Every year on June 27th, we celebrate the birthday of Helen Keller as a national holiday in the U.S. Keller overcame tremendous physical limitations, becoming the first blind and deaf person to earn a bachelor’s degree. Her tireless activism significantly improved awareness and accommodations for blind and deaf individuals, and others with physical disabilities.
Reflecting deeper, we realize that all human beings are born with various physical limitations in the grand scheme of life. For instance, our eyes cannot perceive everything in the physical universe, such as infrared and ultraviolet light that other organisms can see.
However, physical limitations are only part of the story. We also face mental and spiritual limitations. Many religions and philosophical traditions warn us that our commonsense perceptions can be very deceptive and do not accurately represent the true nature of reality. Science concurs; for example, wood appears solid, but it is 99.5% empty space. Our limited cognitive abilities contribute to ongoing struggles, leading to behaviors that are damaging to individuals and society.
Pierre Hadot, a historian of philosophy, explained this in relation to Ancient Greek philosophy: “All schools agree that man, before his philosophical conversion, is in a state of unhappy disquiet. Consumed by worries, torn by passions, he does not live a genuine life, nor is he truly himself. All schools also agree that man can be delivered from this state.” This idea can broadly apply to all religions.
Until we become spiritual seekers and realize that reality extends beyond sensory perception, we remain dissatisfied. Using our flaws and mistakes as catalysts to understand ourselves and our relationship with the universe, we can achieve lasting peace. All spiritual paths offer guidance to recognize our limitless selves, but until then, confusion and dissatisfaction persist. Understanding what religion believes in karma can also shed light on this journey, as karma emphasizes the consequences of actions and the path to spiritual growth.
The Abrahamic traditions, referencing the biblical Fall or original sin of Adam and Eve, direct us to redeem ourselves by returning to our state of original goodness. Taoism aims for original simplicity, while Confucius believed in the fundamentally good nature of humans, recoverable through education and reform. Buddhism teaches that we all possess the Buddha Nature, achievable by eliminating ignorance.
Hindus believe in our potential divinity, obscured by Maya (illusion), and seek moksha, similar to the Buddhist pursuit of nirvana. Both aim to end the cycle of birth and death (samsara) that binds us to flawed material bodies. Recognizing our flaws honestly and integrating this awareness into our spiritual practices is crucial. What religion believes in karma is central to this understanding, as it highlights the importance of actions in spiritual progress.
All religions help us recognize our limitations and guide us towards universal limitlessness through various practices incorporated into daily life.
Christianity “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
—The New Testament (John 1:8), Christian text
“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
—The New Testament (Matthew 26:41), Christian text
Judaism “A righteous man falls down seven times and gets up.”
—The Hebrew Bible (Proverbs, 24:16), Jewish text
“For the human mind there are certain objects of perception which are within the scope of its nature and capacity; on the other hand, there are, amongst things which actually exist, certain objects which the mind can in no way and by no means grasp: the gates of perception are closed against it.”
—Maimonides, Medieval Jewish scholar
Islam “Man was truly created anxious: he is fretful when misfortune touches him, but tight-fisted when good fortune comes his way.”
—Qur’an (70:19-20), Islamic text
Baha’i “In man there are two natures; his spiritual or higher nature and his material or lower nature. In one he approaches God, in the other he lives for the world alone. Signs of both these natures are to be found in men. In his material aspect he expresses untruth, cruelty and injustice; all these are the outcome of his lower nature. The attributes of his Divine nature are shown forth in love, mercy, kindness, truth and justice, one and all being expressions of his higher nature.”
—‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Baha’i leader
Hinduism “The human desire to transcend the limitations of the physical is a completely natural one. To journey from the boundary-based individual body to the boundless source of creation—this is the very basis of the spiritual process.”
—Sadhguru, Indian author and spiritual teacher
“[T]he One caused himself to fall into two pieces; ‘cause to fall’ is in Sanskrit pat. The one caused himself to fall into two pieces, a husband and a wife, which, in Sanskrit, is pati and patni. A husband and a wife were born. Thus, this part of creation involved, literally, a Fall. Interestingly, there is another world view that speaks of creation as Fall […] The roots of human existence are in a sundering. Even if it is a little tinkering with the ribs, the memory of the sense of hurt and pain are perhaps enduring and all-pervading.”
—Vilas Sarang, writer
Buddhism “Now this, monks, for the spiritually ennobled, is the painful (dukkha) true reality (ariya-sacca): birth is painful, ageing is painful, illness is painful, death is painful; sorrow, lamentation, (physical) pain, unhappiness and distress are painful; union with what is disliked is painful; separation from what is liked is painful; not to get what one wants is painful; in brief, the five bundles [form, feeling, perception, formations, consciousness] of grasping-fuel are painful.”
—Samyutta Nikaya, Buddhist text
“The Buddha says that he teaches only Dukkha and the cessation of Dukkha, that is, suffering and the end of suffering […] Buddha announces that our lives are burning with old age, sickness and death. Our minds are flaming with greed, hatred and delusion. It is only when we become aware of the peril that we are ready to seek a way to release.”
—Bhikkhu Bodhi, Buddhist monk and author
Taoism “Chuang Tzu launches into […] attacks on the way in which the people’s true innate nature has been lost and broken. He pictures a perfect world when all were equal and none had any sense of being greater or lesser. They just followed their innate nature. He then depicts the fall from this age of primal, innate, natural living.”
—The Book of Chuang Tzu, Taoist text
Confucianism “The Master said, ‘It is these things that cause me concern: failure to cultivate virtue, failure to go more deeply into what I have learned, inability, when I am told what is right, to move to where it is, and inability to reform myself when I have defects.’”
—The Analects (7:3), Confucian text
“The Master said, ‘Not to mend one’s ways when one has erred is to err indeed.’”
—The Analects (15:30), Confucian text
Modern Psychology and Philosophy “The human being is an open possibility, incomplete and incompletable. Hence he is always more and other than what he has brought to realization in himself.”
—Karl Jaspers, psychiatrist and philosopher
