Thoughts to Ponder

From Thomas Moore, Care of the Soul:
"This is the 'goal' of the soul path - to feel existence; not to overcome life's struggles and anxieites, but to know life first hand, to exist fully in context. ... [T]he only thing to do is to be where you are at this moment, sometimes looking about in the full light of consciousness, other times standing comfortably in the deep shadows of mystery and the unknown. ... It is probably not quite correct to speak of the soul's path. It is more a meandering and wandering. The soul path is marked by neurotic tendencies as well as by high ideals, by ignorance as well as by knowledge, and by daily incarnated life as well as by high levels of consciousness. ... The soul becomes greater and deeper through the living out of messes and the gaps...To the soul, this is the 'negative way' of the mystics, an opening into divinity only made possible by giving up the pursuit of perfection."

What does it mean to be in the moment? How does the pursuit of perfection help us, and how does it hinder us?