The following excerpt from Simple Tools for Clarity, Understanding and Betterment by Stephen Pirie reminds me of an almost identical conversation I had with someone I used to look up to... until this conversation happened. Now I look across at him as an equal; the illusion is gone (lightly edited for clarity).
Not so long ago I was walking with a friend through a beautiful park overlooking one of Sydney's glorious beaches, discussing the downside of believing in perfection. When, lo and behold, we happened upon a group of people keen for us to join them and learn about meditation, and ... how to become our pure spiritual, enlightened selves. Guru-guy: "Come sit and meditate and learn how you can become your pure spiritual self." Me: "Sure, why not, but I need to warn you, it's my job to analyse belief-systems." "That's okay, we've heard it all before," countered the guru guy with a smile. "Uhm, I don't think you realise. I'm really good at what I do," I added. He again confirmed he'd heard it all before, and they'd be fine. So I asked a few questions. I asked that when he achieves enlightenment and is free of his flawed, terrible ego, will he still enjoy the process of choice? He was unsure, so I explained that being able to choose involves the awareness of possibilities. And it is from the rich, limitless field of possibilities that we can experience surprise, failure, learning, success and growth, along with the possibility of experiencing more fun, greater love and more interesting things. He hesitated, then 'sort of' agreed he would still want to experience the process of choice even when enlightened. At that point I explained he is already experiencing choice. And when he gets to his enlighted super-state he'll still be doing the very same thing of making choices as he is right now, except that -- as one might expect -- he'll be doing so with better information, awareness and results. He'll still be doing the same thing of selecting and solidfying possibility into actual lived experience (see Figure 3).At that point he got angry with me, saying various unpleasant things. When I asked "is that your ego, or your pure self talking" he got even angrier, to the point of threatening us if we didn't leave. As we walked away my friend said she now understood my point about the denials involved when pursuing unattainable ideals of perfection. Basically when we scratch the surface of the belief in 'pure' enlightenment, 'oneness,' or some perfect after-life, paradise or heaven, some people will get angry, and they will do so for a couple of very simple reasons. ...we believe in 'perfection' in order to gain (illusory) protection from the big wide world that seems too big, too threatening and too demanding to deal with. Holding onto the ideal of perfection is a comforting distraction from dealing with the rich, raw immediacy of life. (Exerpt from "The Choose Fun Tool", page 7)
Here's a link to the book: http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Tools-Clarity-Understanding-Betterment-ebook/dp/B00G5RUJ8U/