. Real-world interactions with real people are going to involve conflict at times. How skillfully I deal with that conflict is what measures my progress in recovery. Beating myself up for actually having feelings about people and falling short of perfect adherence to “axioms” accomplishes nothing but to create needless frustration. People are going to “rent space” in my head sometimes — it’s part of being human. How quickly and skillfully I can apply spiritual principles to evict a “bad tenant” is what’s important.