Saturday, July 26, 2008

Everything Is Perfect As It Is (Secular Spirituality)

"Everything is perfect as it is." Rather than a statement of complacency, this is a highly motivational line of inquiry. In order for you to manifest perfection in anything, you must see it first. Thus is the nature of any singularity.

Unlike things, actions and concepts that exist as contrasting dualities (i.e. good/bad, light/dark), singularities have characteristics heretofore assigned only to deity: they are unchanging, they have no beginning and no end, or as I prefer say it, they have no on and off switches, they always just are (i.e. energy). Singularities are the truth.

Once you accept as your own the declaration, “Everything is perfect as it is,” you begin the inquiry, “Given that everything is perfect, where is the perfection in ___?” Growing up as a perfectionist or more accurately, an “imperfectionist,” I can point out the imperfection in anything, until I consciously invoke my declaration. As unlikely as it seems, everything into which I have inquired has revealed perfection at some level. The trick is finding the right point of view.

Most of the time, I find perfection from the point of view of logic. Looking at the way imperfection shows up is one example. Looking for perfection in “seeing imperfection” reveals how we work. Somewhere we pick up and accept as our own the declaration, “Perfect is an ideal, therefore, nothing on earth can be perfect.” Once accepted, we start seeing proof of imperfection everywhere until the declaration becomes a belief.

Look around. If you are an imperfectionist like me, you will see imperfection in everything, and if you can see any imperfection at all, you will label the whole thing imperfect. Life in an imperfect world can be very frustrating and lead to resignation and complacency–no matter what you do, it’s still not perfect.

So where is the perfection in that? The perfection of “seeing imperfection” is that it works. Once we understand how something works, we can apply that methodology successfully to other things. When we apply the declaration-proof-belief cycle to the opposite idea of “seeing perfection,” the same is true: you can see perfection in everything, and if you can see any perfection at all, you can label the whole thing perfect. Life in a perfect world is inspiring and full of possibilities–when you understand how something works, it’s easy to bring out its perfection. For example, instead of giving up over the imperfection of a political system, seeing the perfection of how it works inspires us to take action to change and improve it until the task is complete.

The declaration, “Everything is perfect as it is,” and the supporting declaration, “Everything we do works,” are statements of singularities. These are truths from which we can create a world to match.