Yep. My (old) friends (who do drugs) think they are just fine as they are and nothing needs to be improved. They are full of an unbearable pride; you can't talk to them about these sort of things. They are interested in things like physical fitness, but if you talk about working on the mind itself, emotions or anything of that matter then they completely reject the idea and laugh it off. Very few people are mature enough to admit that their mind is flawed, and that they have an emotional unbalance.
Even then - they can be pretty crappy at working out, too. A story of one friend I used to smoke weed with. Well, I had stopped for about a year or two at the point of this story. We used to go to the gym together, and if he was high or not, it would not matter. But he would want to push me to do these ridiculous routines, to go around and use every machine.
Every month you would hear from him that he pulled such and such a muscle and he would be unable to do anything but drink in his bed and play video games for a week because of it.
Or you would want to walk on a trail with him and talk, to just chill out and see how far you could go before wanting to turn back. He is totally incapable of this - he either wants to jog when I want to walk, or he is telling you to drink your drink faster. Personally, I was drinking a Red Bull and he was telling me about how pointless it was to even go for a walk because the carbs from the Red Bull would cancel it out.
Ugh, it's just awful man. I can never do anything with those people. I have had a couple cool friends that smoked and I could play basketball with them and stuff but even they ended up snubbing me off or we all felt uncomfortable when they ran out of pot...
Meanwhile, the people who worked on themselves have invited me into their homes. Recently they paid 650 dollars just so I would have a place to stay and food to eat while I visited them for a week, it is truly unbelievable. I stayed rent free for a week in Montreal - just contributed a minor amount of money for food. We talked, walked, played chess, had dinner with beautiful woman who are also working on themselves in an effective way. The difference is astounding; depending on who you are with, they will work to no end to try and make you feel as comfortable as possible, to make good conversation and make every experience a memorable one.
There is a whole sub-culture of people who are seriously devoted to working on themselves.
It really depends on how you want to go about it. If you are skeptical about matters of spirituality then there are dozens of venues where you can meet some fairly decent people. Personally I've met all my friends on a Gnostic forum which is now closed. Obviously this is a very spiritual route.
Gnosis is essentially this - casting away all our false beliefs, assumptions, prejudices, etc that we have learned our entire lives. Deep down we are all very intelligent, knowledgeable. We just need to cast away all the crap and all the lies that we believe in in order to really begin to understand ourselves.
We are practical and discuss God, Kaballah, Neitsche, Goethe, ancient Greece, Nordic Runes and so on. Anything is up for discussion - as long as somehow we can gain practical and personal value out of it, to improve ourselves and aid humanity. And it works.
So yes. Perfection so that one may be better able to assist others, is basically the name of the game.
Everyone should be working to improve themselves so that they can assist others. Most people nowadays are just obsessed with themselves and their own story. They often end up in dire straits and requiring help from others. I see it everywhere: bad back here, economic problems there, divorce with children here, addiction there. Problems everywhere.
There are plenty of Gnostic groups in your area if you wish to consider that route. It is the one I of course, strongly suggest. Many just do not have the knack for it however. In which case I strongly suggest you work towards perfection however you can. If you consider yourself Christian, there are ways you can work through that to try and achieve perfection, the same with any religion.
In any case, no matter what you believe. As long as you are being born as a better person, dying in your defects and sacrificing for humanity, then you are working with the three factors in your own personal way and you will progress in a positive development.
This was a bit much but I hope it helps adjust your mind stream on a positive path as you go forward in life!
