Every now and then I have an intrusive thought though it’s not really a thought but something else. It’s like something suddenly comes over me like a cloud over a sun or, maybe, the sun briefly breaking through the clouds. It doesn’t happen often, thankfully, because it’s a disturbing thought. Still, I really like this thought. I get it, I’ve trained for it but I still can’t accept it because it forces me to utterly reorient my life or, I should say, my idea about my life. That thought is “what if the world is actually perfect just the way it is.” But, as I said, it’s more than a thought. As a thought it doesn’t “do” anything it’s another interesting concept that might come out of any abstract concept or even mind-game like Schrödinger's cat. But this thought is way different—there’s something magnetic about it that suspends all the thoughts I’ve ever had about anything in the air as the world suddenly stops. Of course, the reason for all this is I’ve had very directly a strong sense that everything is perfect in the ultimate sense. I’ve experienced, for a few moments, a vision of perfection at various times the most dramatic was about fourteen years ago when the whole vision was complete in terms of body-mind-spirit. I was there in this timeless space without drugs just during meditation—I felt joy and because I was swimming in a sea of love. That is, love not as a concept of having a direction but love as something essential to me and the universe. But in my life thinking life is perfect, even though I’ve experienced it in various ways several times in my life, even though I’ve studied Buddhism, Yogic philosophy, Sufism, Christian mysticism and a variety of spiritual teachers who teach just what I’ve experienced—yet, I resist it. Why, because my concern for the world in general and my own life and its associations seem to violate perfection. If someone I know is sick, how is that perfect? If some small child is tortured and killed, as many are today, how can that be perfect? Yet it is somehow not because it’s a good thing not because we should not try to help people who are sick or save children from sexual tortures but because it is what it is and arguing with reality lessens our ability to push for justice and push for health. The reason I sense, at times, that it is all perfect is because it is also perfect that I am unhappy about sickness and even more unhappy about child sexual torture. Perfection is not about goodness it is about saying “yes” to the world AS IT IS!
I give this example of bowing in martial arts. Bowing to your opponent is about honoring the art and about honoring your opponent who will be your teacher in the fight you are about to engage in. With that mentality you are more free to learn the defects of your technique—your opponent will illustrate, like no other person can, the strength and weakness of what you bring to a fight and you have a clearer more focused mind rather than blaming yourself from messing up and getting into an emotional swamp or, if successful, being too prideful of your victory thus creating a false sense of security. All arguments, disagreements, rivalries need to be viewed in this manner if you are interested in living fully. Through this practice, though I often fail, I have come to realize I don’t want to fight or argue unless I can’t avoid or justice demands I state clearly my opinion. But this does not mean I negate my opponents and that’s the trap I and others fall into particularly at this time in history where everyone is confused and, and to compensate for that try to narrow my conceptual framework of the world to good vs. bad which simplifies everything. As many of my FB friends seem to believe—Republicans are bad and Democrats are good and that’s as far as they can go so that, at least, there is some certainty to be had where, in reality, there is very little ground for certainty.
Thus carrying the assumption that all is perfect, even your enemies (who are here to teach you), as Jesus did when he said to love your enemies. You still have enemies, Jesus did not deny that, but when you love your enemies you are not trapped into fear and loathing but can, if you are true follower of Jesus’ teachings (very, very few are), see things clearly. That’s true faith in the perfection of the world. We’ll go deeper into that in subsequent posts.
x
